Guest blogger, Andrea Stout shared some great ideas Monday on Getting More Traffic to your Trade Show Booth. I want to add one more - leverage your current customers. Generally your current customers will be attending the same events as your prospects. If you can convince a few to be evangelists for you, they will be more impactful than your best sales reps.

A colleague of mine had great success at a tradeshow last year. The messaging at the booth was all about being power driven which is also their company tagline. Each one of her customer evangelists wore a button that said “I am Power-Driven” while all employees wore “Ask Me How You Can Be Power-Driven.” They tripled the amount of booth traffic from the year before.

Here are a few things you might want to keep in mind when planning to use current customers at a tradeshow:

1. Plan ahead - Ask your sales reps and account mangers to find out if any of your best customers will be at the show. Consider inviting a few to be your guest. A customer advisory board is a great resource, if you have one.
2. Ask in advance - Most people will be flattered that you asked. Do not wait til you see them on the show floor to ask.
3. Set expectations - Make sure that your customers know exactly what will be expected of them. Do you just want them to just sing your praises or will they need to be able to answer questions from prospects.
4. Integrate with your overall theme - If you have a theme or specific message for your booth be sure the customers enhance and add to your overall objectives.
5. Give them something to wear - Ask your customer to wear a button, hat or shirt so that attendees can find them. Like in the example above, this does not have to be your logo - being different is a conversation starter.
6. Thank your customers - Cocktail parties, dinner or a gift at the show are a few ideas. When you ask them to be an evangelist, let them know how they will be thanked

Another idea is to include your current customers at any parties you might be throwing during the show. This can be a more comfortable environment that on the show floor. We all have a few customers that just could never be satisfied. Check with Sales and Account Management to be sure that everyone you are inviting is a happy customer.