Notes for owners · Sales management
After the India International Trade Fair: turning visiting cards into orders
After the India International Trade Fair, sort the visiting cards by what each visitor asked for, send each a message that names and answers that question, and log every card in one register before the week ends.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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- Write the question on the card before the visitor walks away
- Sort into piles, and answer each pile differently
- The message that names the question
- Dealership enquiries need a call before terms
- Put every card in one register
- For example: a cane and bamboo maker from Assam
- When the cards are not worth the work
You come back from Bharat Mandapam with a shoebox of visiting cards, send everyone the same "thank you for visiting our stall" message, and hear back from a handful. Cards turn into orders when each visitor gets a message that names the question they asked at the stall (a rate, a sample, a dealership) and answers it. The work after the India International Trade Fair is sorting: every card into a pile by what was asked, and each pile its own first message. Log the lot in one register before the week is out.
Write the question on the card before the visitor walks away
The sorting is easy if the stall did its job. Keep a pen and a short code at the counter. R for a rate, S for a sample, D for a dealership, E for export, B for a bulk or institutional buyer, P for a shopper. On the back of every card, write the code, the product the visitor picked up, their town and the date.
The date matters more than it looks. Check the fair's schedule: the first days are usually for trade visitors, and the public days follow. A card from a business day is probably a buyer. A card from a public Sunday is probably a family who liked your baskets.
If you are reading this with a box of blank cards, sit down now with the people who worked the stall and write what they remember. Memory of a busy stall fades within days.
Sort into piles, and answer each pile differently
| Pile | What the visitor asked | First message | When to send |
|---|---|---|---|
| R: rate | Price for a product, for their shop or firm | The rate, minimum quantity, freight basis and the date the rate holds, with one photograph | First, within two working days of the fair closing |
| S: sample | A sample to test or show their own buyer | Ask for the address and who will receive it, and give a dispatch date | Alongside the rate pile |
| E: export | A price for a buyer abroad | Ask for quantity, destination and packing, then quote on the terms asked for | Alongside the rate pile |
| B: bulk | A hotel, office or institution wanting quantity | Ask who approves the purchase and the date they need the goods | Alongside the rate pile |
| D: dealership | To sell your range in their town | A call with four questions before any terms: the town, the brands stocked, the shop and godown, how stock is paid for | After the first four piles |
| P: shopper | Bought or browsed at the stall | One message with your shop or online store link | Last, and once |
The order matters. The visitor who asked for a rate met several stalls that week, and the first priced reply received sets the standard the others are judged against.
The message that names the question
Every first message opens with where you met and what the visitor asked. The rest is the answer. For the rate pile it reads like this:
Namaste Mr Gupta, this is Ritu from (firm), Hall (number) at the trade fair. You asked for the rate of our cane laundry baskets for your home-decor shop in Karnal. Rate: (rate) per piece, minimum 24 pieces across three sizes, road freight from Guwahati at your cost. This rate holds till (date). Photographs of all three sizes are attached. Shall I send six pieces first, so you can see how they sell?
It works because it could only have gone to Mr Gupta. It has his town, his product and his question, and the last line gives him an easy yes. A thank-you could have gone to anyone, so it reads as if it went to everyone.
Dealership enquiries need a call before terms
"Do you give dealership?" is the commonest question at a fair and the least reliable. Some who ask are curious. Some are collecting price lists for somebody else. A few will become your best dealers. So do not send the dealer price list to every D card, because it travels. Call each one, ask the four questions from the table, and send terms only to those whose town, shop and buying fit. If you cannot serve a town, say so on that call rather than leaving the dealer waiting.
Put every card in one register
One row per card: name, firm, town, pile, what they asked, the date of the first message, their reply, the next step and its date. Two people work it, and both can see it. A visitor who says "after Diwali" gets that date written down and a message on it. A sample that went out gets a call to ask what the buyer's customers thought.
After the first reply, a stock message before the wedding season goes to everyone who asked about that category, and to nobody else.
For example: a cane and bamboo maker from Assam
Imagine a cane and bamboo furniture unit from near Guwahati with a stall in the Assam pavilion, coming home with about four hundred cards. The figures are illustrative.
After its first fair, a relative who helped at the stall sent one broadcast to every number: a thank-you and a forty-page catalogue PDF. A few shoppers replied asking for discounts. No dealer replied. A resort near Rishikesh that had asked about forty cane chairs heard nothing specific and bought elsewhere. Two home-decor shops in Karnal and Hisar had asked for basket rates. Both ordered from another cane stall, which sent its rates two days after the fair closed.
At the next fair, the stall staff coded every card at the counter. About sixty rate cards got priced replies within two working days, each with the road freight from Guwahati spelt out. That was the first thing north Indian shops asked. Twenty-five dealership cards got calls, and eight of those got terms. The shoppers got one message with the online store link and nothing after it. Every card sat in one sheet with a date against its next step.
When the cards are not worth the work
Skip most of this if you went to the fair for counter sales. The P pile needs one message, and your effort belongs in the stall. In Delhi, many trade buyers first meet a supplier at a fair at Bharat Mandapam, long before they visit a shop, so those are the cards to work.
Before the next fair, print the six codes on a card for the counter and brief whoever stands at the stall. Planning the stall, the codes and the follow-up together is event and trade show marketing; if you would like it set up before you book, tell us what you need.
