The basic objective of putting up a stall at an event is to get your product or service exposed to a specific audience, who could eventually be your customers. So you must try to extract maximum value from such an event and build your brand equity. Participating in events may or may not get you immediate customers but it does help in yielding long-term results for your brand/company.

"You must understand the aesthetics and decorate the stall appropriately. For SMEs who do not have deep pockets, getting maximum mileage is important. So your stall has to be at the right location to attract attention. If money is an issue or despite your best, you get a stall in the middle or at the back of the exhibition area, the material that you distribute should be attractively packaged," says Pushpendra Mehta, mentor to many startups and author of Tomorrow's Young Achievers.

Set clear objectives

You must understand what your objectives to putting up a stall are before participating in the event.

"You need to have a budget. You must start with an objective and you must decide on the product to be show cased at the stall," explains a veteran of many a such exhibitions, Amit Grover, CEO, Nurture Talent Academy.

Pre -planning

Here are some basics of setting up a stall or booth

> Ensure your stall has all the paraphernalia required, i.e. your company's posters, pamphlets for distribution, etc, etc.

> The people manning your stall should be professionally dressed and must be able to communicate effectively

> The colours at your stall have to be vibrant to attract attention and get footfall

> There has to be large LCD or LED TV monitor playing out a video of your product or your company

>> If possible, set up a small studio behind the stall where you can invite some visitors for detailed presentations and one and one interaction

> You may give 'take aways' with your company image or brand logo printed on them. Eg: A pen or a notepad. " By giving gifts, either as 'take aways' or by lottery, you can attract a lot of traffic to your stall and you must attempt to convert most of these visitors into customers. You may spend Rs 10,000 on these gifts, but the benefits are enormous," says Rajesh Srivastava, a prominent freelance marketing consultant.

> Survey: While giving out freebies you might want to dish out quick questionnaires to understand customer tastes. However ensure that it has no more than 5 questions, else you might not get genuine answers.

Once your stall is up and running

-          In-house Marketing: Apart from targeting visitors to the event, your staff must look at exploring business opportunities from even fellow stall owners. "This is called in-house marketing. There may be 100 more stalls at the event and some of them can be your customers. If the event opens for public at 10 a.m., your people should visit other stalls prior to opening hour and distribute your cards. You can benefit through such referrals," says Grover.

-          Pay attention: Do not ignore any one who comes to your stall. You never know who it may be. It is not necessary that all those who visit your stall must turn into customers, but all their queries must be answered. "They must be provided with enough sales materials. No one should be ignored even at the closing hours of the event. The 'unimportant' person may be your real customer," says Mehta.

-          Visiting Cards: Your staff must constantly keep an eye on the visitors. Either collect visiting cards from each visitor for follow up, or take down their names and contact numbers in a diary.

-          Study all other stalls: Its equally important that you keep a tab on all the other stalls that have participated. Which of them is getting maximum traffic and why? This will help you in the next day of your event or the following event.

After the event

You may sit down and heave a sigh of relief that the event is over. But there's still a lot of work left to be done. You must sit with your team and assess the outcome. Results may come late as since participation at an event is only the beginning. Orders will only follow later. Apart from achieving sales, your participation can give a legup to the brand value of your company or product.
 

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