Notes for owners · Digital marketing
Everything arrives in the same few months: planning backwards from the peak
When most of the year's enquiries land in a few months, plan crews, stock and the phone backwards from the first day of the peak, and spend the quiet months selling to last season's callers.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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For a waterproofing contractor in Chennai, the phone rings without a break from the first heavy rain in October until December. In March the calls nearly stop. If your year looks like that, plan backwards from the first day of the peak. Decide who answers, how many crews you have and how much stock you hold before the rain, not during it. Then use the rest of the year to sell to the people who called in the last peak. They know you, so those jobs cost you less to win than a stranger's.
Find your peak in your own records
Do not guess the peak. Count it.
Take the last season's call log, WhatsApp chats and bill book, and count enquiries by week. Your peak is the run of weeks that clearly stand out from an ordinary week in the quiet months. Set your own threshold; for example, you might count any week that brings twice the usual calls. For a waterproofing contractor in Chennai, that run starts with the northeast monsoon. For a Sivakasi printer, it ends before Deepavali. A Kanchipuram silk shop finds it before the wedding months.
Write the first week of the peak at the top of a page. Everything below is counted back from it.
Work backwards: crews, stock, then the phone
Crews come first, because they are the hardest to find late. Applicators and helpers often work for several contractors, and the good ones are booked early. Confirm names and days a month ahead.
Stock is next. If your distributor ran short of the membrane or coating you use in the last peak, buy before the rains begin. Keep the receipts for the batches; customers ask what went on their terrace.
The phone is last, and the one owners forget. In the peak, every caller says the same thing: "my ceiling is leaking, can you come today?" Decide the answer before the season starts. Write a short script for the person who picks up:
- Ask where the leak shows, which floor the flat is on, and whether it sits under a terrace, beside an outer wall or below a bathroom.
- Book an inspection slot from a fixed list, not "sometime this week".
- Say honestly when work can start. Many treatments need a dry surface, and your product supplier will tell you which ones.
- Record the caller's name, area and number, whether or not they book.
That fourth step is what pays for the quiet months.
The year on one page
| Months | What your buyers are doing | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| January to March | The rain has stopped; the stains on the ceiling are still there | Finish the jobs booked for "after the rains"; photograph each one; ask for reviews |
| April to June | Hot and dry, nothing leaks, nobody thinks about the terrace | Sell planned work to past callers who were told to wait; quote apartment associations for whole terraces |
| July to September | A few showers; the first damp patches appear | Confirm crews, buy stock, write the phone script, message last season's callers about a check before the rains |
| October to December | The peak | Inspect in fixed slots, record every caller, finish what crews can finish |
Read the table across. The quiet months are not empty. They are when the next peak's best jobs are sold, to people who already know your name.
Imagine a Chennai waterproofing contractor who answered every call personally
Imagine a contractor in Velachery with two crews and a good name in the apartment blocks nearby. In the peak the contractor took every call on a personal phone, quoted on the spot and promised visits that could not be made. Crews were double-booked. Two associations gave up and hired someone else.
When the rains ended, there was no list. The callers were somewhere in WhatsApp, mixed in with family groups and suppliers.
The mistake was letting the peak run the business. The next season the contractor changed who held the phone. An office assistant took the enquiry phone and booked inspections into morning and evening slots. The owner quoted only after inspecting, and turned away a few callers when the slots were full. Every caller went into one sheet with area, apartment name and what they needed.
In July the assistant messaged everyone on the sheet who had been told "after the rains", offering a terrace check before October. The jobs that came from it were done in dry weather, at a fair price, without the October scramble. Apartment blocks already worked in became the first place to ask for the next job.
Turning the peak list into repeat orders
A terrace you fixed needs checking again, and a caller you could not serve still has the leak. Sort the sheet into three groups:
- people you fixed, who are due a check before the next rains;
- people you inspected but could not serve in time, who are owed a call first;
- those who never booked, worth one message and no more.
Send each group a different message, from the business number, in Tamil or English as they wrote to you. Our note on reactivating dormant customers covers the wording when the gap is long.
When not to chase the peak harder
If your crews are full by the second week, more enquiries in the peak only make more people wait. Stop advertising, tell callers the first free date, and put the money into the months before. And if your trade has no real peak, with enquiries spread evenly, this whole plan is the wrong shape for you. Plan the year by capacity instead.
Count last season by week
Count last season's enquiries by week, from the call log, the chats and the bill book. Mark the first week of the peak and write the crew date, the stock date and the script date above it.
Put any advertising in the weeks before the peak, not inside it; festive and seasonal advertising covers that timing, and our Tamil Nadu page covers the state. If the count shows more callers than your crews can serve, tell us what you need.
