Notes for owners · Sales management
Follow-up after a sample board or demo: what to send, and when to ask
After sample boards or a demo unit reach a buyer, follow up with the engineer and the purchase team on separate threads, with different messages, and ask for the order only when both have answered.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
On this page
The boards reached the buyer's lab. The R&D engineer said "will check and revert", and now you are wondering whether to message again or wait. Follow up with two people, on two threads. The engineer is testing, so the technical messages go there: did it power up, what did the test show, what should change in the next revision. Purchase will buy, so they get the commercial thread: vendor papers and a price at production quantity. Ask for the order only when the engineer has passed the board and purchase holds your production price.
The engineer tests, purchase buys
An engineer who asked for sample boards has no authority to place a production order, and knows you know that. A message asking "any update on the order?" puts the engineer in an awkward spot, because there is nothing to answer. It also shows you are thinking about money while they are thinking about noise on an ADC line.
Purchase, at most OEMs, has not heard your name yet. When the engineer says the board passed, purchase may send the same Gerber files to two vendors it already uses and ask for prices. If you have not spoken to purchase by then, you are a stranger in that comparison.
A demo of a finished device works the same way. The plant engineer who watched the demo is usually not the person who raises the purchase order. The two threads run side by side, but the purchase thread waits for the engineer's permission to begin.
What to put in the box with the sample
Most of the follow-up is decided before the boards ship. Pack these with them, and send the same as a PDF to the engineer:
- A test sheet for each board, by serial number, with what you tested and the readings
- Board revision, BOM revision and firmware version, on one line at the top
- Any deviation from the engineer's BOM, such as an alternate capacitor fitted because the listed one was on allocation, with their written approval attached
- Known issues you found yourself, stated plainly
- Your engineer's name and number for bring-up questions
The deviation line matters most. If the engineer finds an unapproved alternate part on the board, the sample has failed, whatever its readings.
The follow-up, step by step
- At dispatch. Ask the engineer three things: which tests they will run, when they finish, and what result would count as a fail.
- When the boards arrive. Confirm receipt and offer a short call for bring-up. Nothing else.
- While the engineer tests. Send one useful thing, if you have one: a firmware note, a thermal reading, a layout suggestion for rev B. Skip this step if you have nothing useful.
- When the test date passes. Ask for the result and any change list.
- After a pass. Ask who in purchase handles new vendors, and whether you may write to them.
- To purchase. An introduction, your registration papers, and a quotation at the production quantity the engineer mentioned, with stencil, test jig and programming costs shown separately.
- When both have answered. Ask for the order, or for a first production lot.
Two messages you can copy
To the engineer, after the test date has passed:
Hello Mr Sharma, your test on the five controller boards was due to finish around now. Could you share what you found, including anything that failed or that you would change in the design? Ravi, our engineer, can join a call. We are holding the rev B layout open until we hear from you.
To purchase, after the engineer has agreed:
Dear Ms Mathur, Mr Sharma in R&D has tested our sample controller boards and suggested I write to you. Attached are our vendor registration papers and a quotation for 1,000 boards of the same design, with one-time costs listed separately. Could you tell me what else your team needs from a new vendor, and who I should follow up with?
Change the names and the quantity. Keep the order: the engineer's result first, the price second.
When to ask for the order, and when to wait
Ask when two things are true: the engineer has said in writing that the board passed, and purchase has your production quotation. One without the other gives you a polite "we will let you know".
Wait, and say so, when the engineer's test runs through a season or needs an outside lab. Asking for the order in the middle of a field trial does you no good. It only shows you were not listening. And when the buyer has no production plan, only a prototype in a college lab or an idea for next year, stop at step four. Note what they learnt and move the enquiry to a list you revisit later. Our note on sample approved, no order picks up from the point where the engineer has said yes and purchase still says nothing.
Imagine a board house in Kushaiguda
Imagine a PCB assembler in the Kushaiguda industrial area of Hyderabad, near ECIL. It sends five sample controller boards to a solar pump controller maker in Jaipur. Then the owner messages the R&D engineer every few days to ask about the order. The engineer is waiting for a field trial on farm pumps, which was explained once on the phone. The replies stop.
When the trial passes, the engineer tells purchase. Purchase sends the Gerbers to two regular vendors and asks all three for a price at 1,000 boards. The board house hears about the comparison late and quotes in a hurry. It loses on price.
On its next sample, for a battery charger maker, the owner works the two threads. The owner asks the test questions at dispatch and puts the end date in the diary. Mid-test one thermal reading goes across, nothing more. Before writing to purchase, permission is asked of the engineer, and given. Purchase holds the production quotation before the engineer's report reaches them. It still does not win outright: another vendor undercuts by a small margin, and the board house keeps the order only by agreeing to absorb the test jig cost on the first lot.
Find the missing date or name on each sample
Go through every sample you have out. Beside each, write the engineer's test end date and the name of the person in purchase. Wherever one is missing, that is your next message. Start with the one that has been out longest. Writing down who follows up with whom is quotation and proposal follow-up, and how engineers find and judge a board house is on the electronics and embedded systems page. If samples go out and orders do not come back, tell us what you need.
