Notes for owners · CRM, automation and RevOps
Franchise traders or brand owners: who your Baddi pharma enquiry really is
Three questions to ask at the start of every call so a Baddi pharma plant can tell a franchise trader from a brand owner, send each to the right desk and record it in the CRM.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
On this page
- Why the two callers sound the same
- The three questions, and what the answers tell you
- Send each caller to a desk, and drop nobody
- Put the answers in the CRM, not in someone's head
- For example: the brand owner who got the franchise list
- Finding more brand owners is a different job
- Tape the three questions beside the phone
A tablet and capsule plant in Baddi can start the week with forty directory enquiries, all reading "need pharma products, send list and rates". Somewhere in the pile may be a brand owner with three molecules, their own artwork and distributors waiting. Find that owner by asking three questions at the start of every call or reply: whose name goes on the carton, which products in what quantity, and who will sell them, where. The answers separate a franchise trader from a brand owner. Each goes to the desk built for them.
Why the two callers sound the same
Both say they are starting a pharma business. Both ask for the product list and the best rate. Directories file them under the same heading, and the words get used loosely. A trader who wants your brand for a district may call it "third party". A first-time brand owner may say "PCD" because that is the word they have heard. Ignore the label. Listen to the answers.
The difference underneath is real. A PCD franchise trader wants to sell a range under someone else's brand, yours or a franchise company's, in a district or two, often with sole rights there. Orders are small. Price decides. A brand owner wants products made under their own name, names a handful of products, expects larger batches, and asks about documents, artwork and the plant's approvals before price.
Pharma is regulated. Who may make what for whom, what a label must carry and how a product may be promoted all differ by product and authority. They also change. Check with your regulatory adviser before any of it goes into a script.
The three questions, and what the answers tell you
| Ask | A brand owner says | A franchise trader says | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Whose name will be printed on the carton?" | "Ours. The brand is registered, or applied for." | "Yours", or "any good company name" | Who owns the product, and who pays for artwork |
| "Which products, and how much of each in the first order?" | Named molecules, strengths, dosage forms and a batch size | "Send the full list", or a few boxes each of many | A real project, or a price hunt |
| "Who will sell it, and where?" | Their field team, distributors, hospital supply or export | "Sole rights for my district", "I know doctors here" | The route to market, and how big this could be |
A fourth answer turns up often enough to plan for: "I am asking for a client." That is an agent or consultant collecting quotes. Ask who the client is and what they make before you quote anything.
Put the same three questions into the first written reply to every directory and website enquiry, with the name of the person who will call. People with a real project answer them. The rest go quiet, which costs you nothing.
Send each caller to a desk, and drop nobody
- A brand owner goes to the business development head that day, with an invitation to see the plant and a note of the documents their regulatory person will want.
- The franchise trader goes to your PCD desk with the standard rate list and terms, if you run one. If you do not, say so plainly.
- Agents get a quote only once you know the principal and the products.
- Existing customers skip the questions altogether. Being qualified twice irritates a buyer.
Flip the rule if your own franchise division is the main business. Then the trader is the customer, and a brand-owner enquiry is the one to pass to a sister plant or decline when capacity is full.
Put the answers in the CRM, not in someone's head
Six fields are enough: enquiry type (brand owner, franchise trader, agent, existing customer, unclear), brand on the carton, products and dosage forms, first-order quantity, sales route, and source (IndiaMART, TradeIndia, website, exhibition, referral). Add a simple score. One point for an own brand, one for named products with a quantity, one for an own sales route. Three points goes straight to the business development head; nought or one gets the standard reply.
The score is a guide, not a verdict. An "unclear" enquiry with two points deserves a second call rather than the standard list, and someone should read that pile by hand. After a season, the source field tells you where brand owners actually came from, which is the number to judge a directory plan on. For the directory side, see how to convert IndiaMART leads.
For example: the brand owner who got the franchise list
For example, imagine a plant in the Baddi belt making tablets and capsules, with a small franchise division and spare capacity for third-party work. A brand owner from Hyderabad emails through the website asking for a quote on two products in their own artwork. The desk sends what it sends everyone: a forty-page product list and the PCD rate card. The brand owner sees a franchise-only plant. Gone. Nobody at the plant ever learns the brand owner wrote, and the lost batch work is never counted anywhere.
Nothing about the plant needed to change, only the first reply. Every enquiry, by email, WhatsApp or directory, now gets the three questions first. The CRM gets the six fields. Brand-owner answers reach the business development head the same day, and the franchise desk keeps its list for traders. Within a season the owner can see, for the first time, how many brand owners wrote and from which source.
Finding more brand owners is a different job
Better sorting finds the brand owners already writing to you. If too few write at all, the work is outbound: a list of brand owners by therapy area, with the purchase or business development head at each, and an introduction to the plant. To a brand owner in Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, Baddi is one name on a shortlist that also holds Nalagarh and Una, the wider pharma belt of Himachal Pradesh.
Tape the three questions beside the phone
Print the three questions and tape them beside the phone that takes directory calls. From the next enquiry on, nobody quotes until the answers are in the CRM. No exceptions for a caller in a hurry. After a few weeks, count how many brand owners the questions turned up, and how long each one waited for the business development head. Making the sorting stick is lead qualification work; if you want the questions, the CRM fields and the routing set up, tell us what you need.
