Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How buyers decide which lender or adviser to trust
People choosing a bank, lender, insurance agent, adviser or payment company start from a name someone gave them, then check you before they call. This post sets out what they look for and where firms lose them.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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Buyers choose a financial firm in two steps. Someone they know makes an introduction, which puts you on a shortlist of two or three. Then they check you: your name, your registration, your address, your reviews, and whether the phone is answered. The firm chosen is usually the one that passed that check without making them work, and then spoke plainly about charges, fees and risk. Advertising can start the first step. It cannot do the second.
Who sends the buyer to you?
Someone known. A CA names a lender to a shop owner. A machinery dealer names another. A builder gives a home buyer the name of a mortgage broker. A parent or colleague points a first-time investor to a distributor. A relative who already holds a policy points a family to an agent.
That is why the introducers matter as much as the buyers. Keep a record of who sent each file. Give them something short and plain to forward, and tell them what happened to the person they sent, with the buyer's permission. A CA who never hears back stops sending files. The post on how MSME lenders stop loan files dying at the papers stage shows what that follow-up looks like for one trade.
What do buyers check before they ring?
The same few things, in whatever order the trade suggests.
| Trade | What the buyer looks up | What they are afraid of |
|---|---|---|
| Banks | The branch nearest them, its timings and phone, reviews | Queues, being sent from desk to desk |
| Gold loan lenders | A branch they can walk to without being seen | Gossip, a reminder that names the amount |
| MSME finance providers | The written list of papers, the lender's name on the page | Being asked for the same document twice |
| Insurance agents | The agent's name, a comparison on an aggregator | A claim that is turned down after years of premiums |
| Wealth advisers | Name, registration and how the fee works | A fee that appears after the first meeting |
| Mutual fund distributors | The ARN, what was said to clients in the last fall | Being told nothing when the market drops |
| Payment companies | A sandbox, a settlement report, a security answer | Money that does not reach the account |
| Mortgage brokers | The name the builder or agent gave | A file passed around with no one owning it |
The whole group sits on the financial services category page. Advertising and display rules differ by regulator and by trade, and they change, so check every page, post and ad with your own compliance officer or adviser. A promise of returns, approval or the lowest rate is what regulators object to first, and it is not what a careful buyer is looking for anyway.
Why do so many enquiries die before the first meeting?
Not because the buyer changed their mind. For example, a small engineering unit in Peenya needs working capital. The CA names two NBFCs. The owner phones the first at half past one, when the loan desk is at lunch, and gets a ringing tone. He phones the second, who answers, says which papers are needed, and posts the same list on WhatsApp. The first lender will never know the file existed.
Three leaks repeat across the group. The branch or desk phone rings out while staff are with someone else. The list of papers is not written anywhere, or it grows halfway through. And the enquiry from an NRI, a salaried borrower or a developer arrives after hours and waits until the next day. Fix the phone, publish the list and set a rule for who replies to what, and a lot of those files come back to life without a rupee on advertising.
What does plain talk on charges and risk look like?
Buyers do not fear the charge itself. They fear the one that appears at sanction, the fee first explained in the meeting, the claim denied, the market fall nobody warned them about. Say those things first, in ordinary words, before they have to ask.
A short page that says what you charge and when, what you read in a loan file and what you cannot lend against, or how an adviser is paid and what the review date will be, does more work than a page of promises. Keep what your regulator allows you to show, and keep a copy of what your compliance adviser approved. Our post on marketing a wealth management firm inside the rules goes through what that looks like in one trade.
Who is keeping the buyer after the first sale?
Repeat business is the point. A gold loan borrower pledges elsewhere next time. A policy lapses because nobody rang before the due date. A maturing deposit goes back to the bank it came from. An owner who was declined never hears from the lender again, and so never returns.
The record that keeps all of this is dull: who is due, who was declined and why, who was introduced by whom. Whoever keeps it and calls before the moment keeps the household or the business for years. Follow-up for MSME lenders and the insurance agents overview both start from that sheet, and how insurance agents keep renewals from lapsing shows it at work.
What to do next
Search for your own firm on a phone, as a stranger would. Look at the listing, the name, the address and the reviews. Ring your own branch or desk at lunch and see who answers. Then list the last ten files that went quiet and mark where each one stopped: reply, papers, or follow-up.
If you would like that read done with you, book the free audit. It is a 90-minute call on how enquiries reach your firm, followed by a written, scored report.
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