Notes for owners · Digital marketing
Planning the Sankranti buying season backwards from Bhogi
Sankranti sales in coastal Andhra can be lost in November. Work back from Bhogi to the dates your stock, offer and WhatsApp list must be ready, and know when to sit it out.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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In the Godavari districts the Sankranti sale can be lost in November, not January. A son or daughter who works in Hyderabad or Dallas walks into your showroom on Bhogi with the parents and asks for the model picked on a phone, and you do not have it. Plan backwards from Bhogi. The stock order goes in about ten weeks out, the offer is fixed by eight and the WhatsApp list is cleaned by six. The first message reaches the family before the son books the ticket home.
Why Sankranti punishes a late plan
Some festivals spread the buying over a fortnight. Sankranti in coastal Andhra packs it into Bhogi, Sankranti and Kanuma, with Mukkanuma as a tail, when many of the families you sell to are in town together.
The money and the buyers arrive together. The kharif paddy has been sold, and sons and daughters come home from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, the Gulf and the US to pay for the television, the two-wheeler or the gold chain. Big Telugu films release the same week, so whole families are out in town at once.
Two things catch owners out. Many Telugu families avoid weddings and housewarmings in Dhanurmasam, the month before Sankranti, and some hold large purchases for the festival itself, so a December enquiry may be a buyer waiting for the date, not one gone cold. And when the model everyone wants runs short, the distributor serves the dealer who ordered in November before the one who rings in January.
The countdown from Bhogi
| Weeks before Bhogi | What must be done | Why it cannot wait |
|---|---|---|
| 10, the week after Deepavali | Stock ordered for the models that sold last Sankranti, read from last year's bills | Fast models go to dealers who order first |
| 8 | Offer written, priced and approved by the brand or distributor, every condition on one page | Brand schemes need sign-off |
| 6 | WhatsApp list cleaned and split into three groups (below) | A list cleaned in January is a list nobody reads |
| 5 | Telugu leaflet, WhatsApp image and cable scroll approved; TV spot delivered if booked | Printers fill up with other shops' Sankranti work |
| 4, as Dhanurmasam begins | First message to payers outside the state | They book travel now and choose purchases before they leave |
| 1 | Reminder sent, stock confirmed, delivery slots and staff leave set | Your own fitters and sales staff want to go home too |
| Bhogi to Kanuma | Sell, deliver, and write the payer's number on every bill and walk-in slip | This is next Sankranti's list |
| After Mukkanuma | Call every walk-in who did not buy | They are back in their city, and the decision is now on a phone |
One rule makes the table work. If a row slips, cut the plan instead of squeezing the next row. No stock confirmation by six weeks out means that model stays off the leaflet. An offer the brand has not approved becomes a plain price, not a scheme you may not honour.
Who the WhatsApp list is really for
Many shop lists are every number in the owner's phone, the electrician included. Split it into three before anyone writes a word.
- Last Sankranti's buyers, taken from the bill book. Where a son or daughter paid by UPI, add that number beside the parents'.
- December enquiries that did not close. Many of these are the Dhanurmasam buyers. They want a delivery date and word that the model is in stock.
- Payers outside the state get a message four weeks before Bhogi with the model, the price and an offer to keep one aside. They decide before they travel.
Send only to people who have bought from you or asked you something and agreed to hear from you. A festival broadcast to strangers can get the number reported, and you need it working on Bhogi morning. Check the platform's current rules before any bulk send.
Television is a chain's tool, not a showroom's
Ask any Telugu channel when it sells its Sankranti slots; a December decision may be a late one. Television earns its place for a regional chain with branches from Srikakulam to Nellore, stocked in all of them, and Telugu TV advertising is the related service. A single showroom in Bhimavaram is better served by a leaflet inside the local papers, a scroll on the town's cable channel and a list that is ready on time.
For example: an appliance showroom in Rajahmundry
This is an invented case. An appliance showroom in Rajahmundry fixes its Sankranti offer in the first week of January. Leaflets went inside the newspapers on Bhogi morning, and one WhatsApp image went to every number in the owner's phone. The front-load washing machine on the leaflet sold out on the second day, the rest of the allotment having gone to dealers who ordered in November. Several people blocked the number. Three families who came in for that machine left without buying, about ₹1 lakh of sales, and nobody wrote down their names.
The next season the owner spent nothing extra on advertising and ordered against the previous year's bills in the week after Deepavali, two months ahead of the rush. The offer, free installation before Kanuma on the models that had run short, was approved by the brand by early December. The list was cut to buyers and enquirers, with the paying son or daughter added wherever the bill showed one, and every festival walk-in left a name and number. Those who did not buy got a call after Mukkanuma from the salesperson they had met. The washing machine still ran short on Kanuma, because the distributor cut the allotment by a fifth, but this time the showroom had a list of waiting names.
When to sit Sankranti out
If your customers live in Hyderabad, this is the week they leave, so plan for the empty week instead of fighting it. If you sell to factories, government offices or institutions, nobody is buying in those days. Send a greeting and book your follow-ups for the week after.
Start with last year's bill book
Open last Sankranti's bill book and mark three things against each bill: the model, who paid, and whether the buyer came from out of town. That is the stock order and the first list. Do it before Deepavali ends. If the bills show you serve more than one district, our Andhra Pradesh page describes how buying differs between them. Festive and seasonal advertising is the related service, and you can tell us what you need.
