Notes for owners · CRM, automation and RevOps
Replying to export enquiries when the owner is away
Export enquiries wait when only the owner may answer. Write down who replies, what they may quote without the owner, and when the owner must step in, so an importer hears back the same day.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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Picture an importer in Nairobi who writes on Monday morning asking for prices on brass inserts, with a drawing attached. The owner is at a trade fair or on the shop floor, and is the only person who answers export mail. By Thursday the importer has quotes from other units and has stopped waiting. To reply to export enquiries when the owner is away, write down three things: who answers, what they may quote without the owner, and when the owner must step in. Then the enquiry moves the same day, whoever is in.
Why export enquiries wait in a family unit
In many family-run units in Gujarat the owner holds three things nobody else is allowed to touch: price, payment terms and anything to a drawing. Everyone else fears quoting wrong, so they forward the mail to the owner and wait.
The importer, meanwhile, has probably written to several suppliers at once. The questions are specific. Which brass grade, such as CW614N? Which thread standard, BSP or NPT? What plating, what packing, what lead time, FOB which port? The first supplier to answer those questions sensibly gets the importer's attention. A price can come later. Silence cannot be taken back.
None of this needs the owner on the first day. It needs someone who knows what they may say.
The authority sheet: who may say what
Write this on one page, agree it with the owner, and pin it where the person answering export mail can see it. The rows below suit a turned-parts unit; change them to your products.
| What the buyer asks | Who replies | May say without the owner | Owner steps in when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard item from the catalogue | Export executive | Price from the current export list, MOQ, packing, lead time | Quantity beyond the list's top slab, or a request below list price |
| Item to the buyer's drawing | Production head checks; executive replies | Whether it can be made, the questions on grade, thread and finish, a date for the quote | Always, for the price |
| Payment terms | Export executive | The standard terms printed on the list | Any request for credit, a letter of credit or open account |
| Certificates and reports | Export executive | Copies of what you hold: ISO, a sample material test certificate | A certificate or approval you do not hold |
| Samples | Export executive | Paid samples of list items | Free samples, or samples to a drawing |
| Agency or sole distribution | Nobody else | "Our owner will reply personally by [date]" | Always |
The last row matters more than it looks. An importer asking for exclusivity in their country is asking for something the owner may regret for years. Nobody else should hint at a yes.
The same-day reply when the owner is needed
When an enquiry needs the owner, reply anyway, the same day. Thank the buyer, confirm what you received, ask the questions you need answered to quote, and give a date for the price. A reply that asks good questions reads as competence. "Noted, will revert" reads as a unit that is not organised.
Dear [name], Thank you for drawing 4471-B and the quantity of 50,000 pieces. To quote accurately we need the brass grade, the thread standard and the plating. Please also confirm the destination port and your expected yearly volume. Drawing-based prices are approved by our owner, [name]. You will have the price and a sample date from us by [day and date].
Keep a short set of these in the shared mailbox, one for each row of the sheet. Writing these replies once, well, is most of the work.
For example: a brass parts unit in Jamnagar
Imagine a unit in Jamnagar making brass inserts and fittings, with an owner who handles all export mail from a phone. The details are illustrative.
While the owner was at a fair abroad, a UK buyer asked for prices on catalogue items. The owner's niece, who runs accounts and writes good English, wanted to help. Nobody had told her which price list to use. She sent the domestic list, in rupees, ex-works. The buyer converted it and treated it as the offer. When the owner returned and quoted FOB in dollars, higher because of export packing and freight to port, the buyer felt misled and stopped replying.
After losing that buyer the owner changed three things. The unit made one export price list in dollars, FOB at its usual port, with a validity date printed on it. The authority sheet went up beside her desk. And export enquiries moved from the owner's personal email to a shared mailbox that both of them read. Each enquiry was logged with its country, product, drawing, owner and reply-by date. On the next trip, a buyer in Mombasa asked for prices on three catalogue inserts. The niece quoted from the dollar list that morning, FOB, with the validity date, and copied the owner. A drawing enquiry that week got the same-day reply above, and the owner priced it from a hotel that evening.
Set up the mailbox so nothing depends on one phone
Use one shared address for export enquiries, not the owner's personal mail. Forward portal enquiries into it. Log each one with an owner and a reply-by date.
Mind the clock. Gulf mail lands during your working day. Mail from the Americas arrives overnight, so read the mailbox at the start of the day and clear those first. Europe sits in between.
When the owner should not hand it over
Some enquiries should stay with the owner. The first enquiry from a new country, while pricing there is unsettled. Anything involving a letter of credit or an unusual payment route, where the bank and the CA need to be in the room. And any buyer who names a standard or approval for their market that you have not met. Rules differ by country and change, so say plainly what you hold and let the owner decide.
If you get only a handful of export enquiries in a year, the owner can keep them all. But then the owner sends the same-day reply, from wherever they are. Our post on how to get export orders covers what comes after the first reply.
Walk the sheet through with whoever answers
Draft the authority sheet, even in pencil. Then sit with the person who will answer export mail and open the last enquiry that waited for the owner. Ask which question stopped the reply. Write that answer into the sheet, and keep going until nothing is left to ask. Handling the replies and the wider push abroad is export market development; if you want help, tell us what you need.
