Notes for owners · Sales management
Sample approved, no order: how to follow up when quality says yes and purchase says nothing
When the buyer's quality team approves your sample but no purchase order follows: what purchase is waiting for, who to ask for what, and the small next step that turns an approval into a first order.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The lab in-charge rang to say your softener had passed, hand feel fine and shade matching. Six weeks later, still no purchase order. Sample approval and an order are two steps, taken by two different people. Quality approves the product. Purchase approves the source, the price and the timing, and the lab's yes does not reach purchase by itself. So find out what purchase is waiting for, and get the approval to purchase in writing. Then propose a small production trial that purchase can accept without upsetting the regular supplier.
Two approvals, two desks
Quality's question is whether your product does the job. Once they have answered it, their work is done. The approval sits in the lab register or a test report, and nobody in the lab thinks to tell purchase.
Purchase has a different question. Should they move any business from a supplier who is working? That supplier may hold a rate contract. They may be owed money. They may have a good relationship with the production head. Your approval gives purchase an option. It does not give them a reason.
In a textile process house there is a third person, the dyeing master. The dyeing master runs the machines, and that word decides whether a new chemical goes into a real batch. If the change has not been asked for, purchase will not force it.
The post on why buyers go quiet after a quotation covers silence before a decision. After a sample approval, the silence has its own reasons.
What purchase is telling you
Purchase often does not say no outright. Read what they do say.
| What you hear from purchase | What is behind it | Your next move |
|---|---|---|
| "We have not received any approval" | The lab's yes stayed in the lab | Ask quality for the approval note with its reference, copied to purchase |
| "Your vendor code is in process" | Registration is incomplete | Ask which paper is missing and send it that day |
| "We have a running contract" | The regular supplier holds rates until a date | Ask the end date; propose a production trial before it |
| "Production will decide" | The user has not asked for the change | Meet the production head or dyeing master with the trial result |
| "Old stock to finish first" | The store holds the old product | Ask the quantity and when it will run out, and diary the date |
| "We will call you" | You are approved as a second source | Ask what would make them use a second source, and be ready for it |
If registration is the gap, the post on the vendor registration pack covers reading the buyer's list. For chemicals, purchase may also want a safety data sheet and test certificates per lot. What a chemical supplier must provide differs by product and changes, so check with your own adviser.
Propose a production trial, not an order
Asking for "the order" after approval asks purchase to make a big decision. Ask for a small one instead. A production trial is one batch, on one machine or one line, at your quoted price, with the sign-off criteria agreed in advance.
Purchase can place it without cancelling anything. The production head gets to see your product in their own process, which is what they actually trust. And you get a result that is harder to ignore than a lab report.
Put the proposal in writing, in four lines: the quantity, the machine or line, the price, and who signs off on what result. Send it to purchase and copy the person in production who will run it.
This works when the buyer has a real reason to want a second supplier: a price rise, a late delivery, a quality complaint against the regular one. It works less well when the regular supplier is cheap, on time and liked. Then your trial waits for the contract end date, and that date is the one to ask for.
For example: an auxiliaries maker in Vapi and a process house in Ichalkaranji
Imagine a maker of textile auxiliaries in Vapi, whose silicone softener passed lab trials at a cotton process house in Ichalkaranji. The details are illustrative.
The salesperson kept ringing the lab in-charge, who kept saying the sample was fine. Nobody spoke to purchase. Purchase did not know about the approval. The regular supplier's rate contract came up for renewal, and was renewed for another season.
When the owner took over the account, three calls went out in one afternoon. The first asked the lab for the approval note with the trial reference, copied to purchase. The second asked purchase when the new contract ended. Then the owner met the dyeing master and asked what would convince the process house in a real batch. The answer was one jet-machine lot on a dark shade, run by the dyeing master's own team.
The written proposal went to purchase that week: one lot, one machine, the quoted price, the dyeing master's sign-off on hand feel and shade. Purchase placed the trial as a small order. The regular supplier kept the contract for that season. The Vapi unit had a production result and a date to come back, and the trial lot had been priced thin to get it placed.
When to stop following up
Some approvals are only benchmarks. Purchase wanted a second price to show the regular supplier, and your sample gave it to them. Signs: purchase will not name a contract end date, asks for a lower price without mentioning quantity, and nobody in production knows your name.
If a production trial has been refused twice with no reason, stop chasing the order. Send the approval reference and your validity date once more, then wait for the buyer to call.
Your next three calls
Open your list of approved samples with no order and, against each, write which of the six answers in the table you last heard. Then call quality, purchase and production at each buyer, in that order. For chemical and process makers a lab approval is often not the last test; the manufacturing hub covers the wider picture. If you want help turning approvals into first orders, with pipeline management behind it, tell us what you need.
