Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
Selling fasteners, bearings and valves: why the catalogue alone loses the order to a phone call
A component buyer opens your catalogue to match a part number, check stock and find someone to call. Here is how to make the catalogue answer all three, and when it is not the problem.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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To sell industrial components such as fasteners, bearings and valves, your catalogue has to answer three questions before the buyer reaches for the phone. Does your part match the number on the indent, or on the worn part in the buyer's hand? Is it in stock, and if not, how long will it take? Who answers if the buyer calls now? A catalogue that lists sizes and grades but skips those three loses to the stockist who picks up and says "yes, I have it".
Buyers arrive with a number, not your name
The maintenance fitter at a sugar mill has the failed part in hand. A bearing carries its number on the ring, a bolt has its grade stamped on the head, and a valve has a body marking. The conveyor is standing still. The purchase engineer at an OEM has a drawing whose part number came from the last supplier, three quotations to compare, and no wish to ring a maker whose catalogue makes them guess. The stockist has a customer on the other line, reading out a brand code.
So the first column a buyer looks for is one many catalogues leave out. Your code, something like HTB-1260, means nothing to a stranger. Beside it the buyer needs the designation already known. That is the bearing number, the DIN, ISO or IS designation of a bolt, or a valve's size, pressure class and body material. For a part made to one customer's drawing, it is that customer's part number, on the sheet you send only to them.
Keep the cross-reference in the same row as your own code. An annexure at the back is where cross-references go to be ignored. If your part matches a large brand's, describe it by size, grade and dimensions, and check before you print another company's name. The auto parts version, where numbers change, is in our note on spare parts catalogues.
Why "available on request" reads as "not in stock"
A buyer reads silence about stock as a no. Give every line one of three states:
- Ex-stock, with the date someone last checked the rack.
- Made to order, with a lead time in days that your shop floor agrees with.
- Minimum lot, for sizes you run only in a batch, such as a special thread or a stainless grade that comes up twice a year.
One rule decides whether to publish stock at all. If nobody will keep the column current, leave it out and give a lead time per family with "ring to confirm stock". A stock column that was true three months ago is worse than none, because a buyer who sends a vehicle on its word and finds an empty rack is slow to trust it again.
A name to call, not a general number
The fitter whose line is down rings the first number that answers. A landline ringing in an empty office at seven in the evening hands that order to someone else.
Print one name and one mobile number per product family at the top of each page. Test it once: ring that number at seven in the evening yourself, and if it goes unanswered, change the name. Not the owner's, unless the owner picks up. Choose the person who can say yes or no on stock and rate without asking anybody. Tell the buyer what to send on WhatsApp: a photograph of the markings on the old part, the bore or thread size, and the quantity. Then the reply has to come, and fast.
The catalogue line, column by column
| Column | What the buyer checks with it | What happens when it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Your code | That the item quoted is the item dispatched | Mixed-up dispatches and a return |
| Standard or cross-reference number | That your part fits the machine or drawing | No confirmation, so the buyer rings a known supplier |
| Size, grade, material and finish | That it suits the load, pressure or corrosion it will face | A wrong grade on a high-tensile joint, a wrong body on a steam line |
| Stock status, with the date | Whether it reaches the buyer in time | The buyer assumes you do not have it |
| Pack quantity or minimum lot | Whether ten pieces can be bought or a box of a hundred must be taken | A quotation the buyer cannot accept |
| Certificates available | Whether a material or test certificate travels with the lot | The buyer's quality team holds the lot at the gate |
| Named contact for the family | Whom to ring | The call goes to the stockist |
Build this table once and it serves twice: as a short PDF for WhatsApp and as pages on your site. Sales collateral development is the service that does this.
Imagine a high-tensile fastener maker in Faridabad
Imagine, as an invented example, a Faridabad unit making hex bolts, socket head screws and nuts in 8.8 and 10.9 grades, supplying tractor and earthmoving component makers nearby. Every IndiaMART enquiry got the same reply: a 60-page PDF and a request to "send your requirement".
The PDF listed sizes by the unit's own codes. Grade appeared only in a note on page three. There was no stock information, and the contact was the accounts landline. A buyer who needed M16 bolts in 10.9 could not tell whether the unit had them, so the buyer rang a stockist in the same industrial area, who answered on the second ring.
So the owner split the PDF into one short sheet per family. Every code now has its DIN or IS number beside it, and grade has a column of its own. The stores supervisor checks the forty fastest sizes and dates the stock column. Each sheet names the person handling that family, with a WhatsApp number. Replies open with the answer, such as "M16 x 60, 10.9, in stock, 2,000 pieces". The sheets took a fortnight of the supervisor's evenings, about ₹15,000 in overtime, and the stock dates slipped twice in the first two months. Even so, buyers began quoting the part numbers back in their enquiries.
When the catalogue is not your problem
If everything you make is to the buyer's drawing, stock status means little. Publish what you can make instead: materials, size range, inspection equipment and lead time.
If your range sells only through distributors who hold the stock, send buyers to the nearest one and give the distributors the same sheets to forward. That is trade and dealer marketing, not a website job.
And no catalogue wins a commodity bolt when a rival is a rupee cheaper per piece. It gets you into the comparison. Price, delivery date and the speed of your reply decide it from there.
Ring your own catalogue before a buyer does
Pick one part from a recent enquiry. Open your catalogue as a stranger would, and time how long it takes to find the matching number, the stock position and a name to ring. Whichever of the three is missing is the page to fix first. How these buyers move from sample to repeat order is on our industrial components page. If you would like the sheets, the stock routine and the first reply built with you, tell us what you need.
