Selling to the family when the person who decides is in Dubai

A family spends forty minutes choosing floor tiles at your showroom. The visitor will send the photos to a relative in Sharjah, they say, and then you hear nothing for three weeks. When the person who approves is in the Gulf, the sale happens on that person's phone, after a shift, in another time zone. So ask the family once who else will see the quote. Send one message built to be forwarded without losing anything. Then offer a call at an hour the person abroad is free, written in their time, not yours.

Ask who else will see it, once

At the counter, ask "Will anyone else look at this before you decide?" Do not ask who the decision maker is. The visitor's choice of tile is real; the person abroad may be approving the money, the total, sometimes the brand.

If the answer is yes, ask how the quote will be sent and when that person reads messages. Then keep the visitor at the centre. Everything goes to them first, or to both in a group they set up.

Selling when the decision-maker lives in another city gives a summary layout written to be forwarded. What follows is what changes when the reader is two forwards away in the Gulf.

What survives two forwards

The quote does not go from you to the approver. It goes from you to the visitor, to the family member abroad, and then perhaps to a friend who "did their own house last year". By the third phone, nobody knows where it came from. Check each message against this before it leaves the shop:

• Shop name, town and a +91 number in the first line, so the message still says who sent it.
• The product named as printed on the box: brand, series, size. People search it.
• Photographs taken in daylight at the shop door, not under showroom lights, with something beside the tile for scale.
• One photograph of the box label showing the batch or shade code. Tiles from different batches can differ in shade, and the family should know you will supply from one.
• A single total for the quantity, with the wastage allowance stated and what is not included named: laying, adhesive, transport.
• Plain text first and the PDF second, because a PDF is the first thing that fails to open on a crowded phone.

Offer the call in their time

Someone working in the Gulf is free before a shift, on a lunch break, or late in the evening. Offer two slots, written in their time, and do the arithmetic yourself. The UAE and Oman are an hour and a half behind India; Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, two and a half.

Ask which day is the day off. It is not the same across the Gulf, or even across employers. Then send the offer through the visitor:

"Shall we show the tiles on a video call? We can call at 8.30 pm Sharjah time on Wednesday, or on the day off in the afternoon. Whichever suits."

If nobody at your shop can take a 10 pm call, do not offer one. Offer the early slot or the day off, and keep whatever you offer.

On the call

Fifteen minutes is enough. The salesperson who served the visitor takes the call, with the visitor on it if possible. Carry the tiles to the doorway for daylight. Show the edge and the thickness, the box label, and three tiles laid side by side. Let the person abroad ask everything; questions will have been saved up for days.

Afterwards, send both a short note of what was agreed: product, quantity, total, delivery date, and what happens next. Who sends it and where it goes in the enquiry record is the WhatsApp sales process.

For example: a tile showroom in Tirur

Imagine a tile and sanitaryware showroom in Tirur. Many Kerala families, including those in Malabar, have someone working in the Gulf. A family chose vitrified floor tiles for a new house. The staff sent fourteen photographs taken under the showroom's warm lights, then a PDF quotation with no total until the last page.

The family member in Sharjah saw a colour that looked yellow on the phone, and a friend suggested trying Kozhikode instead. The showroom rang the visitor every two days, and the visitor began to feel pressed. About ₹1.4 lakh of tiles (an invented figure) nearly went elsewhere.

The showroom started again with one message: shop name and number on top, four daylight photographs, the box label, and one total with what was left out. The offer of a call went in the same message, and the chasing calls stopped. The approver chose the day off: 3 pm in Sharjah, 4.30 pm in the showroom. The salesperson showed three tiles at the door, read out the batch code, and explained that the whole order would come from one batch. Approval came on the call. The order followed the next morning, but for 40 square feet less than first planned, because the call also settled that the balcony would stay as it was.

When to keep it simple

A few boxes to repair a bathroom? Skip all of it. If the visitor tells you they decide, believe them and stop asking about anyone else. If the person abroad lands next week, invite them in rather than calling. And if most of your buyers are local salaried families, build the forwardable quote and skip the call slots.

Forward your last quote to yourself, twice

Take the most recent quote you sent a family with someone abroad and forward it to your own phone twice. Read it as a friend in Sharjah would. If it no longer says who sent it or what the total is, rewrite it before the next family walks in. Keeping that follow-up with the family is lead response and follow-up; other Kerala towns are on the Kerala page. To have the quote layout and the call routine built with your team, tell us what you need.