Notes for owners · Business growth
What to send an agency before the first call: a one-page brief you can fill in tonight
A one-page brief with your goal, your real numbers, your limits and what you have already tried saves the first meeting from being a long interview. Copy the layout below.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
Send a single page that says what you sell, to whom, what you want changed, what your numbers are today, what you have already tried, and what limits you work within. That page lets an agency spend the first call on your problem instead of asking basic questions. Write it in plain words, in an hour or two, even if some numbers are estimates.
Why the first call goes wrong without it
Without a brief, the first meeting becomes an interview. The agency asks who your customers are, how orders arrive, what you spent before. You answer from memory. The call ends with "we will send a proposal". The proposal then covers everything, because the agency does not know what to leave out.
A brief also tests you. If you cannot say in two lines whom you sell to and what a good month looks like, no agency can work that out for you from outside.
The one-page layout
Copy these headings into a document and answer each in a line or two.
1. The business. What you sell, where you sell, who buys. Name the buyer: "stationery retailers in Telangana" or "architects in Bengaluru", not "everyone who needs furniture".
2. The goal. One sentence with a number and a date you set yourself: "increase qualified enquiries from about 20 to about 50 a month" or "open dealers in two new districts". Say how you will know.
3. Today's numbers. Enquiries per month, by source if known. Share that become quotes. Share of quotes that become orders. Average order value. Your reply time. Mark each as counted or estimated.
4. What you have tried. Channels, agencies, freelancers, and what happened. Include what you stopped and why.
5. Constraints. Budget range, who in your team will answer enquiries, products you cannot supply more of, areas you will not serve, anything you cannot say publicly.
6. Assets you already have. Website address, Google Business Profile, catalogues, photos, customer list, accounts you control and accounts someone else controls.
7. Decision process. Who decides, who else has a say, and by when you would like to start.
Which numbers matter most, and what to do if you lack them
An agency can work with rough figures, but three are worth hunting for.
| Number | Where to find it | If you lack it |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries per month | Phone log, WhatsApp, email, portal dashboards | Count the last four weeks by hand and say so |
| Quote-to-order share | Quote file against invoices | Take twenty recent quotes and count how many became orders |
| Average order value | Invoices | Use a typical order and mark it as typical |
If you do not track the source of enquiries, write that plainly. It is a common gap, and an agency worth hiring will start there. Tracking lead source in your CRM shows a simple way to begin.
For example: a Kanchipuram saree seller
Take an invented family-run saree shop in Kanchipuram that sells in the shop, through Instagram and through two reseller WhatsApp groups. The owner wrote to an agency: "We want more customers online." The agency replied with a long questionnaire and a proposed package of posts and ads.
Writing the brief, the owner finds three things not yet said. Most online orders came from repeat buyers in Chennai and Bengaluru, not new ones. Wedding silk enquiries arrived in clusters before the main wedding months, while everyday cotton sold evenly. The shop could dispatch only a few pieces a day.
The revised brief said: "Goal: 30 new wedding-silk enquiries from Chennai and Bengaluru before the season, a named person answering each enquiry, dispatch capacity 8 pieces a day. Tried: boosted Instagram posts, no tracking. Budget: up to this range." The agency's second reply is a short plan with questions about photographs and a video call for fabric. It also says the dispatch limit caps what any campaign can usefully bring in, which is not what the owner hoped to hear. The mistake had been a goal with no place or product; the brief supplies both.
A goal line, weak and strong
The goal line is where most briefs go soft. Test yours against this pair.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| "More customers online" | "New wedding-silk enquiries from Chennai and Bengaluru before the season, tracked by source" |
| "Grow sales by a lot" | "Raise quote-to-order share from about one in five to one in four on orders above a set value" |
| "Be number one on Google" | "Appear for the five searches our best buyers use, in the three towns we deliver to" |
A strong line names a place or product, a count and a way of checking. If you cannot count it today, write that, and make the first month's goal "start counting".
What to leave out
Do not paste a company history, a long list of competitors you dislike, or screenshots of ads you admire without saying why. Do not write a goal like "become number one". And do not hide a past failure. Agencies learn more from "we ran ads for three months and got calls from the wrong cities" than from a clean story.
Skip detailed tactics too. Telling an agency "we want ten Reels a week" locks the plan before they have looked at the problem. State the outcome, and let them propose the method.
Using the brief to compare agencies
Send the same page to two or three agencies and read what comes back. A good reply refers to your numbers, asks about the gaps and says what the agency would not do. A weak reply repeats a standard package.
Fill in sections 1 to 3 tonight and mark every estimate as an estimate; the rest can wait until tomorrow. A marketing audit is the nearest service if you want a look at your set-up before talking to anyone, and the FAQ covers what owners ask us about fees and how work begins. When the page is ready, tell us what you need.
