Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
What traders ask a cold store before they book space
A trader rings three cold stores before the season and books with the one that answers capacity, rate, loading dates and power backup on the first call. Here is what to have ready.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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A trader wants five answers on the first call: is there space, what is the rate, when can he load, what happens if the power goes, and who will he speak to when something goes wrong. The store that gives all five in the same conversation, and repeats them in writing the same day, gets the booking. The others get a polite "I will call you back" that never comes.
What he is really asking when he says "do you have space?"
He is not asking about square feet. He holds a lorry load of potato, chilli or apples, he has money tied up in it, and he is deciding whether you will be careful with it. The question about space is the polite way into the real questions.
So answer with a number and a date. "Chamber three has room for about four hundred bags from the 12th" is an answer. "Yes, come and see" is a way of telling him you do not know your own stock position, and it sends him to the next number on his phone.
That means someone at the store has to know, at any hour of the season, which chamber has room and from which day. A whiteboard in the office will not do it when the owner is at the market and the manager is on the loading bay. One shared sheet, updated at the end of each day, with one person responsible for it, does.
The five answers to have ready
| What he asks | What a good reply says | What loses the booking |
|---|---|---|
| Is there space for my commodity? | The chamber, the quantity and the date it is free | "Come and we will see" |
| What is the rate? | Rate per bag, quintal or tonne as you charge it, what it covers, and when it is payable | A figure that grows at the gate |
| When can I load? | A loading window and the days the weighbridge and labour are available | "Whenever you bring it" |
| What if the power fails? | The backup you actually have, and who is rung at night | A reassuring line with no detail behind it |
| Whom do I call? | One named person and one number, answered | A reception phone that rings out |
Keep these as a short message you can send on WhatsApp straight after the call, with the rate expressed the way your trade quotes it. Checking the details costs the trader a minute and costs you nothing. It also gives him something to show his partner or his financier, and a quotation that can be forwarded gets forwarded.
Rates, and how to talk about them
Traders compare rates, but they compare them badly, because stores quote on different bases. One quotes per bag for the season, another per quintal per month, and a third adds handling, loading and a withdrawal charge at the end. A trader who adds it all up at home often finds the cheaper-looking rate was the dearer one.
Quote the whole thing. State what is included, what is charged separately and what happens if he takes stock out early or late. This reads as honest because it is, and it moves the conversation from the lowest figure to the clearest one. You will lose the trader who only wants the cheapest rate on a page. You were not going to keep him anyway.
For anything about advances, receipts or loans against stored produce, check with your bank and your own adviser before you describe it to a trader. The arrangements and rules vary by state and by lender, and they change.
The weeks before the season are the real sales window
Booking happens before the stock moves. By the time lorries queue at the gate, the decision was made weeks earlier, over phone calls the operator did not make.
Open last season's ledger and sort it by trader. For each, write the commodity, the quantity, the dates in and out and anything that went wrong. Call each one before the harvest and ask what he expects this year. You are not selling. You are asking, and writing the answer next to your chamber plan.
For example, take a multi-commodity store near Hassan that fills with potato in one stretch of the year. Its owner calls last year's thirty-odd traders, learns that four are moving to a competitor's chamber closer to their fields and that two are bringing more than before, and shifts a chamber allocation as a result. He is planning the season, not hoping for it. The ground this work needs is on our page for cold storage operators, and the follow-up routine is set out under sales process.
What to say when the answer is no
Sometimes the chambers are full. Many operators go silent at that point, which is the worst reply because the trader reads it as indifference.
Reply within the hour. Say it is full, say when a chamber is likely to open, and where there is another store you trust, say so. It sounds like giving business away. In practice the trader remembers who told him the truth, and he calls you first next year when you have space.
What to do next
Count how many enquiries reached you last season, and how many of those received a written reply with a rate and a loading date. Write the two numbers at the top of a page. If they differ, that gap is where bookings went, and our free audit can trace it with you through your own call log and ledger.