Sales management · Sales force design
Every account has six people who matter and your pitch reaches one of them.
A buying centre is the group of people inside one customer who start, use, influence, approve and pay for a purchase. This page covers how to map those roles for a major account and write a grid of value point, proof and objection answer for each. It ends in a one-sheet grid the account team keeps open.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A buying centre is the group of people inside one customer who start, use, influence, approve and pay for a purchase. This page covers how to map those roles for a major account and write a grid of value point, proof and objection answer for each. It ends in a one-sheet grid the account team keeps open.
A hospital in Mysuru is buying a sterilisation unit from you. The biomedical engineer has been to your demo twice. The purchase manager wants three quotes. The medical director signs. And a trustee's son, a doctor abroad, has told the family it costs too much. Only the first of the four has seen your brochure.
The buying centre is the map of who plays which part in one account: who started the search, who will use the product, who influences, who guards the door, who approves, who pays. The message grid sits on top of that map. For each role it holds one concern, one value point, one piece of proof and the answer to the objection that role raises.
The account lead builds it and the sales manager checks it. The owner supplies the proof, which means a letter from a customer, a site photograph or a number from your own books. It replaces the single deck that goes to everybody. The buyer context page in the sales process describes the situation a buyer is in. This grid is the working document for one named account, with names in it.
Write it in English and in the language the buyers speak in the room. In a family-run business the person who carries the most weight may never appear in a meeting, so the grid needs a row for them too.
Where this sits
Topic 3 of 14 in sales management: sales force design. Who does what in selling, how the team is organised and how big it should be.
- The topic before
- Sales planning and goals
- The topic after
- Recruitment and selection
If you want this done for you
Stop treating every enquiry the same way and go after the accounts worth winning.
The work
What this is actually like.
“The influencer who is never on the visitor list”
A family member, the company's CA, the contractor who once called your brand trouble. Ask every contact who else will have a view and write the name down even if you cannot reach them yet. A blank row is a prompt for the next visit.
“The user and the payer want different proof”
The person who runs the machine wants a demo and a service number they can call. The person who pays wants a payback sheet. One product, two proofs. Sending the payback sheet to the operator and the demo to the director loses both.
“A gatekeeper is a role, not an obstacle”
The receptionist, the store clerk and the owner's assistant decide whether your next call is put through. Give them a one-line message that makes their own job easier, such as what to tell the boss and which document to attach.
“A grid nobody has tested is a guess”
Read each cell aloud to a real contact in that role and ask what they would cross out. The objection column is the one that goes wrong first, because it was written from the rep's fear rather than from anything the buyer said.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
Role map for each account
Columns: name, title, role (initiator, user, influencer, gatekeeper, decider, payer), what they care about, last contact date, reached or not reached. The rep updates it after every meeting.
Result: Finished when every role has a name or a marked question for the next visit.
Message grid
Rows are roles. Columns are concern, value point, proof, likely objection, answer. One grid per offering, built by the sales team in a single sitting.
Result: Finished when a colleague covering the account could write the email to the finance person from the grid alone.
Proof folder
A shared folder with one file behind each cell in the proof column: the customer letter, the photograph, the invoice figure, the test report.
Result: Finished when every proof cell opens a real file.
Language versions
The value points rewritten in the local language for the roles that do not read English, checked by a native speaker on your team.
Result: Finished when someone in that role has read it and said it sounds like how they talk.
Roles-reached line
One line at the top of each account review: roles listed, roles reached. The sales manager asks for it before asking about price.
Result: Finished when the next deal review opens with that line.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How many accounts need a grid?
How is this different from a buyer persona?
What if we only ever deal with the owner?
Do we need software for this?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of sales force design
Or read all of sales management.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.