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The sales process · Strategic plan

Pick the one number you would be genuinely sorry to miss this year.

A business goal is the number the owner actually cares about this year: turnover, orders, margin, or a share of revenue from a new product. It is one number with a date, not a list of ambitions. GullySales builds it from what the business can produce, then works backwards to sales and marketing.

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Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

A founder and sales adviser discuss a customer proposal

In one paragraph

A business goal is the number the owner actually cares about this year: turnover, orders, margin, or a share of revenue from a new product. It is one number with a date, not a list of ambitions. GullySales builds it from what the business can produce, then works backwards to sales and marketing.

The TOWS analysis was the step before this. Sales goals come next, then marketing goals, and the three of them are a chain. The chain holds only if this first link is a number rather than a mood.

Start from capacity. Count what the business can actually make, install, treat or deliver in a year, and price it at what you really get paid after discount. That is your ceiling, and the goal belongs under it.

Then write the constraint beside the number. Two machines. One surgeon. Four crews and one supervisor. A goal that ignores the constraint is a number the team stops believing in by June.

Where this sits

Stage 1 of 10, strategic plan. What the business is for, what it is aiming at this year, and the numbers that say whether it got there.

The stage after
Customer research

If you want this done for you

Pick the one direction your business should grow in next, and park the rest.

Read the business growth strategy page

The work

What this step is actually like.

  • “One number, not a scorecard”

    Turnover, orders, margin, or the share of revenue coming from the new product. Pick the one you would lose sleep over and let the rest be supporting figures.

  • “Split it into what you already have and what is new”

    Work out how much of the goal comes from customers who will buy again anyway. What is left is the part sales has to win, and it is nearly always smaller and more frightening than the headline.

  • “Who has to agree it: whoever has to deliver it”

    The production head, the senior doctor, the site engineer, and the person who knows the cash position. A number agreed by the owner and the sales head alone is one that two departments will quietly ignore.

  • “An afternoon, if the books are in order”

    The arithmetic takes an afternoon. Getting the capacity number honest takes longer, because somebody has to say out loud what the machine really produces in a bad week.

What we do

What you end up with.

The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.

  1. A one-page goal sheet

    Five headings: the number, the date, the constraint, what it assumes about price, and who signed it. Anything longer stops being read.

    Result: Everybody in the business quotes the same number when a customer or a banker asks.

  2. The repeat and new split

    Two lines. What existing customers are expected to buy again, and what has to be won from people who have never bought from you.

    Result: The sales goal in the next step gets built on the part that is genuinely new.

  3. The cash line

    The goal in orders is not the goal in money received. Write the collection assumption next to it, and have your accountant say whether the business can carry that gap.

    Result: A goal that does not quietly assume an overdraft nobody has agreed to.

  4. Four dates in your own calendar

    The days you will sit down and compare the number with what actually happened, chosen now rather than when things start going wrong.

    Result: A goal corrected in month four instead of abandoned in month nine.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 0, foundation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
Should the goal be turnover or profit?
Whichever one is actually at risk. If you are full and still not earning, the goal is margin, and chasing turnover will make it worse. If capacity is sitting idle, turnover is the honest goal.
We have never measured anything. Where do we start?
Count last year's orders by hand from the invoice book, and count them by product. That one afternoon gives you the base that every later step in this stage divides into.
How is this different from a sales target?
This is the owner's number for the whole business. The sales target is what the sales team must do to produce it, and it is worked out on the next page by dividing this one.
Who sets it in a family business?
Whoever's money is at risk, sitting with whoever has to deliver it. Where the generations disagree, write both numbers down and record which one the year is being run on.
How do you know at the end whether the goal was met?
By comparing it with what was recorded before the year began. We take a baseline of enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order before any work starts, and report against it.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts. For sales work it is mostly our time, with production only where scripts, decks or CRM setup need it.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
Fixes to reply time and follow-up are the quickest to show, because the enquiries already exist. Process, CRM and training changes show as the team uses them. Each one is tracked against the baseline.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
To start, last month's enquiries in any format and time with whoever handles them. After that, access to the accounts the work touches, such as the website, Google Business Profile or CRM.

Where to go next

The work that carries this step further.

Services

The rest of strategic plan

Or read the whole sales process in order.

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.

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