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The sales process · Lead generation

Every rupee of dealer margin buys a salesperson you do not employ.

A channel sales partner is a dealer, distributor or reseller who sells your product to their own customers and keeps a margin for doing it. You trade margin for reach, and you give up some hold on the customer. GullySales works out the margin, the rules of engagement, and who owns the buyer afterwards.

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

Business development representatives research prospects and speak with customers

In one paragraph

A channel sales partner is a dealer, distributor or reseller who sells your product to their own customers and keeps a margin for doing it. You trade margin for reach, and you give up some hold on the customer. GullySales works out the margin, the rules of engagement, and who owns the buyer afterwards.

Appointing a dealer feels like free sales capacity. It is not free. You pay in margin, on every order, for as long as the arrangement lasts. That is usually a sound trade, provided you know the number before you sign somebody in a hurry.

Three answers decide whether a channel works, and all three belong in writing before the first appointment. What the partner earns. What happens when your own salesperson walks into a customer the partner is already talking to. And who holds the customer's phone number the day the arrangement ends.

Word of mouth, the step before, brings you buyers who already trust somebody. A partner brings you a buyer who trusts them, which has to be earned again if the partner leaves. Webinars, the step after, are one of the few affordable ways to keep a scattered dealer network and their customers taught.

Where this sits

Stage 4 of 10, lead generation. The routes an enquiry can arrive by, and what each one costs in money or in time.

The stage before
Prospecting
The stage after
Sales enablement

If you want this done for you

Decide your direct versus distributor sales mix before you build a network around it.

Read the channel sales strategy and route to market execution page

The work

What this step is actually like.

  • “Work out the margin before you promise it”

    The discount you quote is not the margin you give away. Write down your price to the partner and their price to the customer. Then add everything you keep paying for after the order: freight, the demo unit, the warranty visit, the credit period. Work it out this way and the comparison is plain: a Peenya fabricator can see what the channel costs against hiring one person for that territory.

  • “The conflict is with your own team”

    Your rep and your dealer will eventually call on the same customer, and that is the day somebody discounts to win an argument inside your own company. Decide first which accounts stay direct, which belong to the partner, and where a website enquiry from the partner's town goes. Name those accounts in the agreement, not in a phone call.

  • “Who owns the customer”

    If the dealer holds the phone number, the service history and the renewal, you are renting that territory. Agree what comes back to you with every order: the end customer's name and contact, the installation record, and the right to speak to them about service. A candidate who refuses all three has told you something useful.

  • “When a channel is the wrong answer”

    A product that needs a two-day technical sale only you can make will not be sold by somebody else either. One product on thin margin leaves nothing to share. And appointing dealers to fix weak demand fails quietly, because the dealer was waiting for demand as well.

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. The partner sheet

    One page per partner type: territory, the products they may sell, your price to them, the minimum first order, credit terms, the support you provide, and the review date. This is what a candidate reads before anybody says the word exclusivity.

    Result: A candidate works out their own earnings from the page without ringing you.

  2. The rules of engagement

    A short written note covering accounts that stay direct, how an incoming lead is allotted, and what happens when two partners chase one customer. Your sales head signs this one, because it changes their targets.

    Result: The first conflict is settled by reading the note rather than by whoever shouts.

  3. The customer record clause

    The line in the agreement saying the end customer's name, contact and installation details reach you with every order. State alongside it who takes a warranty call and who pays for the visit.

    Result: You can still reach the customer the day a partner stops representing you.

  4. The standing review

    A meeting on a fixed date with a fixed shape. Orders against the agreed minimum, stock lying with the partner, service complaints, and one action each side takes before the next one.

    Result: A partner going quiet shows up early, while there is still time to ask why.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. 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 we give a partner exclusivity for a territory?
Only against a committed minimum and a review date. Exclusivity with no minimum hands a town to somebody who may never work it, and taking it back costs you a year. Start with a defined territory and a first-order commitment, then widen it once they have earned it.
What happens when our salesperson and a dealer chase the same customer?
Whatever you wrote down before it happened. A common rule is that named large accounts stay direct and everything else in the territory belongs to the partner, with website enquiries allotted by address. Settle it while nobody is angry.
How long before a new partner produces orders?
Months rather than weeks. They have to learn the product, put it in front of their own customers, and get a first order through their credit cycle. Judge them on visits and quotations early, on orders later.
Who in our company has to agree the partner policy?
The owner, the sales head whose targets change, and whoever handles collections, because a partner is a credit risk as much as a sales channel. If service sits in a separate team, they sign too. They will be taking the warranty calls the partner cannot answer.
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.
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.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Everything is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. The term is in your written scope, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

Where to go next

The work that carries this step further.

Services

The rest of lead generation

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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