The sales process · Lead generation
A free hour is easy to give away and easy to waste.
A free consultation is a fixed slot in which a prospect gets real advice before buying anything. Getting people to book one is rarely the hard part. Filling the diary with people who can decide, and sending something in writing afterwards, is. GullySales sets the qualifying questions and the written output.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A free consultation is a fixed slot in which a prospect gets real advice before buying anything. Getting people to book one is rarely the hard part. Filling the diary with people who can decide, and sending something in writing afterwards, is. GullySales sets the qualifying questions and the written output.
Offer an hour of expert time for nothing and people will take it. That is the trap. The diary of your most expensive person fills with students, competitors and buyers who were never going to spend, and then the offer gets blamed.
Two things separate the useful version from the wasteful one. Three or four questions on the booking form, read by a human before the slot is confirmed. And something written afterwards that the prospect can show to whoever was not on the call, because the person who books the hour is seldom the only one deciding.
Our own first conversation is the version we run, and it is not charged. It covers how enquiries arrive, how fast they are answered, and whether they were ever buyers. It also asks how often an enquiry is followed up and whether the CRM can be trusted. The scope, the fee and the term follow in writing.
Webinars, the step before, produce the right person for a slot like this: somebody who asked a specific question in public. Quora marketing, the step after, answers those same questions in writing for the people who are nowhere near booking anything.
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
Turn an interested reply into a meeting on the calendar before the enthusiasm cools off.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“Qualify before the slot, not during it”
Three or four questions on the form do most of the work. What the problem is, what has been tried, who else has to agree, and when they want it solved. Somebody reads the answers before confirming a time. A form asking only for a name and a number is a diary anybody can fill.
“The hour has to produce a document”
Whatever you conclude on the call, write it down and send it. One page, in their language, saying what you found and what you would do first. The person who approves the spend was probably not on the call, and your fluency on a video call does not reach them.
“Giving the answer away is not the risk”
Owners worry that a free consultation hands over the expertise for nothing. The advice is the proof, and a buyer who can act on it alone was never going to pay you. The real risk runs the other way: an hour that turns into a pitch, after which nobody books a second one.
“When to charge instead”
Where the advice is the product, as it is for a lawyer, an architect or a consultant, a free hour undercuts the thing you sell. Offer fifteen minutes to work out whether you are the right person for the job, and charge for the rest. Say the price out loud while the slot is being booked.
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.
The booking questions
Three or four lines on the form, one asking who else is part of the decision. Keep the wording plain enough that a busy person answers it properly on a phone, standing in a corridor.
Result: You know before the call whether the hour is worth giving.
The shape of the hour
A written agenda the expert follows: fifteen minutes of questions, twenty minutes of findings, ten on what to do first, and the rest for whatever they want to ask. Nothing about your company history.
Result: Two different people running consultations hold the same conversation.
The written follow-up
One page sent within a few days: what you heard, what you found, the order you would fix it in, and what the first step takes. It goes out whether or not the person sounded interested.
Result: Something of yours is in the room when the decision is discussed without you.
The no-show rule
What happens when somebody does not turn up: one message the same day, one slot offered, then the name goes back on the follow-up list. Written down, so nobody spends a week chasing.
Result: A missed slot costs one message instead of three days of attention.
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.
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.
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.
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.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Will a free consultation attract time-wasters?
How long should a free consultation be?
What should a consultation produce to be worth the hour?
Who in our team should take these calls?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
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 step further.
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.