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GullySales

The sales process · Sales closure

Fifteen minutes before the meeting decides most of what happens in it.

A meeting preparation checklist is the short, fixed routine a salesperson runs in the quarter of an hour before a sales meeting. It covers what you look up about the buyer, what you carry in, what you leave behind, and the one question you have decided in advance that you will ask.

Looking down on a giant chess set laid out on a paved terrace: eight-by-eight chequered slabs with waist-high pieces standing in a known opening, one white knight already brought out in front of its rank and the slab it left marked with a chalk cross and a stub of chalk, a stone bench at the terrace edge, a parapet with an urn behind, and steps down to a lawn

In one paragraph

A meeting preparation checklist is the short, fixed routine a salesperson runs in the quarter of an hour before a sales meeting. It covers what you look up about the buyer, what you carry in, what you leave behind, and the one question you have decided in advance that you will ask.

The qualifying framework said yes, so somebody has decided this enquiry is worth a meeting. What usually happens next is nothing. The salesperson reads the buyer's website in the auto on the way there and improvises the rest.

Preparation is not research. Two hours of reading about a company you are visiting is avoidance dressed up as diligence. Fifteen minutes and a card in your pocket beats it, because the card forces a decision about what you want out of the meeting and the reading does not.

This one is firmly a keep-it-in-house job. There is no system to buy. There is a laminated card, a habit, and a manager who asks to see the card before the salesperson leaves the office. Every closing tactic that comes after this depends on the meeting having had a point.

Where this sits

Stage 8 of 10, sales closure. The meeting, the decision, and what you learn from the ones you win and the ones you lose.

The stage before
Proposal and follow-up
The stage after
After the order

If you want this done for you

New hires learn the job by listening in on other people's calls.

The work

What this step is actually like.

  • What you look up

    What they actually sell and to whom, from their own product page rather than the about page. Who will be in the room, with job titles. Anything that changed in the last six months: a new unit, a new product, a tender they won, a notice on their gate. And, above all, whether anyone in your own firm has dealt with them before. Arriving as a stranger at a company your colleague quoted last year is a bad opening.

  • What you carry in

    One folder or one deck, not three versions. The price sheet you are allowed to show. A blank page with your one question written at the top. A visiting card. And the sample, if one exists, because a part somebody can hold and weigh does more than a photograph of it ever will.

  • The one question

    Decide before you walk in which question you could not have asked over email and whose answer would change your proposal. What happened when you tried this before. Who else has to approve it. What is it costing you every month to leave this as it is. One question, chosen in advance, asked while they still have patience.

  • When two of you go

    Settle it in the car: who leads, who takes notes, who speaks about price. A technical colleague joining a sales meeting needs telling that they are there to answer questions, not to demonstrate everything the product can do. Two unbriefed people in a room will interrupt each other in front of the buyer, and the buyer notices.

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 card itself

    One side of an index card, the same for every meeting: the people, the change, the history with us, the question, and the outcome we want.

    Result: Preparation takes fifteen minutes because the prompts are fixed.

  2. The leave-behind

    One page with your name and number, what you discussed, and the agreed next step with its date. Written after the meeting, sent the same evening.

    Result: The person who was not in the room can still read what happened.

  3. The outcome line

    One sentence, written before you go, saying what you want to be true when you leave. A site visit booked. The finance person met. A specification agreed.

    Result: You can tell afterwards whether the meeting worked.

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 monthly 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 lock-in, no guarantees we cannot keep

    Three to six months at a time. 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.

The offer

Start with a free audit of how you sell.

It is useful on its own, whether or not you hire us.

What you receive

  • A 90-minute call with the person who will do the work
  • A written, scored report on the six places orders leak, within a few working days
  • Every fix ranked by what it returns and what it costs
  • The one thing to do first, and why
  • An honest line on whether you need outside help at all
  • If you do, the scope and the fee in writing

No invoice. No obligation. No sales script.

We call and WhatsApp on this number.

We use your details only to reply to this enquiry. See the privacy policy.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

What should be on the card for a first meeting versus a follow-up?
A first meeting card is mostly about them: who is in the room, what they do, what changed. A follow-up card is mostly about the last meeting: what was promised, by whom, and what has actually been done since. Turning up having forgotten your own commitment is worse than not preparing at all.
Our salespeople say they do not have fifteen minutes.
Then the diary is the problem, not the checklist. Four meetings a day with travel between them in Bengaluru leaves no thinking time, and the meetings suffer in ways nobody measures. Three prepared meetings beat five improvised ones, and the salesperson gets home earlier.
Should the owner attend the first meeting?
For a large or a strategic account, yes, and say so honestly to the buyer. For everything else it teaches the customer to deal only with the owner, which becomes a problem the moment you hire. If the owner does attend, the salesperson still runs the meeting.
How do we get the team to actually do this?
Make the card visible rather than optional. A manager who asks two questions before each meeting, what is the outcome and what is the one question, builds the habit in a fortnight. Reply times and follow-through are the kind of thing the free audit looks at, and this is where both begin.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped in the free audit 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?
Three to six months at a time. There is no twelve-month lock, 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 usually show in weeks, because the enquiries already exist. Process, CRM and training changes show as the team uses them. The monthly report tracks each one against the baseline.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you meet on the audit call. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
For the audit, last month's enquiries in any format and 90 minutes with whoever handles them. After that, access to the accounts the work touches, such as the website, Google Business Profile or CRM, and time for the monthly review.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Every month is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. Terms run three to six months at a time, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

Where to go next

The work that carries this step further.

Or read the whole sales process in order.

Get a free audit of how you sell, and a scored report of where the work is.

Book a free audit