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The sales process · Strategic plan

Nobody believes a company story in which nothing ever went wrong.

Your story is what a buyer is told in the first meeting about how the business began, who started it and what went wrong on the way. It is proof, not decoration. GullySales interviews the people who were there, checks the dates against your own records, and writes it in three lengths.

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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

Your story is what a buyer is told in the first meeting about how the business began, who started it and what went wrong on the way. It is proof, not decoration. GullySales interviews the people who were there, checks the dates against your own records, and writes it in three lengths.

Every owner already has this story. It comes out in the second or third meeting, once the price has been discussed, and it is often the moment the buyer decides. It has never been written down, so only the owner can tell it.

A story with no difficulty in it is not believed. The years of job work for another firm, the partner who walked out, the loan on a machine that sat idle. Those are the parts a buyer believes.

Vision came before this step and core values come after. Vision is where you say you are going. The story is the only evidence a first-time buyer has that you will get there.

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

Your founder's story is told at every meeting and written down nowhere.

Read the brand story development page

The work

What this step is actually like.

  • “The difficulty is the proof”

    A buyer has heard a dozen versions of started in 1998 with one small workshop. What they have not heard is what nearly ended it, and how you paid for the mistake. A competitor cannot copy that part.

  • “Interview the people who were there, including the ones who left”

    The founder remembers the decision. The first employee remembers the week it was taken, and usually corrects the year. Where a co-founder has gone, ask anyway, because their version explains the gaps.

  • “Three lengths, because there are three rooms”

    Thirty seconds on a call, two minutes across a table, and a page in the profile a purchase department will file. Shortening the long one gives you a bad short one, so write each separately.

  • “It goes wrong when it turns into a legend”

    Dates get rounded, the near-failure disappears, and the founder is alone in every scene. Have your accountant check the years against your own registration papers before anybody prints it.

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 dated timeline of what actually happened

    Five columns: the year, what happened, who was there, what it cost, and what changed afterwards. Twelve to twenty rows is plenty for a thirty-year-old firm.

    Result: A story that can be checked against your own order books and registration papers.

  2. The thirty-second version

    What a salesperson says when a buyer asks how long you have been doing this, written in speech rather than in prose.

    Result: The newest person on your team can answer without fetching you.

  3. The two-minute version for a meeting

    The full arc, with the difficult part in the middle and a customer's name at the end where you are permitted to use one.

    Result: The story stops being something only the founder can tell.

  4. Who tells which part

    Where two generations run the firm, the father tells the beginning and the son tells the last five years. Write down who says what, so it does not become an argument in front of a customer.

    Result: Two people in one meeting telling one story instead of two.

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
We started as traders and now we manufacture. Do we admit that?
Yes, and it is the strongest thing you have. A buyer trusts a supplier who knows the market from the selling side. Hiding it only works until somebody in the trade mentions it in front of them.
How long does writing this take?
Two interviews of an hour, then a fortnight of getting the dates right. The fortnight is the real work, because somebody has to go through old files and ring the people who left.
The founder has passed away. Can we still tell the story?
Yes, told by the person who took over, in their own words. Say what you inherited and what you changed since. A story told as though the founder were still speaking makes a room uncomfortable.
Is this the same as our company profile?
No. The profile is the document a purchase department asks for, with certificates, capacity and client lists. The story is one section inside it, and usually the only section anybody reads twice.
Can somebody outside the company write it?
Only after the interviews. We run those from our office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, by call, or at your place when the people who were there will not sit on a video call. What comes back is your account, signed by you.
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 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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