The sales process · Prospecting
Decide which companies deserve your week before anybody picks up the phone.
Qualifying criteria and lead scoring rank the companies on your prospect sheet before a single one is contacted. A handful of things you can see from outside are weighted, and each row gets a number. The team then works from the top of the sheet down instead of starting wherever the cursor lands.
In one paragraph
Qualifying criteria and lead scoring rank the companies on your prospect sheet before a single one is contacted. A handful of things you can see from outside are weighted, and each row gets a number. The team then works from the top of the sheet down instead of starting wherever the cursor lands.
Sourcing has left you with rows that have working numbers against them. Every one of them costs the same to call and almost none of them are worth the same. Scoring is how you make that difference visible on the sheet rather than leaving it in one person's head.
The rule that keeps this honest: only score what you can observe from outside. Size, sector, distance, whether they buy this category at all today, whether you have a name inside, whether something changed there recently. Budget is not on that list. Nobody can see a budget from a website, and a sheet that pretends otherwise is guessing in a column with a number on it.
Anything you actually need to ask them belongs to the later qualification step, once an enquiry is live and a real conversation is happening. Keep the two apart. Mixing them produces a score that cannot be filled in and a conversation that has already decided the answer.
Where this sits
Stage 3 of 10, prospecting. Building the list of companies worth approaching, and deciding which of them to spend time on.
- The stage before
- Customer research
- The stage after
- Lead generation
If you want this done for you
Give every enquiry a number that actually predicts whether it will close.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“What the scoring sheet looks like”
Five or six criteria across the top, a weight on each, and one line under every criterion saying exactly what earns the points. Fit against the ideal customer profile might be worth five. Being inside a two-hour drive might be worth two, because somebody can actually visit. Total the row and you have the score.
“Bands, and why the A band must stay small”
Split the sheet into A, B and C, and give each band different treatment. The owner rings the A rows. A junior works the B rows. The C rows get one email and nothing further. Cap the A band at the number of accounts your team can genuinely work this month. If half the sheet scores A, the scoring has done nothing at all.
“Who has to agree the weights”
The owner and whoever manages the selling, in one room, arguing. That argument is the real work of this step, and an hour of it settles questions that otherwise resurface every quarter. Invite the person who will be asked why a famous local name came out as a C, because they are the one who has to defend the sheet.
“How it goes wrong”
A model with fourteen criteria and a hundred-point scale that nobody fills in past the third column. Weights chosen for what the owner wishes mattered rather than what the last twenty orders had in common. A score set up once and never compared against what actually closed.
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 criteria sheet
One page listing each criterion, its weight, and the plain definition of what scores what. Written so two people scoring the same company land on the same number.
Result: Scores stop depending on who is doing the scoring.
The scored list
Your prospect sheet with a score column and a band column, sorted high to low. The same file as before, two columns wider.
Result: Monday morning starts at the top of the sheet.
The treatment rule
A short statement of what each band actually gets: who calls, how many attempts, and when a row is dropped back a band for going quiet.
Result: Effort matches the score instead of matching enthusiasm.
A calibration note
A dated reminder to look back at which band your closed orders came from, with space to record what you changed as a result.
Result: The model gets corrected rather than trusted forever.
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.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How is this different from qualifying a live enquiry?
We are a small team. Is a score worth the trouble?
How do we know the scoring is any good?
What happens to the C rows?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
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 prospecting
Or read the whole sales process in order.