The sales process · Proposal and follow-up
A price on WhatsApp is not a quotation, and it loses to anyone who sends a document.
A quotation is the document stating what you will supply, at what price, on what terms and for how long that price holds. A proposal is a quotation with the reasoning put in front of it. Most small-business sales in India need the first one and not the second.
In one paragraph
A quotation is the document stating what you will supply, at what price, on what terms and for how long that price holds. A proposal is a quotation with the reasoning put in front of it. Most small-business sales in India need the first one and not the second.
The buyer asked for a price. He got a WhatsApp message with a number in it and the word inclusive. Two weeks later he cannot remember whether that covered installation, and his accounts person wants to know about the tax. Your competitor sent two pages with a quotation number on them.
This is the most important piece of paper in the whole sale, and most firms do not own a proper one. It gets forwarded to people you have never met. It is read six weeks later, next to two rival quotations, by somebody deciding on what is written rather than on you.
The site visit or the sample gave you the facts to price it honestly. Getting the document right is what turns the follow-up in the next step into a conversation rather than a reminder.
Where this sits
Stage 7 of 10, proposal and follow-up. The meeting where you find out what they need, the quotation you send, and the chasing that decides most of it.
- The stage before
- Sales qualification
- The stage after
- Sales closure
If you want this done for you
The proposal takes three days to write and still gets the price wrong.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“What has to be on it”
A number and a date, so both of you can refer to it later. Your details and theirs, spelled the way their accounts department spells them. A line for each item, with quantity and rate. Tax shown as its own line rather than folded into a total. The total written in words. Delivery counted from a named event, such as the date of the advance or the day drawings are approved. Payment terms, a validity date, and a name with a phone number at the bottom.
“Exclusions settle more arguments than inclusions”
Write what the price does not cover, in plain words, near the top where it will be read. Unloading at site. Civil work and the foundation. Scaffolding. The electrical point within a metre of the machine. Transport past the city limits. Permission from the apartment association. Each of those lines is a row you will not be having in the third week of the job. Hand your last quotation to somebody in your own office and ask what it leaves out.
“Version numbers, because there will be versions”
Mark the first one R0 and dated, then R1, then R2, and say on each what changed from the one before. A buyer comparing your third version against your first with no way to tell them apart will assume the difference is a mistake in his favour. Your own workshop also needs to know which sheet the order was placed against.
“When a proposal is overkill”
A spares order, a repeat job or a standard item needs a clean quotation and nothing more. A proposal earns its pages when the buyer has to sell the decision inside his own company: a six-month contract, a plant modification, anything going to a committee. Then you put the understanding of the problem, the approach, the people and the references in front of the price. Four pages for a routine order slows you down and impresses nobody.
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.
One locked template
A single file with the layout fixed and the terms block unchangeable, where only the item lines, the dates and the figures are typed fresh each time. A day to build, once somebody has decided what the terms are.
Result: Two salespeople send documents that look like the same company.
A standard exclusions list for each line of work
Collected from every job where somebody argued about who was paying for something. A false ceiling contractor in Indiranagar ends up with a different list from a pump dealer, and both lists grow for a year before they settle.
Result: The argument happens at quotation stage, where it is cheap.
The terms block
Payment stages, delivery, validity, what happens when the buyer's site is not ready, warranty, and the courts your contract names. Written once, read by your lawyer once, then left alone.
Result: Nobody invents a payment term to win a job on a Friday evening.
A quotation register with the numbers in order
Quotation number, date, company, value, validity date, who priced it, who approved it, and status. It is also the list the follow-up step works from.
Result: You can say what value of quotations is open without opening anybody's phone.
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.
Do we need a proposal or a quotation?
How should GST be shown on a quotation?
How long should a quotation stay valid?
Can we just send the price on WhatsApp?
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 proposal and follow-up
Or read the whole sales process in order.