The sales process · Proposal and follow-up
A free sample with no date attached to it is a gift, and it gets treated like one.
A site visit, a demonstration or a sample is the step where a buyer stops taking your word for it. The visit measures what the job will involve. The demo shows the product doing the thing it is bought for. The sample goes to somebody who can actually place an order.
In one paragraph
A site visit, a demonstration or a sample is the step where a buyer stops taking your word for it. The visit measures what the job will involve. The demo shows the product doing the thing it is bought for. The sample goes to somebody who can actually place an order.
The site visit took the whole morning. The salesperson was shown the floor, drank tea with the manager, admired the new shed, and came back saying it looks straightforward. Nobody measured the door. The lorry could not get in, and the crane that had to be arranged was never in the price.
This is the step where the buyer stops taking your word for it and you stop taking his. The discovery meeting gave you what he said. A visit, a demonstration or a sample gives you what is true. It is routine in manufacturing, interiors, clinics and equipment, and it decides whether the quotation that follows is accurate or somebody else's problem later.
A sample given with no next date on it is a gift. The buyer is grateful, the piece goes in a drawer, and the quotation in the next step has nothing behind it.
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
Four hundred samples went out on Sunday and nobody wrote down a single name.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“A visit measures, it does not admire”
Go with a tape, a torch and a list. The door width and the turning space for a lorry. The floor level, and whether there is a ramp or three steps. The power supply, and whether it is single phase. The lift, its size, and whether it works. Photograph everything with the tape in the frame, because the person who prices the job was not standing there.
“Who pays for the sample”
Decide this once, in writing, instead of deal by deal in the moment. A small piece to prove a finish can go free. Anything that costs real material goes against a written request from the buyer, and it can be charged and then adjusted against the first order. Free is not the problem. Free with nobody's name against it is.
“Demonstrating to somebody who cannot buy”
The operator loves the machine. The operator has never signed a purchase order in his life. A demonstration to the wrong audience produces a warm afternoon and no movement, and a second one is hard to get. Ask who will be there before you load the van, and say plainly that you need the person who approves the spend in the room.
“Every sample leaves with a date”
Before it goes out of the door, three things are agreed: who will test it, what they are testing it against, and when you will ring for the result. Say the date aloud and put it in a message the same day. A sample with no test and no date is not in your pipeline, whatever your sheet says.
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.
A site visit checklist per job type
One side of paper for each kind of job you take on, carrying every measurement that has ever caused trouble on a previous order. A fabricator in Peenya quoting a mezzanine floor needs different rows from an interiors firm. An hour to write each one, then a new row every time delivery is surprised.
Result: The same mistake stops happening on a second site.
The sample register
Date out, company, the person who took it, what it is being tested against, the date they promised, the result, and what became of the enquiry.
Result: You can say what your samples cost and what they brought back.
A written sample policy
Who can approve a free piece, how many go to one company, what gets charged, and what has to come to the owner. Agreed with whoever runs the workshop, because the material comes out of their stock.
Result: Nobody decides about free material while a buyer waits on the phone.
The demonstration plan
What you will show, in what order, and the one thing they must see working. Plus what you do when the machine refuses to start: photographs and a video of the same model running at a customer site.
Result: A failed demo becomes a postponed demo instead of a lost enquiry.
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.
Should we ever give a sample free?
The buyer wants a sample before he will discuss quantity.
We sell a service. There is nothing to demonstrate.
How do we know this step is being done properly?
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 proposal and follow-up
Or read the whole sales process in order.