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The sales process · Strategic plan

Most SWOTs end up as a list of complaints about other departments.

A SWOT analysis is an inventory of four things. What your business is genuinely better at, where it is weak, what is changing outside that you could use, and what could take orders away. It is a list, not a plan. GullySales builds it from evidence rather than from the room's opinions.

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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

A SWOT analysis is an inventory of four things. What your business is genuinely better at, where it is weak, what is changing outside that you could use, and what could take orders away. It is a list, not a plan. GullySales builds it from evidence rather than from the room's opinions.

The four boxes are easy to draw. Strengths and weaknesses sit inside the business, where you can change them. Opportunities and threats sit outside it, where you cannot.

What makes the difference is evidence. A strength is something a customer has said out loud, or a number in your own books. Holding a tolerance for nine years without a rejection is a strength. Good quality work is not.

A SWOT on its own only lists. The TOWS analysis that follows pairs the lines against each other, and a SWOT that never gets paired tends to end up in a folder.

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

Find out what buyers think before you sign the lease or stock the line.

Read the market research page

The work

What this step is actually like.

  • “A weakness that is somebody else's fault is not a weakness”

    "Marketing does not send us good leads" is a complaint. "We have never written down what a good lead is, so every enquiry gets argued about" is a weakness. You can act on the second one next week.

  • “Strengths need a customer's words behind them”

    Ring four customers and ask why they have stayed with you. You will hear two reasons you expected and one you did not, and the one you did not is usually the real strength.

  • “An opportunity with no date or trigger is a hope”

    A road opening, a rule your association has circulated, a competitor's unit that has shut, a hospital being built two kilometres away. Each of those has a date. "Someday people will want this" does not.

  • “Who is in the room, and for how long”

    The owner, the person who prepares quotations, the senior technician, the accountant, and one salesperson who is not your best one. Two hours, once a year, with somebody chairing who cuts off speeches.

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. One page, four boxes, evidence in brackets

    Four to six lines per box, and every line carries its source: a customer, an invoice, a competitor's price list, a circular. Anything without a source moves to a second page.

    Result: Nobody can argue with a line unless they bring a better source than the one written beside it.

  2. The weaknesses rewritten as your own

    Each complaint about another department turned into something the people in the room control. If it cannot be, it belongs under threats instead.

    Result: A weakness list that produces work rather than a bad mood.

  3. The threat list with dates

    Each threat with what would have to happen for it to arrive, and roughly when you would first notice it.

    Result: You can tell the difference between what is coming and what merely worries you.

  4. The discard pile, kept

    The lines nobody could evidence, held on a separate sheet with the date. Some of them turn out to be true next year.

    Result: A short honest page instead of a long comfortable one.

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
How long should a SWOT be?
One page. Four to six lines in each box, plus a second sheet for anything that could not be evidenced. A SWOT that runs to four pages has become a diary.
Should we do it with the whole team?
No. Five or six people, including at least one who will disagree with you in front of others. Circulate the draft afterwards and collect corrections in writing.
How often is it worth redoing?
Once a year, and again whenever something outside changes hard: a large competitor arrives, a rule changes, a major customer leaves. Between those, update the lines rather than starting again.
We wrote one before and nothing happened. Why redo it?
Because the second half was missing. A SWOT is an inventory, and inventories do not produce work. The pairing exercise on the TOWS page is what turns it into things people have to do by a date.
Can you do this for us?
Partly. We cover the sales and marketing side, and we rank what to fix first once we have read your brief and spoken to you. Your plant, your people and your cash belong in the room with your accountant.
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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