The sales process · Strategic plan
Turn the four boxes into six actions with a name and a date on each.
TOWS analysis pairs each box of your SWOT with another to produce an action. A strength aimed at an opportunity, a weakness fixed before it blocks one, a strength used against a threat, a weakness that must be covered. GullySales runs it as a working session, and every line leaves with an owner.
In one paragraph
TOWS analysis pairs each box of your SWOT with another to produce an action. A strength aimed at an opportunity, a weakness fixed before it blocks one, a strength used against a threat, a weakness that must be covered. GullySales runs it as a working session, and every line leaves with an owner.
The SWOT was the step before this and business goals come after. This is the step that joins them, and it is the one almost nobody does.
The method is mechanical, which is its virtue. Take each strength and each opportunity together and ask what you would do if both are true. Then repeat for weaknesses against opportunities, strengths against threats, and weaknesses against threats.
Each cell produces a sentence beginning with a verb, or it produces nothing. Nothing is an acceptable answer. A paragraph is not, because a paragraph means the cell was discussed rather than decided.
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
Keep the strategy current instead of running it on what the audit found two years ago.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“What each of the four pairings is actually asking”
Strengths with opportunities asks what you can sell now. Weaknesses with opportunities asks what must be fixed first. Strengths with threats asks what protects you, and weaknesses with threats asks what could hurt enough to plan around.
“An action with no name against it is a wish”
Every line needs one person, not a department, and a date inside this quarter. If the only available owner is you, the number of actions has to shrink until it fits your week.
“The grid is not the thing you keep”
The grid is scaffolding. What you keep is six to ten lines in a diary, and the grid can go in the same folder as the SWOT once those lines are out of it.
“Half a day, with somebody chairing”
If the SWOT is already written, the pairing takes a morning. The chair has one job: stopping a cell from turning into a forty-minute discussion about a customer from 2019.
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 grid with the four pairings filled in
Strengths and weaknesses down the side, opportunities and threats across the top. Each cell holds an action or the word none.
Result: Every idea in the room has a home, and the empty cells are visible to everyone.
Six to ten actions, each with an owner and a date
Five columns: the action, the pairing it came from, who owns it, the date, and what will be true when it is done.
Result: A list you can read aloud in a review meeting without explaining any of it.
The short list of things you would rather not think about
Weaknesses meeting threats: one customer who is most of your revenue, a single supplier, a licence that one person holds. Two or three lines, each with what you would do in the first week.
Result: The thing that could sink you has a plan against it, even a rough one.
The date the list is read again
One date, six or eight weeks out, when every line is marked done, moved or dropped. Put it in the calendar before anybody leaves the room.
Result: Actions that get checked instead of filed.
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.
Is TOWS just a SWOT with the letters reversed?
What if one of the pairings produces nothing?
Who should chair the session?
Where does this sit in the way you work?
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 strategic plan
Or read the whole sales process in order.