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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.

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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

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

Your plan still assumes the market of two years ago, and a rival has moved.

Read the growth strategy and market intelligence page

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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.

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Is TOWS just a SWOT with the letters reversed?
No. A SWOT is an inventory of four lists. TOWS is the pairing that turns those lists into work, and it is the reason the inventory was worth making at all.
What if one of the pairings produces nothing?
Write none and move on. An empty cell is information. It usually means that box of the SWOT was thin, and the honest fix is to go back and evidence it properly.
Who should chair the session?
Somebody who can interrupt the owner. If no such person exists in your business, an outsider is worth the money for one morning, and the rest of the work stays in-house.
Where does this sit in the way you work?
In the third of our six steps: understand, audit, strategise, implement, measure, optimise. The pairing is the strategise part and it is short. Nearly all the effort afterwards sits in implement.
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.
How soon will we see results?
Fixes to reply time and follow-up are the quickest to show, because the enquiries already exist. Process, CRM and training changes show as the team uses them. Each one is tracked against the baseline.
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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