The sales process · Lead generation
People can only repeat a sentence they can remember.
Word of mouth is what a customer says about you when you are not in the room, unpaid and unprompted. You influence it in two places: how easy you are to describe, and the moment you choose to ask. GullySales works on both, and makes sure somebody writes down which customer sent which enquiry.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Word of mouth is what a customer says about you when you are not in the room, unpaid and unprompted. You influence it in two places: how easy you are to describe, and the moment you choose to ask. GullySales works on both, and makes sure somebody writes down which customer sent which enquiry.
Ask an owner where the work comes from and you will hear that it is mostly word of mouth, said the way people talk about weather. It is not weather. A customer repeats a sentence they were given, at a moment when something good had just happened.
So there are two things you control. The sentence is how your customer describes you to a friend, in their words, and it is nearly always shorter and blunter than anything on your website. The moment is the point in the job when the customer is most relieved, which is rarely the day your invoice arrives.
Networking groups, the step before this, put you in a room where people are obliged to pass work along. Word of mouth happens with no room and no obligation, which makes it slower to start and better once it runs. The step after, channel sales partners, is the paid version of the same idea.
Where this sits
Stage 4 of 10, lead generation. The routes an enquiry can arrive by, and what each one costs in money or in time.
- The stage before
- Prospecting
- The stage after
- Sales enablement
If you want this done for you
Give happy customers an actual reason to mention you by name.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The sentence your customer actually uses”
Ring three customers and ask how they would describe you to a friend. Write down their exact words. If the three answers do not sound like the same business, your description is the problem, not their memory. A dentist in Jayanagar known as the one who starts at seven in the morning gets repeated. Comprehensive dental care does not.
“The moment to ask”
In every job there is a point where the customer is visibly relieved: the machine ran a full shift, the pain stopped, the flat was handed over clean. That is the moment, and the person standing there is your technician or your doctor. Whoever is in the room does the asking, in one sentence, and then stops talking.
“Why nobody can pass on what you say”
Most businesses describe themselves in words that cannot survive a retelling. A customer will never say end to end execution. She will say you turned up on a Sunday, or that the quote did not change after the work started. Find the true thing people already repeat and put it on the front of everything.
“Keep this one in-house”
No agency can do this for you, this one included. It is a management habit. One sentence everybody uses, a question asked at the right moment by the person who did the work, and a name written down when the enquiry arrives. Paying a reward for referrals is a separate job, and it comes later.
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.
The describable sentence
One line in the customer's words, tested on three of them and rewritten until all three say something close to it. Put it where people meet you first: the shop board, the WhatsApp business profile, the opening line of a quotation.
Result: Somebody can explain you to a friend in one breath and get it right.
The asking moment
A written note of the exact point in your job where a customer is happiest, and the name of whoever is standing there when it happens. Agree the sentence they say in advance, so it does not come out as a sales pitch.
Result: The ask happens at the good moment instead of arriving with the bill.
The source column
One field in the enquiry book filled with a person's name rather than a tick. Not referral, but Mr Shetty in the flat above the bakery in Malleshwaram, because a name can be thanked and a tick cannot.
Result: You can list the customers who send you work, by name, from memory or the book.
The monthly count
Once a month, count the enquiries that arrived with a name in that column and read those names out in the sales meeting. Ten minutes, and it is the only measure this step has.
Result: Word of mouth becomes a number somebody is answerable for.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
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.
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.
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.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How do we ask for a referral without sounding desperate?
Is word of mouth the same as a referral programme?
How do we know whether it is working?
Can bad word of mouth be repaired?
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 lead generation
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.