The accounts worth winning get a plan, not a hopeful monthly follow-up.
Gully Sales helps your sales team run a short list of named, high value accounts as planned pursuits: who to go after, who to reach inside them, what each role needs to hear, and how progress is inspected every month.
A named account list your team can actually cover, with the reason for each choice
Priority accounts multi-threaded, so one contact leaving no longer stalls the deal
A monthly account review where every pursuit is inspected against a written plan
Gully Sales Private Limited works with small and medium businesses across India, and every account plan is built with the people who will have to sell it.
In one paragraph
What is Account Based Selling Services for Indian SMBs?
Account based selling is how your sales team pursues a small list of named companies that are worth years of revenue. Gully Sales helps you choose those accounts, map who decides inside them, agree what each role needs to hear, and run every pursuit to a written account plan that is inspected each month.
The problem
Your largest opportunities move only when someone remembers to follow up.
Large accounts rarely say no. They say later. So an opportunity worth several years of revenue gets handled like any other enquiry: one contact, one quotation, and a follow-up whenever the salesperson finds a gap in the day. Months pass pleasantly. Then a purchase order appears with a competitor's name on it, and nobody in your team saw the decision being taken, because nobody was speaking to the people who took it.
You will recognise it as
One name inside each large account is your only relationship, and everything pauses when that person travels, changes role or leaves.
Your team can describe what the account buys, but not who signs, who influences and who quietly prefers the supplier they already have.
A major account has sat at the same pipeline stage for three quarters with the note 'following up' against it.
Proposals to large buyers are the standard company deck with the logo changed, because there was no time to build anything specific.
Your sales head cannot ask a useful question in the review, because there is no account plan to read before the meeting.
Marketing runs campaigns at these companies while sales calls them separately, and neither side knows what the other sent last month.
What it costs the business
Deals worth years of revenue go to competitors who reached the finance head and the plant head while your team was talking to one manager.
Selling time is spread evenly across every account, so the few that could change your year receive no more attention than a small order.
The forecast wobbles, because a large account is called committed on the strength of one friendly contact's opinion.
When a salesperson resigns the relationship leaves with them, and the next person opens an empty file on your most valuable customer.
Why it persists. It persists because pursuing an account properly is slower than chasing a fresh enquiry, and the monthly target rewards speed. A seller who spends two weeks understanding a large buyer looks less busy than one making forty calls. There is also nowhere to keep the work: a CRM built for leads has no field for a buying committee, a decision date or a value hypothesis, so the thinking stays in one person's head and leaves with them.
If it stays unresolved. Left alone, the pattern hardens. The accounts that could change your revenue stay warm and unwon, and the team learns that volume is safer than depth. Competitors who invested in the same buyers three years ago become the incumbent, and an incumbent inside a large account is expensive to dislodge. Your growth stays tied to a stream of small orders that must be won again every month.
What changes
What changes once each priority account has a plan and an owner.
In the first weeks
You have a written list of the accounts worth pursuing this year, and the honest reason each one earned its place.
Every priority account has one owner, a plan anyone can read, and a next step with a date against it.
In how the work runs
Sellers work to an account plan instead of to memory, so a handover no longer means starting the relationship again.
Reviews turn from status updates into inspection: who have we met, who have we still not met, and what happens next.
Marketing, technical staff and leadership know which accounts they support, and at which moment their help matters.
In sales and marketing
Effort concentrates where a single win is worth many small orders, so the same team can carry a larger number.
Proposals answer what that buyer said mattered, which keeps the conversation off price for longer.
In what management can see
You can see relationship coverage inside each account, not only the value of the open quotation.
Large deals enter the forecast with evidence behind them, so the end of the quarter holds fewer surprises.
Over the longer term
Key accounts belong to the business rather than to whichever individual currently holds the phone number.
Winning one demanding account teaches your team a method that transfers to the next one.
Gully Sales controls the account selection, the plans, the plays and the review discipline we build with your team. Whether a particular account buys depends on their budget, timing, incumbent supplier and your commercial terms, and no plan can decide that for them.
Who it is for
Account based selling suits these situations.
The businesses it suits
Businesses where twenty or thirty companies could produce most of next year's revenue, and losing any one of them would hurt.
Manufacturers and industrial suppliers selling to plants, OEMs and hospitals where several people must approve one purchase.
Service and technology firms whose deals run for months, pass through procurement and rarely close on a single call.
Sales heads whose team is busy with small enquiries while the large opportunities receive no dedicated effort at all.
Companies moving upmarket from many small customers to fewer, larger and more demanding buyers.
Founders who personally hold the top relationships and want them documented before the team grows around them.
What usually prompts the call
An account you expected to win went elsewhere, and the loss review found decision makers you had never met.
A key contact inside a major customer has left, and a relationship of several years has suddenly gone cold.
A senior salesperson has joined to open large accounts and has no method to follow beyond their own contacts.
The business has decided to sell to bigger customers, and the current approach is not producing meetings.
Marketing has started an account programme and sales has no matching discipline behind it.
What Gully Sales does
The work, component by component.
Account selection and coverage capacity
We agree which companies deserve a planned pursuit and how many any one seller can genuinely carry. Selection uses your won and lost history, order value, buying frequency, how reachable the company is and what a win would open, not size alone. The list is deliberately short, because an account list longer than the team's capacity becomes a wish list.
Why it matters:
A named list nobody has time to work produces the same neglect as no list, with more paperwork attached.
You receive:
Tiered account list with selection criteria, an owner per account and a stated coverage load per seller.
Business value:
Selling time moves to the accounts where one win changes the year, and everyone knows which those are.
Buying committee and relationship map
For each priority account we map the people who shape the purchase: the user who feels the problem, the technical evaluator, finance, procurement, and the person who can say yes without asking anyone. We mark who you know, who you have never met, who is loyal to the incumbent, and which relationships rest on one person on your side.
Why it matters:
Single-threaded accounts fail quietly. The map shows the gap months before it costs you the order.
You receive:
Relationship map per account: roles, names where known, influence, sentiment and coverage gaps.
Business value:
Your team knows which introduction to ask for next, and who on your side should make the approach.
Account intelligence a seller can use
We research each account the way a seller needs it, not the way a report is written: what the company is trying to do this year, what it buys today and from whom, where its costs and delays sit, who has joined recently, and what has changed since you last spoke. Each brief fits on one page and names its sources.
Why it matters:
Specific knowledge is what earns a second meeting with a senior person who has no time to spare.
You receive:
One-page account brief per priority account, refreshed on an agreed cycle.
Business value:
First conversations start from the buyer's situation, so your seller is treated as someone who did the homework.
The value hypothesis for each account
We write, account by account, why this company should change anything and why it should be you: the problem worth money, the proof they will find credible, the objections you should expect, and what each role gains. The same case is then put differently to the plant head, the finance head and procurement, because they are not solving the same problem.
Why it matters:
A general pitch asks the buyer to work out the relevance themselves, and most of them will not bother.
You receive:
Account value hypothesis with role-wise messaging and a one-page document your champion can circulate.
Business value:
Conversations stay on the buyer's problem and what it costs them, which is a stronger place to negotiate from.
Pursuit plays and multi-threading
We build the plays a seller runs on an account: how to open a new contact, how to restart a stalled one, how to earn an executive meeting, what to do in the weeks after a proposal, and how to enter an account where the incumbent is comfortable. Each play names the channel, the sequence, the timing and the exit, including when to stop.
Why it matters:
Without a play, follow-up decays into a monthly reminder mail that nobody answers.
You receive:
Play library with call guides, mail and message templates, and the rule for when a play ends.
Business value:
Pursuits progress through planned steps rather than through whoever happened to remember to call.
Orchestration across your team
An account is worked by more than a salesperson. We agree who does what: which touches come from marketing, when a technical person joins, which meetings need the founder, and how a reference customer or partner is used. Each account gets a rhythm of contact, so the buyer hears from you in a planned way instead of in bursts.
Why it matters:
Uncoordinated contact from three people looks careless to a buyer whose colleagues compare notes.
You receive:
Orchestration plan naming the owner of each touch, the executive sponsor and the escalation route.
Business value:
Senior time is spent on the accounts and the moments where it actually changes the outcome.
Account reviews and measurement
We install the meeting that keeps the discipline alive: a monthly account review where each plan is inspected against coverage, movement and next steps, and a quarterly decision on which accounts stay, which are added and which are retired. We also set the CRM fields that make all of this reportable rather than anecdotal.
Why it matters:
Any account method that is not inspected returns to old habits inside a quarter.
You receive:
Review agenda, inspection questions, CRM field set and an account scorecard with a baseline.
Business value:
Your sales head can see progress inside an account long before it appears as an order.
What you will have at the end.
Tiered account list with written selection criteria, an owner per account and the coverage load each seller carries.
Relationship map per priority account: roles, contacts, influence, sentiment and the gaps still to be closed.
One-page account brief per priority account, with sources named and a refresh cycle agreed.
Account value hypothesis and role-wise messaging, including a document your champion can circulate internally.
Play library covering first contact, stalled accounts, executive access, post-proposal follow-through and incumbent displacement.
Call guides, mail and message templates for each play, with an anonymised sample account plan you can review first.
Contact rhythm per account showing who reaches whom, through which channel, in which week.
Orchestration plan naming executive sponsors, technical support and the escalation route.
CRM field set, account record layout and reports, so pursuits can be inspected without a side spreadsheet.
Monthly account review agenda with the inspection questions a sales head should be asking.
Account scorecard with the agreed baseline for coverage, meetings, pipeline and stage movement.
Ninety-day roadmap naming the accounts to start with, the owners and the review dates.
How it runs
The engagement, step by step.
1
Baseline how large accounts are handled today
We read two or three years of won and lost business, sit with your sellers, and look at how the biggest accounts are worked now. We list the accounts already in play, what is known about each, and where the relationships actually sit inside them.
You provide:
CRM or order history, quotations issued, a list of current and lapsed large customers, and time with the sales team.
We produce:
A baseline note describing today's account coverage, the single-threaded relationships and the gaps.
Done when:
You agree the baseline is a fair picture of how large accounts are handled now.
2
Choose the accounts and set the load
We agree the criteria that make an account worth a planned pursuit, score the candidates, and set how many each seller can carry alongside their everyday pipeline. Accounts that miss the list are not abandoned; they continue to be sold to in the normal way.
You provide:
Commercial priorities for the year, capacity constraints and any accounts you require on the list.
We produce:
A tiered account list with the reason and the owner recorded for each account.
Done when:
The list is signed off by you and fits the selling time your team genuinely has.
3
Map the committee and build the briefs
For each priority account we map the buying committee and write the account brief. Where contacts are unknown we say so plainly and make finding them the first task, rather than filling the map with guesses that later mislead the pursuit.
You provide:
Existing contacts, meeting notes, tender documents and access to the sellers who hold the relationships.
We produce:
Relationship maps and one-page account briefs for every agreed account.
Done when:
Each priority account has a map showing who is known, who is missing and who must be reached first.
4
Write the value hypothesis and the plays
We write the value hypothesis for each account and build the plays that carry it: sequences, call guides, mail templates and the rules for stopping. Your sellers help write them, because a play written without them is quietly ignored.
You provide:
Product and pricing boundaries, references we may name, and two working sessions with the sales team.
We produce:
Account value hypotheses, role-wise messaging and the play library.
Done when:
Your team can run a first play on a live account without asking anyone what to say.
5
Agree orchestration and set up the CRM
We agree who does what across sales, marketing, technical support and leadership, set the contact rhythm per account, and configure the CRM so the account plan lives inside the system rather than in a document nobody opens.
You provide:
CRM access, the marketing calendar and confirmation of who can commit senior time.
We produce:
Orchestration plan, contact rhythm, and configured account fields, views and reports.
Done when:
A seller can open an account record and see the plan, the map and the next step in one place.
6
Run the first pursuits alongside your team
We work with your sellers on live accounts: preparing meetings, reading what came back, adjusting the plan and correcting habits while the work is real. This is the stage where the method either takes hold or quietly stops.
You provide:
Live accounts to work on, seller time each week, and permission to change the approach mid-pursuit.
We produce:
Worked account plans, meeting preparation notes and written feedback for each seller.
Done when:
Meetings are held with people inside the accounts your team had not previously reached.
7
Review, measure and hand over
We run the account review with your sales head until they can run it without us, compare the scorecard against the baseline, retire accounts that are not moving and add new ones. Then the discipline is handed over with everything needed to keep it going.
You provide:
Attendance from sales leadership at the reviews and an honest account of what did not work.
We produce:
Scorecard against baseline, a refreshed account list and a handover pack with the review agenda.
Done when:
Your sales head has run two reviews without us and the account list has been refreshed once.
Ways to work with us
You can start with a short list or build the whole programme.
Account review and target list
A short engagement that assesses how large accounts are handled today and produces the tiered list, the coverage load per seller and the priorities. Useful when you want direction before committing the team.
Account based selling build
The full build: selection, committee maps, briefs, value hypotheses, plays, orchestration, CRM setup and the review rhythm, produced with your sellers so the method belongs to them afterwards.
Pursuit support on live accounts
We work with your team on a small set of live accounts, preparing meetings and reviewing what comes back, so the method is learned on real business rather than in a training room.
Ongoing account review facilitation
A recurring engagement in which we chair or observe the monthly account review, keep the plans honest, and refresh the account list with you each quarter.
Why Gully Sales
What you are actually choosing when you choose us.
The method is built with the people who must use it.
Account plans written by outsiders alone are read once and filed. Your sellers help build the maps, the messaging and the plays, so what they receive is theirs and continues to be used after we leave.
We plan for Indian buying committees, not textbook ones.
Promoter-led decisions, family shareholders, procurement that arrives late and long payment discussions are normal here. The plays are written for how purchases actually get approved in Indian businesses, at Indian speeds.
Sales and marketing are treated as one system.
Gully Sales works across marketing, sales, customer success and revenue operations. An account programme can therefore be supported by campaigns, content and CRM work instead of standing on its own.
We will tell you which accounts to drop.
Keeping an impressive name on the list because it looks good costs more than removing it. Where there is no realistic route in, we say so, so your team's attention goes where a win is possible.
Everything produced can be inspected.
Each plan produces something a sales head can check: relationships held, meetings taken, movement and next steps. The programme does not rest on optimism expressed in a monthly meeting.
Where it applies
The same service, in different businesses.
Industry
The situation
How it applies
Likely benefit
Industrial manufacturing
A components manufacturer sells to a handful of OEMs where one approval unlocks years of repeat orders, but the entire relationship sits with a single purchase manager.
The committee is mapped across design, quality, plant and purchase, and plays are built to earn a technical meeting well before the next sourcing round opens.
The company is judged on engineering fit early, rather than on price alone at the last minute.
Medical and hospital supply
A medical products supplier sells to hospitals where a doctor recommends, an administrator budgets and a purchase committee finally approves.
Role-wise messaging separates clinical outcome, running cost and compliance, and the contact rhythm makes sure each role hears the right case before the tender is drafted.
Tenders are entered with support already built inside the hospital instead of as a cold submission.
B2B technology services
A services firm wins small projects inside large companies but never reaches the person who decides the annual budget.
Executive access plays and a champion-ready value document turn a satisfied project sponsor into an introduction upward, with a plan for what to say at that level.
Small engagements become the entry point to larger annual contracts instead of staying small.
Chemicals and bulk supply
A supplier faces a comfortable incumbent inside a target plant, and the buyer has no obvious reason to change anything.
The displacement play sets up trial supply, a second source argument and contact with the people who carry the risk when supply fails.
Your business becomes the obvious second source and is already present when the incumbent slips.
Building materials and projects
A brand needs specification by architects and acceptance by contractors on projects that take a year to award.
Both influence groups are mapped for each project account and worked in parallel, with plays timed to the specification and tender stages.
The brand is written into the specification before the price negotiation ever begins.
Logistics and supply chain services
One customer contributes a large share of revenue and is held by a single relationship manager whose exit would put it at risk.
The account is deliberately multi-threaded across operations, finance and the customer's own leadership, and a renewal plan is written months in advance.
Renewal is prepared rather than defended, and the account no longer depends on one person staying.
Industrial manufacturing
The situation:
A components manufacturer sells to a handful of OEMs where one approval unlocks years of repeat orders, but the entire relationship sits with a single purchase manager.
How it applies:
The committee is mapped across design, quality, plant and purchase, and plays are built to earn a technical meeting well before the next sourcing round opens.
Likely benefit:
The company is judged on engineering fit early, rather than on price alone at the last minute.
Medical and hospital supply
The situation:
A medical products supplier sells to hospitals where a doctor recommends, an administrator budgets and a purchase committee finally approves.
How it applies:
Role-wise messaging separates clinical outcome, running cost and compliance, and the contact rhythm makes sure each role hears the right case before the tender is drafted.
Likely benefit:
Tenders are entered with support already built inside the hospital instead of as a cold submission.
B2B technology services
The situation:
A services firm wins small projects inside large companies but never reaches the person who decides the annual budget.
How it applies:
Executive access plays and a champion-ready value document turn a satisfied project sponsor into an introduction upward, with a plan for what to say at that level.
Likely benefit:
Small engagements become the entry point to larger annual contracts instead of staying small.
Chemicals and bulk supply
The situation:
A supplier faces a comfortable incumbent inside a target plant, and the buyer has no obvious reason to change anything.
How it applies:
The displacement play sets up trial supply, a second source argument and contact with the people who carry the risk when supply fails.
Likely benefit:
Your business becomes the obvious second source and is already present when the incumbent slips.
Building materials and projects
The situation:
A brand needs specification by architects and acceptance by contractors on projects that take a year to award.
How it applies:
Both influence groups are mapped for each project account and worked in parallel, with plays timed to the specification and tender stages.
Likely benefit:
The brand is written into the specification before the price negotiation ever begins.
Logistics and supply chain services
The situation:
One customer contributes a large share of revenue and is held by a single relationship manager whose exit would put it at risk.
How it applies:
The account is deliberately multi-threaded across operations, finance and the customer's own leadership, and a renewal plan is written months in advance.
Likely benefit:
Renewal is prepared rather than defended, and the account no longer depends on one person staying.
Proof
Work we can point to.
Agrinia, an agricultural technology business selling to farmers in India and abroad
The problem:
Agrinia was selling into a diverse customer base it did not yet understand well enough, and needed a firmer way of generating, qualifying and closing the leads that came from it.
What we did:
Gully Sales conducted in-depth customer research to create ideal customer profiles and detailed buyer personas, analysed customer behaviour, mapped the buyer's journey, and developed value propositions for primary and secondary customers.
The result:
The case study reports enhanced customer understanding, with the research and persona work enabling personalised interactions and stronger customer relationships, and improved lead quality alongside it.
How many target accounts and stakeholders should the programme cover?
Fewer than most teams expect. We set the number from the selling time a person actually has after their everyday pipeline, and it is usually a handful of accounts per seller, not dozens. Inside each account, plan for four to eight people who influence the purchase. The aim is to hold real relationships with several of them, rather than to collect names in a spreadsheet that nobody has spoken to.
How long does the engagement take?
It depends on how many accounts you choose and how much is already known about them. Selection and baseline work move quickly. Committee mapping, briefs and plays take longer, because they are built with your sellers rather than handed to them. Running the first pursuits and two review cycles takes longer still. We agree the sequence and the checkpoints in writing before starting, and we do not commit to dates we cannot control.
What inputs are required from our side?
Order or CRM history, past quotations, a list of current and lapsed large customers, and any tender or meeting notes you keep. More importantly, seller time: working sessions to build the maps and plays, and weekly time during the first pursuits. We also need a sales leader who will attend the account reviews. Without that attendance the discipline fades once we step away.
How is success measured when a large account takes months to close?
Against the baseline we record at the start, and by reading leading indicators first. In early weeks we look at new roles met, meetings secured and coverage inside each account. Over two or three quarters we compare stage conversion, win rate on pursued accounts, cycle length and forecast accuracy. Orders are the final measure, but coverage and movement tell you months earlier whether the pursuit is alive.
What is excluded from the scope?
We do not run your outreach as an outsourced team, and we do not buy contact databases on your behalf. Advertising, campaign management and content production are separate services. We also do not rewrite your compensation plan or restructure the sales team here, though we will tell you if either is the real obstacle to working large accounts properly.
How is this different from account based marketing?
Account based marketing aims campaigns, content and advertising at a list of companies so your name becomes familiar inside them. Account based selling is what your salespeople then do: mapping the committee, meeting people, building a value case per account and running the pursuit to a plan. They work well together, and each is useful on its own. Many businesses start with selling, because it needs no media budget.
We already look after our key customers. Is this not account management?
Account management protects and grows a customer you already have. Account based selling is aimed at winning business you do not have yet, or a much larger share of an existing customer's spend. The disciplines overlap in relationship mapping, but the work differs: pursuit planning, executive access and displacing an incumbent are not part of everyday servicing.
Will this work if our CRM is basic or barely used?
Yes, and we usually start there. An account plan needs somewhere to live, so we set up a small number of fields for the committee, the coverage gaps, the next step and the plan owner. If your CRM cannot hold that, we say what would, and start with a simple shared format meanwhile. What we avoid is a plan that exists only in one person's notebook.
3 more questions
Can this work when a competitor already supplies the account?
Often, but slowly and only in some accounts. We look for a reason to change: a supply failure, a new plant, a price review, a person who has just joined, or a risk the buyer carries alone. Where no such reason exists we say so and recommend keeping a light presence rather than spending your team's time. That is a decision we take together, with the reasons written down.
Do our salespeople need to be senior for this to work?
They need to be willing to prepare, not necessarily senior. Junior sellers often run account plans well, because they have no old habits to unlearn. What matters is that someone senior on your side can open a door when the plan calls for a chairman or director level meeting. We name that sponsor per account so the request is expected, not awkward.
What if the account list turns out to be wrong?
That is expected, which is why the list is reviewed every quarter. Some accounts will show no movement despite good work, and holding them wastes attention. We retire those, record why, and add replacements from the next tier. A list that never changes usually means nobody is being honest about which pursuits are actually alive.
Talk to us
Tell us which accounts you most want to win.
Book a free audit and we will look at how your largest accounts are handled today. It is a working conversation, not a pitch, and we will say plainly if a stronger pipeline would serve you better than an account programme.
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