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GullySales

Your sales and marketing teams start working to one number, not two.

Sales and marketing alignment for owner-led Indian businesses. We build the working agreement between your two teams: what a lead is, who acts on it and when, what each side owes the other, and one review where both see the same numbers.

  • One agreed definition of a qualified lead, written down and used by both teams.
  • Handover rules and response standards, so enquiries stop waiting to be claimed.
  • One weekly review of one funnel, with a named owner for the joint number.
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Gully Sales Private Limited runs marketing for some Indian SMBs and sales for others, and both for the same business often enough to know the joint.

In one paragraph

What is Sales and Marketing Alignment?

Sales and marketing alignment is an engagement in which Gully Sales gets your marketing and sales teams working to one revenue number under one operating agreement. We agree what a lead is, how it is handed over and followed up, what each team owes the other and who owns the joint result, then run the weekly review with you until both teams keep it going on their own.

The problem

Both teams are busy, and the leads still fall in the gap between them.

Nobody planned it this way. Marketing was hired, or an agency was, to bring enquiries. Sales was there to close them. Each does its own job and reports its own number. What no one set up is the agreement in the middle: what counts as a lead, who picks it up, how soon, and what happens when it goes cold. In most owner-led businesses that agreement lives in your head, and it only works when you are in the room.

You will recognise it as

  • Marketing counts enquiries; sales counts closures. Nobody can say how many of last month's enquiries were ever called.
  • Sales says the leads are poor. Marketing says sales does not follow up. Both have a point, and the argument repeats every month.
  • Enquiries sit in a WhatsApp group, a form inbox or a portal for days before anyone claims them.
  • Marketing produces brochures, posts and case studies that the sales team has never opened.
  • Lost-deal reasons stay with the salesperson. Marketing never hears them and keeps running the same campaign.
  • Every dispute between the two sides ends up with you, and you settle it from memory.

What it costs the business

  • Money spent on an enquiry is lost in the first day or two, when a prospect who was ready to talk hears nothing and calls the next supplier.
  • Sales targets are missed for reasons that started upstream, and the review is about who is at fault rather than what to change.
  • Good people on both sides are blamed for a gap in the system, and some of them leave over it.
  • You cannot forecast, because nobody knows how much of what marketing brings in will actually be worked.

Why it persists. Each team is measured on its own number, so each team works to it. Alignment has no owner: it is not marketing's job and it is not sales' job, and the person who could own it, the owner, is the busiest person in the business. Hiring another salesperson or changing the agency always looks more like action than writing down an agreement between two teams that already exist.

If it stays unresolved. The business keeps paying twice, once for the enquiry and again for the salesperson's time, and the two purchases never quite meet. Every new campaign restarts the same argument, and the owner remains the only place where the two halves of the funnel connect.

What changes

What changes when the two teams work from one agreement.

In the first weeks

  • A written definition of a qualified lead that marketing targets and sales accepts, signed by both.
  • A handover rule for every enquiry source: who picks it up, within what time, and what they record.

In how the work runs

  • Marketing leads reach a named salesperson inside the agreed time, and the outcome is recorded where marketing can see it.
  • A weekly review where both teams look at the same funnel numbers, run by one accountable owner.
  • A feedback loop from sales back to marketing on lead quality and lost-deal reasons.

In sales and marketing

  • Marketing judged on leads that sales accepted and worked, not on enquiry count.
  • Fewer enquiries lost to slow follow-up, which is the cheapest revenue a business can recover.

In what management can see

  • One funnel from campaign to closed deal, so you can see where enquiries stall and who owns that stage.
  • Forecasts built on leads that were actually worked, not on everything that came in.

Over the longer term

  • An operating rhythm that holds when a marketer, a salesperson or the agency changes.
  • An owner who reviews one number each week instead of refereeing two teams.

We control the definitions, the handover rules, the review rhythm and the reporting, and we run the reviews with you until they hold. Lead volume, conversion and revenue also depend on your market, your offer and your team's follow-through, so we do not promise figures.

Who it is for

Who this is for, and when it becomes urgent.

The businesses it suits

  • Owner-led businesses with a sales team of two to fifteen and marketing run by an agency, a freelancer or one in-house person.
  • Companies whose enquiries arrive through the website, WhatsApp, IndiaMART or similar portals and are worked by phone and quotation.
  • Businesses where marketing and sales already exist as separate functions, each with a plan, and the loss is between them.
  • Firms with a sales target for the year and a marketing budget, set separately, that need to be made to add up.
  • Companies where the founder still settles every argument about lead quality and follow-up.

What usually prompts the call

  • Marketing spend went up this year and closed deals did not, and nobody can show where the enquiries went.
  • A new marketing head, agency or sales manager has arrived and the two sides already disagree about lead quality.
  • You looked at the enquiry inbox and found leads from last month that nobody called.
  • An investor or the board asked for a forecast, and the marketing and sales numbers did not reconcile.

What Gully Sales does

The work, component by component.

We find where the funnel leaks between the two teams.

We trace a sample of recent enquiries from source to outcome, sit in on each team's own review, and read the numbers each side reports. The result is a plain account of where leads wait, where they are dropped and where the two sides disagree.

Why it matters:
You cannot fix a handover you have never watched, and each team's report hides the gap by design.
You receive:
Alignment diagnosis with the leak points, the numbers in dispute and their causes.
Business value:
Both teams see the same problem before anyone is asked to change.

Both teams work to one revenue number.

We take the sales target and the marketing plan, which were usually set separately, and work them back to one set of shared commitments: how many accepted leads marketing must deliver and how many sales must convert, by segment and by month.

Why it matters:
A marketing target in enquiries and a sales target in rupees can both be met while the business misses its number.
You receive:
A shared revenue plan with marketing and sales commitments on one page.
Business value:
A target each side can fairly be held to.

A lead means the same thing on both sides.

We write the definitions the two teams will use: what an enquiry is, what makes it a qualified lead, when sales accepts it, and what counts as a fair reason to reject it. Then we agree who is responsible at every step, from first response to closed or lost.

Why it matters:
Most arguments about lead quality are arguments about a definition nobody wrote down.
You receive:
Lead definitions, handover rules and a responsibility map both teams sign.
Business value:
The monthly argument about lead quality ends.

The two teams meet on the same numbers every week.

We set up the weekly funnel review, the monthly alignment review and the quarterly re-plan: who attends, what is on the agenda, which numbers are looked at and what decisions each meeting may take. We chair the first cycles and then hand over.

Why it matters:
A written agreement without a meeting to enforce it rarely survives the second month.
You receive:
Review calendar, agendas and a one-page funnel dashboard.
Business value:
Problems surface in the review that is closest to them, rather than at the end of the quarter.

Money and people are placed where the plan needs them.

We check whether the marketing budget, the number of salespeople and the tools you already have can carry the shared plan, and show where a small shift, such as one more person on follow-up or less spend on a channel sales cannot work, changes the result.

Why it matters:
A plan both teams accept still fails if the follow-up capacity is not there when the enquiries arrive.
You receive:
Resource and budget check against the shared plan, with recommended shifts.
Business value:
Spend follows the capacity to convert it.

One person owns the joint result.

We name the owner of the shared number, which in most owner-led businesses is you until a sales or marketing head can carry it, and define what that owner reviews, what each team head reports and what happens when a commitment is missed.

Why it matters:
When alignment belongs to everyone it belongs to nobody, and the gap reopens.
You receive:
Accountability chart naming the owner of the shared number and each team's commitments.
Business value:
Somebody is answerable for the handover, not only for each side of it.

A quarter-by-quarter roadmap keeps the agreement alive.

We sequence what changes first, second and third: usually response standards and the review, then the definitions in the CRM, then the feedback loop and the content sales will use. Each quarter closes with a re-plan against the shared number.

Why it matters:
Changing everything at once sends both teams back to old habits by the second month.
You receive:
Quarterly alignment roadmap with owners and checkpoints.
Business value:
Change lands in an order the teams can absorb.

What you will have at the end.

  • Alignment diagnosis: where enquiries wait, drop or are disputed, traced through a sample of real leads.
  • Shared revenue plan: accepted-lead and conversion commitments for marketing and sales, by month and segment.
  • Lead definitions: enquiry, qualified lead, sales-accepted lead and valid rejection reasons, signed by both teams.
  • Handover rules and response standards for every enquiry source, with a named owner at each step.
  • Feedback loop design: how sales reports lead quality and lost-deal reasons back to marketing, and how often.
  • Review calendar with agendas for the weekly funnel review, monthly alignment review and quarterly re-plan.
  • One-page funnel dashboard from campaign source to closed deal, built in the tools you already use.
  • Resource and budget check against the shared plan, with recommended shifts.
  • Accountability chart naming the owner of the shared number and each team's commitments.
  • Quarterly alignment roadmap with sequenced changes, owners and checkpoints.
  • Sales-content brief: what sales asks marketing for, in the order the sales conversation needs it.

How it runs

The engagement, step by step.

  1. 1

    We trace real enquiries from source to outcome.

    We take a sample of recent enquiries from every source and follow each one through the records and the people who touched it: when it arrived, who picked it up, how long it waited, what was said and how it ended. We also sit in on one review from each team.

    You provide:
    Access to enquiry sources, the CRM or spreadsheets, and an hour with each salesperson and whoever runs marketing.
    We produce:
    Alignment diagnosis with the leak points and the disputed numbers.
    Done when:
    Both team heads accept the diagnosis as a fair account of what happens today.
  2. 2

    We agree the shared number and what each team owes it.

    With the owner and both team heads we work back from the sales target to accepted leads and conversion by segment and month, and check the result against the marketing budget and the follow-up capacity you actually have.

    You provide:
    The sales target, the marketing budget, headcount and honest conversion history.
    We produce:
    Shared revenue plan and the resource and budget check.
    Done when:
    Both team heads accept their commitments as achievable, or we revise them together.
  3. 3

    We write the definitions and the handover.

    We draft the lead definitions, acceptance and rejection rules, response standards and the responsibility map, test them against last month's enquiries to see how they would have played out, and put them into the CRM or spreadsheet you use.

    You provide:
    Both teams in two working sessions, and someone who can change fields in your CRM or spreadsheet.
    We produce:
    Signed definitions, handover rules and the configured lead stages.
    Done when:
    A new enquiry can be followed from arrival to outcome without asking anyone.
  4. 4

    We start the reviews and chair the first cycles.

    We set the weekly funnel review and the monthly alignment review, build the one-page dashboard, chair the first meetings so the tone is about the numbers and not the people, and coach the owner or team head who will chair after us.

    You provide:
    A fixed weekly slot both team heads attend, and the owner at the monthly review.
    We produce:
    Review calendar, agendas, dashboard and the accountability chart.
    Done when:
    Two consecutive reviews have run on your own numbers with decisions recorded.
  5. 5

    We close the feedback loop.

    We set up how sales reports lead quality and lost-deal reasons back to marketing and how marketing uses them in the next campaign, and write the brief for the sales content the team will actually use in conversations.

    You provide:
    Salespeople willing to record lost-deal reasons honestly, and marketing's campaign calendar.
    We produce:
    Feedback loop design and the sales-content brief.
    Done when:
    Marketing has changed something in a campaign because of what sales reported.
  6. 6

    We sequence the roadmap and hand over.

    We put the remaining changes in quarter-by-quarter order, name owners and checkpoints, run the first quarterly re-plan with you, and leave a briefing pack so a new agency, marketer or salesperson can be brought into the agreement quickly.

    You provide:
    Named owners for each roadmap item and a date for the first quarterly re-plan.
    We produce:
    Quarterly alignment roadmap and briefing pack.
    Done when:
    The weekly and monthly reviews run without us in the room, and the first re-plan is in the diary.

Ways to work with us

Write the agreement once, or let us run it with you for a while.

Alignment project

A defined engagement from diagnosis through the first review cycles. You receive every deliverable, we chair the first reviews, and your owner or team head takes over after a handover session.

Project plus quarterly reviews

The same project, and then we return each quarter to run the re-plan, check that the agreement is still being kept and adjust commitments as the market and the team change.

Alignment inside fractional leadership

For businesses that also need a senior person to own the shared number for a period, alignment is delivered as part of a fractional revenue, marketing or sales leadership engagement.

Why Gully Sales

What you are actually choosing when you choose us.

We have sat on both sides of the handover.

Gully Sales runs marketing for some clients and sales for others, so we know what each team can fairly be asked for, and the excuses each one reaches for when it is not.

We build for how Indian SMEs actually receive enquiries.

WhatsApp groups, IndiaMART and JustDial portals, website forms, walk-ins and dealer calls are the normal case in our work, and the handover rules are written for them.

The agreement is written in numbers.

Commitments are stated as accepted leads, response times and conversion by month, so the weekly review checks facts rather than opinions about the other team.

We chair the first reviews ourselves.

The hardest part of alignment is the first month of meetings, when old habits and old grievances surface. We run those meetings so the agreement survives them.

We say plainly what we control.

Definitions, rules, reviews and reporting are ours to deliver. Lead volume and revenue depend on your market and your team's follow-through, and we do not present one as the other.

Where it applies

The same service, in different businesses.

Industrial manufacturing

The situation:
Enquiries arrive from IndiaMART, the website and trade shows into a shared inbox. The sales team quotes what it notices, and marketing reports enquiry counts.
How it applies:
Response standards per source, a qualified-lead definition based on product fit and quantity, and a weekly review of enquiries quoted against enquiries received.
Likely benefit:
Enquiries stop expiring unquoted, and marketing learns which sources sales can convert.

Healthcare and clinics

The situation:
Campaigns bring appointment enquiries to a front desk that is measured on running the clinic, not on converting calls.
How it applies:
A handover rule that gives every campaign enquiry a named responder and a callback standard, plus a weekly review of enquiries to consultations by source.
Likely benefit:
Campaign spend is judged on consultations booked, and the front desk knows what is expected of it.

B2B services and IT

The situation:
Marketing publishes content and runs LinkedIn campaigns. The sales team works its own referrals and treats inbound leads as an interruption.
How it applies:
A lead-acceptance rule with reasons, a feedback loop on rejected leads, and a content brief written from what sales hears in meetings.
Likely benefit:
Inbound leads are worked or rejected with a reason, and marketing stops guessing.

Real estate and interiors

The situation:
Portal and social enquiries are high in volume and mixed in quality, and site-visit conversion depends on how fast and how well the first call goes.
How it applies:
Qualification questions agreed by both teams, a response-time standard for the first call, and a weekly review of enquiry to site visit by source.
Likely benefit:
Sales time goes to enquiries that can visit, and spend goes to the sources that produce them.

Distribution and dealer-led businesses

The situation:
Marketing generates end-customer enquiries that are passed to dealers, and nobody knows whether the dealer ever called.
How it applies:
A handover rule for dealer-routed leads with a confirmation step, and a monthly review of dealer follow-up by region.
Likely benefit:
Marketing can show which dealers convert the demand it creates.

Proof

Work we can point to.

ViRo Enterprises

The problem:
Demand for renewable energy solutions had to grow while the sales pipeline and outreach were improved at the same time.
What we did:
Support for expanding demand, optimising the sales pipeline and improving outreach.
The result:
Expanded demand, an optimised sales pipeline and improved outreach, as the case study describes.
Read the case study

Questions buyers ask

Before you enquire, the answers you will want.

What information and internal involvement does sales and marketing alignment need from us?

Three things. Records: enquiries by source for the last few months, whatever pipeline or CRM data exists, the sales target and the marketing budget. People: the owner for the decisions, both team heads in the working sessions, and every salesperson for a short conversation. Commitment: a fixed weekly review slot that both team heads attend. Messy records are normal; we start with what you have.

How long does the engagement take?

There is no fixed duration. It depends on how many enquiry sources you have, the size of both teams, the state of your CRM and how quickly the reviews settle into a habit. After the free audit we propose a scope with a start date, an expected end and the number of review cycles we will chair. Most of the calendar time goes on the reviews, not on the documents.

How is this different from integrated sales and marketing consulting?

Integrated consulting decides the strategy both teams will follow: which customers, what message, and what the funnel must produce. Alignment assumes those decisions are made, or good enough, and fixes the operating gap between the two teams: definitions, handover, response standards, feedback and the joint review. If you are not sure which you need, the free audit tells you, and we will say if the answer is neither.

How is success measured?

Against the baseline we record before anything changes. The first sign is that the agreement is in use: leads are accepted or rejected with reasons, response standards are met, and the reviews run. After that we track the agreed metrics, such as lead acceptance rate, time to first response, marketing contribution and revenue attainment, in the weekly and monthly reviews, and report them plainly whether they move or not.

What is excluded from scope?

Running campaigns, generating leads, writing content, hiring or training salespeople, implementing a new CRM and building a full marketing-to-sales SLA with scoring and routing rules are separate services. Alignment produces the definitions, the handover, the reviews, the accountability and the roadmap, and configures the lead stages in the tools you already have. The written scope states anything else that is included.

Do we need a CRM for this to work?

No. Many of the businesses we work with run enquiries through WhatsApp, a shared inbox and a spreadsheet. The definitions and handover rules can be applied in a spreadsheet, and the weekly review can run from it. What matters is that every enquiry has a recorded source, owner, status and outcome. If the volume makes a CRM worth it we say so, and that becomes a separate decision.

Our sales team says the leads are useless. Is this just a way of forcing them to work bad leads?

No. The agreement cuts both ways. Sales gets a written definition of a qualified lead and a fair way to reject leads that do not meet it, with a reason marketing must act on. Marketing gets a commitment that leads meeting the definition will be worked within an agreed time. In our experience the complaint is usually half right, and the definition is what settles which half.

Who should own the shared number in a business our size?

Until you have a sales or marketing head who can carry it, the owner does, and the engagement is designed so that this takes a fixed weekly slot rather than a day. The owner reviews the one-page funnel, hears each team head report on their commitments and makes the decisions the teams cannot make between themselves. When a suitable head is in place, the accountability chart moves the ownership to them.

3 more questions

We use an outside agency for marketing. Can they be part of this?

Yes, and they should be. The agency is briefed on the lead definition, the sources sales can convert and the feedback sales will give, and it attends the monthly alignment review. Most agencies welcome this, because it replaces vague complaints about lead quality with specific reasons they can act on. If the agency will not work to the agreement, that is useful to know early.

What happens after you leave? Will the agreement hold?

That is why we chair the first review cycles rather than handing over a document. By the time we step back, the owner or team head has run at least two reviews without us, the definitions are in the tools, and the briefing pack lets a new person join the agreement quickly. Quarterly reviews are available if you want us to come back and check that the agreement is still being kept.

Can we start with one enquiry source or one team?

Yes. A common starting point is the highest-volume source, such as IndiaMART or the website form, with one salesperson responsible for it and the definitions and response standard applied there first. Once that handover is working and the weekly review is a habit, the same rules are extended to the other sources. Starting narrow is often faster than starting everywhere at once.

Talk to us

Find out where your two teams lose each other, and what a month of it costs.

The free audit is a working session on your own enquiries. We trace a handful of recent leads with you, show where they waited or dropped, and say plainly whether alignment is the right next step or whether a smaller fix would do.

  • No obligation and no sales script
  • A reply from someone who does the work
  • Your details are never sold or shared

What you share about enquiries, pipeline and spend is used only to prepare for and run your audit. We do not sell or pass on your details.

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