Who actually signs off marketing spend in an Indian company, and what each signature needs to see

In most Indian companies the person who wants the marketing is not the person who approves it, and the person who can stop it is a third person nobody invited to the meeting. A marketing manager builds the case, a finance head converts it into a cash outflow, a promoter or managing director makes the call, and purchase, legal or the company secretary can hold it for a month over a document. A proposal written for only one of those readers usually stalls, and it stalls quietly, which is why sellers mistake it for a lost deal and buyers mistake it for slow finance.

This page maps the chain at three company sizes, says what each role is actually deciding, and names the document that unblocks each one.

The five roles, and what each one is deciding

The chain at three company sizes

Owner managed, under about fifty people

The promoter decides, often in one conversation, and finance is usually the same person or their accountant. Purchase does not exist as a function. The approval is fast and the risk is the opposite one, that the decision is made without a scope and the engagement has nothing to be held to. The document that moves it is a single page with the monthly figure, the term, what will exist at the end of ninety days and what the exit notice is.

Professionally managed mid sized, roughly fifty to five hundred people

This is where the full five role chain appears and where most proposals stall. Marketing requests, finance scrutinises the recurring commitment, purchase runs the vendor onboarding, legal reviews the agreement, and the managing director signs above a threshold. Two documents move it. A one page business case for the top of the house and a complete vendor document set for purchase, submitted at the same time rather than in sequence.

Large or listed

Approval runs on written delegation of authority, with named rupee thresholds per role and a purchase order behind every invoice. Nothing can be paid without a PO, so the practical sequence is vendor onboarding first, PO second, work third. A seller who starts work on an email confirmation here will wait for payment, and the delay is nobody's fault.

The threshold question, which decides who you are really selling to

Almost every Indian company above a certain size has a written approval threshold, and it is the single most useful thing to ask about early. One question does it. Above what monthly figure does this need somebody else's sign off, and who. The answer reshapes the proposal immediately. Below the threshold you are selling to one person and the scope can be simple. Above it you are writing for finance and the promoter as well, and the proposal needs the term, the exit and the displacement named on the first page.

Two related patterns are worth knowing. Many companies approve an annual budget once and then approve each vendor against it, so the real question is whether this year's budget has a line for it. And many will approve a three month pilot at a figure they would not approve as an annual commitment, which is often the fastest honest route in.

What stops an approved budget from being spent

• The vendor is not onboarded. The money is approved and no invoice can be paid. This is the most common cause of a delay that looks like indecision.
• No purchase order. In any company that works on POs, work done before the PO is work that will be paid late.
• Media spend and fee in one number. Finance frequently needs these as separate lines with separate treatment, and a blended quote comes back for rework.
• A term longer than the approval. A twelve month agreement presented against a quarterly approval cycle goes back for a shorter term.
• An unanswered data question. Where customer data will be handled, somebody in compliance will want to know where it goes and who can see it, and the answer belongs in the proposal rather than in a later email.

How to write for all five readers in one document

• Page one, for the promoter. The objective, the monthly figure, the term, and one sentence on what happens if nothing changes.
• Page two, for finance. The fee and the media spend as separate lines, the third party costs at actuals, the payment schedule and the exit notice.
• Page three, for the requester. Deliverables with volumes, the reporting cadence, and the two numbers that define success.
• An annexure, for purchase and legal. The registration and bank documents, the draft agreement, and the data and confidentiality clauses.

Four pages beats forty slides at every one of these desks. The fee structures behind page two differ by trade, and how an advertising agency fee in India is built sets out how each one is usually quoted.

Questions about marketing approval in Indian companies

Who should a marketing agency pitch to first

The requester, because they will build the internal case, and then ask them directly who else signs. An agency that pitches straight to the promoter without the requester on side often wins the meeting and loses the renewal.

How do I get a recurring retainer approved when finance prefers one off projects

Present the first quarter as a defined project with named deliverables and a review date, with the retainer beginning after the review. Finance is usually objecting to the open ended commitment rather than to the work.

Does the marketing head control the budget in an Indian mid sized company

Usually they control the allocation within an approved budget and not the size of the budget itself, and the vendor appointment often needs purchase as well. Two different sign offs, which is why a yes from marketing is a real yes and not yet a contract.

What is the fastest way through the chain

Ask the threshold question in the first conversation, then submit the business case and the vendor documents on the same day. Running approval and onboarding in parallel rather than in sequence is usually worth two to four weeks.

Why does a decision stall after everyone has said yes

Almost always a document or a purchase order. Ask the requester one question, what is outstanding on the vendor onboarding, and the answer is usually a single missing paper.

Should the proposal name the tax treatment

Name what is charged and what is separate, and leave the rate and the deduction to the two accountants. Finance needs to know which lines are fee, which are media and which are pass through costs, and the rest is properly settled between your accountant and theirs.

The chain has a step before any of this

Every one of the five roles above comes in after the shortlist exists. Increasingly the shortlist itself is assembled by somebody describing the requirement to an assistant and reading back a few firm names, and that step has no approver, no document and no meeting. On 22 October 2026 we put 198 India buying questions to ChatGPT and Gemini, with the country written into the wording of each one, and in 19 of the 50 blind readings a business was named in the answer text while in 31 no business was named at all. Whichever of those two your category falls into decides whether you are displacing a name or filling an empty answer, and AI Knows Us exists to take that reading for a specific company.