A quote with no reply is not a refusal. It is a file on hold whose reason you don't know yet: the customer is comparing, waiting for financing or an approval, or simply let your email slip by between two emergencies. Until the question is asked, you don't know which — and the job can go to whoever asks it first.
Following up on a quote is therefore not "being pushy". It is going to get a piece of information you need in order to plan. The difference shows in the message: a follow-up that brings something (a date, an answer, an up-to-date quote) is received as a service; a follow-up that only repeats a price is received as pressure.
When to follow up on a quote: three moments with a reason
Shortly after sending: check the quote arrived and was understood
A few days after sending, a first follow-up checks two things: that the quote actually arrived, and that no line item is blocking the decision. A building quote contains line items, options and alternative materials. A single question the customer doesn't dare ask is enough to freeze the decision. It is the simplest follow-up to make, and the one that clears up the most unanswered questions.
Before the validity date written on the quote
The validity period you wrote on the quote is a real date, known to both sides. Following up before it runs out is not pressure: you are letting the customer know that your prices and your schedule are only guaranteed until then. It is also the moment to say whether you can still hold the start date discussed during the site visit.
When the customer's obstacle goes away
This is the best moment, and the one you miss when you follow up by the calendar. A quote can stay unanswered simply because the customer is waiting for something: approval from the local authority for an extension or a façade, a loan being released, a tenant moving out, another job finishing. The day that obstacle goes away, your quote is back on the table.
Ask about that moment during the site visit: "What needs to be settled before you can decide?" Write the answer in the file, with a date. Your next follow-up then has a reason the customer gave you themselves.
How to follow up on a quote: one channel per situation
- The phone for a large job, or when the quote offers options to choose between. A hesitation is settled in two minutes of conversation, faster than in three emails.
- Email when you need to send a document: an updated quote, photos taken during the visit, a schedule.
- Text message to offer two start dates. It is short, it can be read on a building site, and it can be answered in one word.
Whatever the channel, ask a single question that the customer can answer in one sentence. "I'm just getting back to you" is not a question; "The 12th or the 19th — which suits you?" is one.
What to write: quote follow-up templates
Fill in the brackets; keep the structure: a reminder of the job, the reason for the follow-up, a closed question.
Check-in follow-up, by email
Subject: Your quote for [work] — any questions?
Hello [Name], on [date] I sent you the quote for [work]. Have you had a chance to look through it? If a line isn't clear, or if you are hesitating between two options, I can call you this week: just tell me the best time.
Before the validity date
Hello [Name], the quote of [date] for [work] is valid until [validity date]. After that, I will have to review the price of materials and my schedule. Would you like me to book a start date? I can offer [date 1] or [date 2].
When the obstacle goes away (approval, financing, postponement)
Hello [Name], you told me you were waiting for [approval from the local authority / your financing] before committing. If that's sorted, I can start on [date 1] or [date 2]. On my side, I'll check the quote is still up to date.
By text message
Hello [Name], it's [first name] from [company]. For your [type of work], I can start on [date 1] or [date 2]. Which suits you?
The closing message
Hello [Name], as I haven't heard back, I'm closing the [work] file to free up my schedule. If the project comes back, simply reply to this message and I'll put together an up-to-date quote.
That last message is not a threat. It tells the truth about your schedule, and it calls for a clear answer. A "no, thank you" is worth more than a file left open for months.
Following up on quotes in the building trades: cases specific to the job
Some situations in building give you a dated reason to follow up, one the customer understands immediately.
- Planning approval. When the work needs approval from the local authority — in France, that is often the case for an extension, a change to a façade or new windows — the customer frequently cannot commit before getting it. Note the date the application went in, ask the customer to let you know, and follow up as soon as they have it, with two start dates.
- Financing. A home-improvement loan, a renovation grant: promise nothing about eligibility, that is not your role. Ask where the application stands, and offer to send the documents the lender or the agency needs.
- The season. A roof where the visit found slipped tiles or damaged flashing is followed up before the rainy season, with photos. Boiler servicing or chimney sweeping is offered before the heating season.
- The temporary repair. After an emergency call-out — a roof covered with a tarpaulin, a pipe temporarily sealed — the quote for the permanent repair is followed up while the temporary fix holds. The call-out removed the emergency, not the need.
- The scaffolding is still up. If the visit spotted work that can be reached from the scaffolding but is missing from the signed quote, offer it before the scaffolding comes down: the customer avoids paying for a second installation.
What to avoid
- Following up with nothing new. If you have no question, no date and no document to bring, wait until you have one.
- Offering a discount before you know what is holding things up.
- Chasing a quote whose prices you can no longer honour: send an updated quote instead.
- Sending the same follow-up to every pending quote on the same day. The customer can tell, and you lose the only advantage a follow-up has: relevance.
- Following up after an explicit refusal. Note the reason for the refusal: it will help with your next quotes.
Keeping track of your quotes without spending your evenings on it
A spreadsheet is enough to start with. One row per quote, with: the customer, the work, the amount, the date sent, the validity date, what the customer is waiting for, and the date of the next follow-up. Sort by next follow-up date, then by amount.
The "what the customer is waiting for" column is the most important one. It turns a calendar follow-up — "it's been three weeks" — into a follow-up at the right moment: "your permit has come through".
The calculation, assumptions shown
No customer is quoted here: this is arithmetic to redo with your own figures.
- 25 quotes sent per month;
- 5 get no reply and are followed up with a reason;
- 1 of them is signed, for a job worth €1,800.
Result: €1,800 a month, or €21,600 over a year, from quotes that were already written. Replace each assumption with your own; the reasoning holds.
What RevenueOS does for a tradesperson
RevenueOS reads your history — quotes, jobs, customers — and spots the quotes that are sitting idle as well as the moments when a follow-up has a reason: approval received, postponement date reached, season approaching, annual servicing due. It prepares the message with that reason, and nothing is sent without your approval.
The page RevenueOS for building tradespeople lists the signals it watches, one by one.