You sent the quote and heard nothing. Here is what to send next.

The short answer: three touches, then stop

Every follow-up has one job: get an answer, yes or no. Keep each one short, friendly and about them, not you. The days below are a good start. Change them to suit how your customers buy.

One rule over all of it: the moment they answer, the chasing stops. A reminder that lands after they have already said yes, or after they said no on the phone, does more damage than no reminder at all.

1. Why the quiet quote goes to someone else

A customer who asked for three quotes is not sitting down to compare them on a spreadsheet. They are at work, the kids have footy, and the quotes are three emails among fifty. The tradie who rings and says “did it come through, are you right to go ahead?” makes the decision easy. Often that is the whole difference.

Following up feels pushy, so it gets put off. It is not pushy if each message is short, gives them a way out, and stops when they answer. Customers expect it. Silence from you reads as “not that keen”.

2. The wording: text and email

Copy these and swap in your names, the job, the quote number and the date the price holds until. Send them from your own number and your own email, so a reply comes straight back to you.

Hi Sarah, it's Dave from Coastline Plumbing. Just checking the quote for the hot water replacement came through OK. Happy to run through it if you've got any questions. Dave

Hi Sarah,

Following up on the quote I sent last week for replacing the hot water system at 14 Banksia Street. It's attached again here in case it's easier to find.

Are you happy to go ahead, or is there anything you'd like changed first? If timing is the hold-up, let me know roughly when suits and I'll pencil it in.

The price holds until 30 October.

Thanks,
Dave
Coastline Plumbing
0400 000 000

Hi Sarah, Dave here. I'll close off the hot water quote on Friday so it's not hanging over you. If you'd like to go ahead, or want me to hold it a bit longer, just reply. No worries either way. Dave

What these leave out on purpose: “just following up” with no question in it, a discount to hurry them along, and any line about how busy you are. A question they can answer in one word gets answered. A price cut you did not need to offer is money gone.

3. What to say when you ring

For a bigger job, ring at the one-week mark instead of emailing. A call gets a decision a text never will. Keep it under two minutes and leave with something written down: a yes and a start date, a day to ring back, or a no.

1. 1Open. "Hi Sarah, it's Dave from Coastline Plumbing. I sent through a quote for the hot water system last week. Have you got a minute?"
2. 2Check it arrived. "Did it come through OK? Any questions on it?" Answer the questions. Do not re-quote on the spot.
3. 3Ask for the decision. "Where are you at with it? Are you happy to go ahead?"
4. 4If yes. "Great. I can do Tuesday the 21st or Thursday the 23rd. Which suits?" Book it while you are on the phone.
5. 5If they are still thinking. "No worries. When's a good day for me to give you a ring back?" Write that day down, and ring on it.
6. 6If no. "No worries, thanks for letting me know. Can I ask what made the call?" Ask once, listen, thank them, and leave it there.

If they say the price is the problem, that is a conversation about the scope, and it is yours to have on its own call. Do not drop the price on a follow-up call to get a yes.

4. When to stop

• ✓They said yes. Book it, and nothing else goes out about the quote.
• ✓They said no. Thank them and stop. Do not argue it or ask again.
• ✓They asked you to stop, or something is in dispute. Stop, and deal with it yourself.
• ✓The last check went with no answer. Mark the quote lost. If they come back later, it is a new conversation.
• ✓They asked you to ring on a certain day. Nothing goes out before that day.

5. Keeping it out of your head

The wording is the easy part. The hard part is remembering, every week, which quotes are still open, who you last chased and when, and stopping the day they answer. That needs a list that is not in your head.

Check your job system first. ServiceM8’s Automation add-on can email or text a customer about a quote, up to five follow-ups. Tradify can send email and text reminders a week and two weeks after the quote, and before it expires. Turn those on if you have them. They send the reminder. Nobody rings and asks for a decision.

Done for you: Get Paid rings your open quotes

Ringing for a decision on open quotes is so common we built the standard into a product. Get Paid follows up your open quotes on a real phone call, read from Xero, ServiceM8 or Simpro. It says it is an AI and that the call is recorded before anything else, checks the quote has not been accepted or declined since, answers questions without re-quoting or discounting, and books a callback or puts the customer through to you. The same insert rings overdue invoices against your live Xero. $199 per month, flat, no call caps, no per-minute charge.

Build it yourself: the free Follow-Up sheet

Rather run it yourself? The Follow-Up standard is the open spec for exactly this, and it comes as a free Google Sheet you can copy. One row per open quote, with who it is for, what it is worth and the day it went out. You write the cadence once: how many touches, how many days apart, and who gets the quote when the touches run out.

Each morning the sheet ranks the quotes by what they are worth and sends at most one follow-up email per quote. Type the answer on the row (arrived, no, or stop) and that quote is never chased again. It does not send texts, so the day-two text above is still yours to send. Calls are queued through Office Voice if you connect it.

The quote itself comes before all this. The Quote Out standard covers getting a priced draft out fast for you to check and send. For the wider case for automating enquiry follow-up, see lead nurture and quote follow-up for trades.