Quote follow up sequences

Quote Follow-Up Sequences

An unanswered quote is not a no - most of the time it is a homeowner who got busy, and the contractor who follows up wins the job from the four who did not. The costly mistake this skill prevents is paying to generate a lead, paying a tech to drive out and diagnose, and then abandoning the quote after one email - burning the acquisition cost local-unit-economics already counted (about $119 per customer for Summit Plumbing, before the truck roll). This skill and no-show-reduction are the two revenue-protection systems in the pack: both defend money the lead spend has already paid for.

Worked business throughout: Summit Plumbing, 4 techs, $450 average ticket, $75,000 a month. Roughly a third of Summit's work is quoted rather than fixed on the spot - call it 60 quotes a month. Moving the quote close rate from 45 percent to 55 percent is 6 extra jobs, about $2,700 a month, for the cost of some texts and calls.

Operating procedure

Step 1: Enforce the speed-to-quote rule - same day, always

The quote goes out the same day as the visit, ideally from the driveway before the truck leaves. Every day of delay bleeds close rate: the homeowner is calling three plumbers, and the first credible written number anchors the comparison. If a quote genuinely needs supplier pricing, send a same-day placeholder ("You'll have the full written quote by tomorrow 5 pm") so the customer is never in silence.

Step 2: Send quotes that can be said yes to

The quote itself is follow-up infrastructure: an itemized written quote with a good/better/best option where honest (repair / repair plus prevention / replace), an expiry date 14 days out, and a one-tap way to accept (reply YES, click to approve, or click to call). The expiry date is what makes day-14 urgency honest later. Pricing structure itself is out of scope here - this skill chases the quote, whatever the number is.

Step 3: Run the day 1/3/7/14 cadence

Four touches, mixed channels, each with a different job. Log every touch.

DAY 1 (24h after sending) - SMS. Job: confirm receipt, invite questions.
"Hi [FILL: name], [FILL: tech] from Summit Plumbing. Wanted to make sure
the quote for [FILL: job] landed OK. Any questions, just reply here -
happy to walk through it."

DAY 3 - Phone call, the assumptive close. Job: schedule, not re-sell.
Open by booking, not by asking for a decision:
"Hi [FILL: name], it's [FILL: tech] from Summit Plumbing about the
[FILL: job] quote. I've got [FILL: day] morning or [FILL: day] afternoon
open this week - which works better for you?"
If they hesitate, drop to discovery: "No problem - what's giving you
pause? Price, timing, or still comparing?" Handle the real objection.
Voicemail if no answer, then the same offer by SMS.

DAY 7 - Email. Job: make forwarding easy (the spouse or landlord often
decides). Subject: "Your Summit Plumbing quote for [FILL: job]"
Body: quote attached again, 2-3 sentence recap of what's included, one
relevant review quote, expiry date restated, click-to-approve link.

DAY 14 - SMS, expiry urgency. Job: honest deadline, easy out.
"Hi [FILL: name], [FILL: tech] from Summit Plumbing. Your quote for
[FILL: job] expires [FILL: date] - after that I'd need to re-price
materials. Want me to hold it and get you on the schedule? If you've
gone another way, no hard feelings - a quick 'no thanks' and I'll
close the file."

The day-3 assumptive close carries the sequence: it skips "have you decided?" - which invites "not yet" - and offers two concrete slots, which converts the passive maybe into a scheduling decision.

Step 4: Honor the expiry, gracefully

The urgency only works if it is real: after the expiry date, re-quoting is a fresh quote (materials and schedule genuinely move). But never punish a customer who calls on day 16 - honor the price once, note it, and keep the expiry credible for the file, not hostile to the person.

Step 5: Log every win and loss

One line per closed quote: won or lost, and if lost, why - price, went with competitor, DIY, postponed, ghosted. Review monthly. The pattern tells you what to fix: mostly "price" losses point at quote structure or targeting; mostly "ghosted" means the cadence is not being executed; "postponed" is a 90-day re-contact list, which is free pipeline.

Step 6: Close the loop monthly with the economics

Report the quote close rate into local-unit-economics as part of the blended close rate. If the written-quote close rate is under 50 percent after a full month of executed cadence, the leak has moved upstream - price, offer, or lead quality - and more follow-up will not fix it.

Inputs to elicit

Collect: quotes sent per month, current quote close rate (label a guess as a guess - most owners have never measured it), average quoted amount, who sends quotes and from what tool, and whether SMS is available from the business number. Defaults: 14-day expiry, cadence 1/3/7/14, tech's name on every message (people hire the person they met, not the company).

Concrete thresholds

• Speed-to-quote: same day, target under 4 hours from visit.
• Cadence: exactly four touches over 14 days; more than five in two weeks tips into pestering for residential work.
• Quote close rate floor: 50 percent on written residential quotes; under 40 percent after a month of executed cadence means the problem is upstream.
• Expiry: 14 days standard; 7 for volatile-material jobs.
• Response time to a customer reply: under 15 minutes during business hours - a reply is the hottest signal in this pipeline.

Worked artifact: Summit's month, before and after

BEFORE (one email, no cadence)      AFTER (full cadence, 1 month)
Quotes sent:            60          Quotes sent:            60
Close rate:             45%         Close rate:             55%
Jobs won:               27          Jobs won:               33
Quoted revenue won:     $12,150     Quoted revenue won:     $14,850
                                    Delta: +$2,700/mo, ~$32k/yr
Loss log (after):  price 9, competitor 6, postponed 7, ghosted 5
Action from log:   7 postponed -> 90-day re-contact list;
                   ghosted down from 18 -> cadence is working

Deliverable

A ready-to-run follow-up kit: the four templates above with fields filled for the business, the assumptive-close call script, the expiry policy in one sentence, a win/loss log (spreadsheet columns: date, job, amount, outcome, reason), and the monthly close-rate line that feeds local-unit-economics.

Do NOT

• Do not wait for the customer to "think it over" without a scheduled next touch - silence is where paid-for quotes go to die.
• Do not open follow-up 2 with "have you had a chance to decide?" - it invites "not yet". Offer two slots instead.
• Do not fake urgency with a fake expiry, or extend a "firm" expiry three times; customers smell it and it poisons trust.
• Do not discount just to end the silence - an unprompted price cut teaches customers that ghosting earns discounts. Diagnose the objection first.
• Do not keep chasing past a clear no; log the reason and move on. The cadence targets silence, not refusal.

Quality bar

• Every open quote has its next touch dated and assigned - zero quotes in limbo.
• Templates carry the tech's real name and the job specifics, never "Dear valued customer."
• The day-14 message contains a genuine expiry and an easy out.
• The loss log has a reason for every loss, and the monthly review names one action taken.

Escalation and routing

For quotes that die at the visit itself (customer balks at the number in person), the fix is quote presentation and pricing, not follow-up - consider pricing-strategy for structure. Appointment no-shows before the quote visit belong to no-show-reduction. B2B pipeline cadences belong to sales-followup-cadence. Feed the measured close rate back into local-unit-economics monthly, and hand every won customer's five-star moment to review-engine.