Your quote has gone out. Now what?

Make the arrangement before you send

The easiest follow-up is one you don't have to invent. Ask at the end of the conversation, before you write the quote: "I'll send it Thursday. When do you expect to decide?"

Two things then happen. You get a date, and with it a reason to ring that came from them rather than from you. And sometimes you hear something you didn't know: that it has to go past a board meeting first, or that the budget doesn't free up until next quarter. That's information you can still adjust your quote for.

Two lines in the quote that do the work

A quote that raises questions doesn't get approved, it gets put aside. Two of its parts are what make follow-up possible at all, and they're the two most often left out.

A validity date gives you a natural reason to come back without it being pushy: "your quote runs out Friday, do you want me to extend it?" is a question nobody minds. And a clear approval route — a signature, a reply, a click — removes the last barrier. What else belongs in there is in the piece on writing a quote.

A rhythm that works

If there's no agreed date, this is a rhythm that holds up in practice without becoming annoying:

1. After two working days: a short check that it arrived and that everything's clear. This isn't a sales call, it's service.
2. After a week: ring, don't email. With a substantive question out of the conversation itself, not "have you decided yet?"
3. After three weeks: one message with something they can use — a comparable job, an answer to a question they asked.
4. Around the validity date: the extension question. This is often the moment an answer finally arrives.
5. After that: back to twice a year. Don't drop them, but do let go.

Ring or email

Email is easier for you and easier for them to ignore. Ringing feels heavier and returns more, for one reason: on the phone you hear *why* it's stuck. "We haven't got to it yet" reads in an email like a delay, and on the phone it often turns out to be an objection you can clear up.

A practical compromise: email for the first check, ring for everything after that. And if ringing genuinely isn't working, don't send a reminder — send something with content in it. A reminder asks for something; content gives something.

When to mark it lost

A quote that's been sitting in "negotiating" for four months isn't an opportunity any more, it's noise. It makes your pipeline untrustworthy and gives you the feeling that more is live than really is.

The rule that works: once the validity date has passed and one follow-up has gone unanswered, mark it lost with the reason "no response". That isn't giving up — the contact stays in your records and comes back round in the slow rhythm. All it removes is the false hope.

Note the reason on every lost quote. After ten of them you can see whether you're consistently too expensive, consistently slow to reply, or sitting across from the wrong person. That's the only sales analysis you can do without a dashboard — there's more on it in the piece on following up.