Guide
How to follow up quotes without begging
You priced it at smoko, sent it, forgot it. Someone else pumped it. Following up quotes isn't begging — it's the cheapest work you'll ever win.
Most pumpers don't lose work because the price was wrong. They lose it because they never follow up quotes. You price the job at smoko, fire off a text, and move on with your day. Three weeks later you drive past the site and the slab's already down. Someone else pumped it.
The builder didn't hate your number. He forgot it existed. He had forty things on and your quote was one text in a phone full of texts. The bloke who called him back on Thursday got the job. That's the whole story.
A quote is not a job
A quote is a question. Until you get a yes or a no, all you've done is free maths for a stranger. And most operators are sitting on a pile of unanswered questions they call a pipeline.
If your quotes live in your sent messages, you don't have a pipeline. You have an archaeology dig. Nobody scrolls back three weeks. Which means nobody chases. Which means the work quietly dies.
Track three things
You don't need a CRM. You need three facts per quote: the day you sent it, the day you'll chase it, and where it's at — waiting, won, or dead. A page in a book does it. A whiteboard does it. Anything does it, as long as it's one place and you look at it every morning.
The 48-hour chase
Chase every quote inside two days. Not with an essay. One call or one line: did that price land alright, anything need moving? That's it. You're not grovelling. You're the only contractor he dealt with this week who followed through, and builders notice that.
Then chase for an answer, not a feeling. A fast no is a gift — it clears the deck and tells you something about your price or the client. A slow maybe is the worst outcome in the game. It blocks the calendar, clogs your head, and pays nothing.
Why chasing feels like begging, and isn't
Blokes avoid the follow-up because deep down they're not sure about the number. If the price is a guess, chasing feels like asking a favour. That's a rate problem, not a confidence problem. Module 02, Know Your Real Rate, exists for exactly this — when your number is built from your real costs, you can chase it without flinching, and you can hear that it's too dear without folding.
Follow-up is the cheapest work you will ever win. No ads, no discounts, no new gear. Just a phone call to a bloke who already asked for your price. Sixty seconds, done standing next to the pump while it washes out.
Quote it. Log it. Chase it in 48 hours. Get the yes or take the no. Either way, stop letting your work die in someone else's inbox.
