Quote Follow Up Sequences

---
name: quote-follow-up-sequences
description: Builds a follow-up system that chases every outstanding quote for a local service business - same-day speed-to-quote, a day 1/3/7/14 cadence mixing call, SMS, and email, the assumptive close, quote-expiry urgency, and win/loss logging, with copy-paste templates. Use when an owner says "customers ghost after I send the estimate", "how do I follow up on quotes without being annoying", "my close rate on written estimates is low", or "should quotes expire". Do NOT use for B2B sales-team follow-up cadences - use sales-followup-cadence instead. Do NOT use for reducing appointment no-shows before the visit happens - use no-show-reduction instead.
---

# 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.