It happens in every trade and hardly anybody works on it: you send the quote and the silence sets in. Quotes nobody replies to are the biggest hole we see in small businesses, and you do not plug it by selling more: you plug it by writing again to the person who already asked you for a price.
Silence is almost never a no
When they finally answer, the reason is usually one of three: it slipped their mind, they were waiting for somebody else's quote, or they had to discuss it with someone. None of those is «not interested».
What definitely is a no is never asking again. At that point the work of preparing the quote is paid for and thrown away.
What skipping the follow-up costs
Do the maths with your own numbers, nobody else's: how many quotes you sent last month, how many closed and how many went unanswered. That third pile is work you have already paid for.
In the businesses we work with, recovering even one in five changes the month. And recovering one in five only takes remembering to write.
The three reasons behind the silence
And what to do about each one
- It slipped their mind. One reminder is enough. It is the most common case and the easiest.
- They are comparing. Here you win by giving what the others do not: a firm date, a doubt cleared up, a photo of the same job done.
- They have to discuss it. Then your quote has to make sense on its own, without you there to explain it.
Want to know what it would cost you?
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.
The quote gets read on a phone
That changes how it has to be written. A four-page PDF with terms in small print does not get read on a six-inch screen: it gets left for later, and later is never.
What works is the price and the timescale at the very top, the breakdown underneath and the terms at the end. And if you summarise it in the message itself, nothing depends on them opening an attachment.
Put an expiry date on it, and make it visible
A quote with no date is an invitation to leave it for another day. Fifteen or thirty days of validity is not a pressure trick: it is what makes sense when materials and your own diary change.
It also gives you a natural reason to write again without looking like a pest, which is exactly what stops most people.
What the law asks you to include
If you work for consumers, the essential information has to be clear and given before they commit: what it covers, what it costs including tax, and what happens if something changes. It is in the consolidated Spanish consumer protection act.
In day-to-day terms: a written quote, with the final price and no surprises afterwards. That also sells, because anybody comparing spots immediately who put the work in.
When to write again
This is where nearly all the result sits. Too soon and you look anxious; too late and they have already hired somebody else. What has worked for our trade and service clients is a short, fixed calendar.
The calendar that works
- After 48 hours. A short message confirming it arrived and offering to clear up any doubts.
- After a week. Adding something new, not repeating the same text.
- Three days before it expires. With the date as the reason, which is a real one.
- Then stop. Three attempts and onto the list for three months' time. Pushing further burns the contact.
What to write so you are not a pest
The difference between a reminder that annoys and one people thank you for is that the second one adds something. «Did you get a chance to look at it?» adds nothing. «I can confirm I have a slot that week» does.
Short, no reproach, and one question that is easy to answer. If it can be answered in a word, far more people answer.
What never to write
- «Writing again in case you missed it». It reads as a telling-off.
- Dropping the price unasked. It shows the first one was padded.
- Fake urgency. Buyers smell it.
- A message identical to the last one. If it adds nothing, it subtracts.
We'll tell you in a ten-minute conversation
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.
Where: the same channel it came in on
If they wrote on WhatsApp, the reminder goes on WhatsApp. If it came through the website form, by email. Switching channel to chase reads as pursuit, and it works worse. How to set the channel up so nothing gets lost is in WhatsApp Business for your business.
And if form messages are not reaching you, rule that out before blaming the customer: it happens more than you would think, and it is covered in your website contact form.
The call that unblocks it
When the quote is a big one, a two-minute call beats five emails. Not to apply pressure: to ask what is holding them back. Very often it is a detail that gets solved by talking and that nobody bothers to explain in writing.
How fast you answer at the start sets the tone for everything after, which is what how fast you reply is about.
What «I'm comparing» is actually telling you
That your price is not the problem: the problem is they cannot see the difference. That is not the moment to drop anything, it is the moment to explain better what is in and what is not.
If your website already shows prices and scope, that conversation starts much further along. Why it pays to show them is in showing prices on your website.
Write down why they said no
It is the cheapest and most wasted piece of data in a small business. Two words next to each lost quote: price, timescale, went with someone else, job never happened. Three months later you see a pattern and you know what to change.
The same goes for where each enquiry came from, which is what where your customers come from covers.
Once there are many, this does not live in your head
With five quotes a month you remember. With thirty you do not. And the one that slips is never the small one: it is the big one, because it took longer to prepare and you assumed it was in the bag.
The four pieces of an automatic follow-up
- A list with a status. Sent, answered, won, lost. Nothing else.
- The date of the next nudge on every line, which is the part that actually works.
- The automatic alert on the day, to whoever has to write.
- The close. Won or lost, it gets marked and drops off the list.
That is already a CRM even if you do not call it one: we cover it in a CRM for small businesses, and where to start automating in process automation: where to start.
What we never automate
The message itself. What gets automated is the alert that you have to write, not the text. A reminder that arrives on its own with the same sentence for everybody is spotted a mile off and does more harm than not writing at all.
We also automate nothing when the quote is for a sensitive job. There, a person decides.
The ones who said no six months ago
That list is worth money and hardly anybody keeps it. Somebody with no budget in March may have one in October, and somebody who went elsewhere sometimes comes back. Writing to them once a quarter, selling nothing, is among the most profitable things you can do: the idea is in email marketing for small businesses.
Where to read more
For the management side there is decent free public material: the IPYME portal, run by the Spanish directorate for industry and small business, and the Catalan department for business and labour for things closer to home.
What setting up the follow-up costs
If you send few quotes, this is not something you buy: a sheet and an alarm do the job. Once it is dozens a month, building it falls under process automation, which goes by project with a closed written quote before starting.
What does have a published rate in our prices is the website and presence side: Tu Landing at 100 € a month and Tu Web at 200 €, plus VAT and with no lock-in, and the presence plans at 400, 750 and 1,500 € a month.
From Sant Antoni de Calonge, with businesses across Girona and Barcelona
If you want to see it with your own numbers, count last month's quotes and check how many went unanswered. Send us that figure through the contact form or by WhatsApp and we will tell you whether what you are missing is the follow-up or a quote that explains itself.
Tell us what you need and we'll give you a price
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.