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The quote follow-up that actually gets an answer
11 August 2026 · 2 minute read · Getting the work
There is a quote in your sent items from three weeks ago that you never chased.
You know the one. You spent an hour measuring up, another hour pricing it, sent it over, and then heard nothing. And rather than chase, you told yourself they had probably gone elsewhere.
Some had. Plenty had not. They got busy, the email slid down the screen, and the person who did chase got the work.
Why owners don’t chase
Not laziness. It is that chasing feels like begging, and nobody wants to be the pushy one. So the follow-up gets framed as a favour you are asking, and it never gets sent.
Reframe it and the awkwardness goes. You are not asking for the job. You are closing the loop on a piece of work they asked you to do. That is just professional.
The sequence
Day 3. Short, useful, no ask. “Sent the quote for the bathroom on Tuesday — did it come through alright? Happy to talk through any of it.” Half the replies you get all week come from this one.
Day 10. Add something. A photo of a similar job, a note about lead times, an answer to a question they did not ask but will have. You are giving them a reason to reply that isn’t “yes or no”.
Day 21. The close-the-file message, and it is the one that works best. “I’ll assume the timing isn’t right and take this off my list — just shout if that changes.”
People answer that one. Partly because it is easy to reply to, and partly because loss aversion is real: the moment you stop chasing is the moment they remember they wanted it.
Never open with “just checking in”
It says nothing, it asks for nothing, and it puts the work of replying entirely on them. Every message should either give them something or make a decision easy.
Two jobs a week
Go into your sent items. Find every quote from the last ninety days that went quiet. Send the day-21 message to all of them this afternoon.
For most trades that is an hour’s work and the best-paid hour of the month. It is also, not coincidentally, exactly the sort of thing that never gets done unless somebody is checking.