What an unchased quote really costs, in your own numbers
Take the quotes you send in a month, the share you never hear back on, and your average job value. Multiply them and you have the work sitting unanswered every month. Chasing quotes wins back a slice of it for the price of two text messages. Most owners are shocked by the yearly figure, because the loss never appears anywhere in the accounts.
The quotes you never hear back on
Quoting takes real time. You visit, you measure, you price it, you write it up. Then it goes quiet, and the natural reaction is to assume they went elsewhere. Often they did not. They got busy, or they were waiting for a partner to look at it, or your email sat under twenty others.
The awkward part is that chasing feels pushy, so most owners send the quote once and move on. That silence is not free. It has a price, and it is worth working out.
Work out your own number
- Step 1: how many quotes do you send in a typical month?
- Step 2: how many of those do you never hear back on at all?
- Step 3: what is your average job worth?
- Step 4: multiply the silent quotes by your average job value. That is the work in limbo each month.
- Step 5: multiply by twelve for the yearly figure, then keep that number somewhere you will see it.
A kitchen fitter sends 20 quotes a month. He hears nothing back on 12 of them. His average job is £2,400. That is 12 x £2,400 = £28,800 of work sitting in silence every month, and £345,600 a year. He will never win all of it, most of those people chose someone else or changed their mind. But if a simple two-message chase converts even one of those twelve, that is £2,400 a month, £28,800 a year, from two texts he can set up once.
Is this happening to you?
- You send a quote and only chase it if you happen to remember
- You do not actually know how many quotes went unanswered last month
- Chasing feels awkward, so you tell yourself no news is bad news
- Nobody in the business owns the job of following up on quotes
The fix is not more discipline. It is a reminder that fires whether or not anyone remembers. The free guide has the full sequence.
Get the free 5-Step Lead Follow-Up Blueprint
A 15-minute, plain-English guide that shows exactly how to stop enquiries slipping away, with the messages already worded for you. Free, sent by email straight away.
Send me the free BlueprintThe chase that does not feel pushy
Two messages does most of the work. One a few days after the quote, checking they got it and asking whether anything needs explaining. One about a week later that closes the loop politely and gives them an easy way to say no. Both can be short, and both can go out automatically. The exact wording is in our quote follow-up templates, and there is more on tone in chasing without being pushy.
GoHighLevel can trigger that sequence the moment a quote is marked as sent, then stop it automatically when the customer replies. It is the same idea as costing out a missed call: a small automatic step, applied every time, adds up to real money.
Want to see it running?
GoHighLevel is the tool we use for all of this in our own business. You can try everything on the 14-day free trial and judge it on results.
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Common questions
How many times should I chase a quote?
Two or three times over about two weeks is normal and rarely annoys anyone. Make the last message an easy exit, so people who chose someone else can tell you without feeling bad.
Does chasing quotes make me look desperate?
No. It reads as organised. Most customers assume a business that follows up properly will also turn up on time and answer the phone later.
When is the best time to send the first chase?
Two to three working days after the quote goes out. Soon enough that the job is still in their head, far enough away that it does not feel like pressure.
What if I do not know my average job value?
Add up the last ten invoices and divide by ten. It does not need to be exact to be useful, and the figure will still surprise you.