The true cost of a missed quote follow-up

You spend 30 minutes on a site visit. Another 20 writing the quote. You send it. Then you wait.

The customer doesn't reply. You get busy with other jobs. A week passes. Two weeks. You've forgotten about it. They've booked someone else.

The numbers

Average quote value for a trade business: $3,000-$8,000. Average close rate without follow-up: 20-25%. Average close rate with one follow-up within 48 hours: 35-40%.

That 15% difference, multiplied across all your quotes, is significant. If you send 20 quotes a month at $5,000 average, the difference between following up and not following up is roughly $15,000/month in additional revenue.

Why it doesn't happen

Trade operators aren't lazy. They're busy. They're on a roof, under a house, in a ceiling cavity. Following up on a quote from last Tuesday is the last thing on their mind at 4pm on a Thursday.

It's not a motivation problem. It's a systems problem.

The fix

Automate the follow-up. When a quote is sent, a follow-up email goes out automatically 48 hours later if no response. Simple: "Hi [name], just checking if you had any questions about the quote I sent through. Happy to adjust anything — just let me know."

Second follow-up at 7 days. "Hey [name], wanted to make sure this didn't get lost in your inbox. The quote for [job] is still valid — let me know if you'd like to go ahead."

Track in one place. Every quote should be logged with a status: sent, followed up, won, lost. If you can't see your pipeline, you can't manage it.

AI handles all of this automatically. Quote goes out, follow-ups are scheduled, responses get flagged. You just do the work.

See how AI affects your specific trade →

Further reading

• InboxAgents: Automated follow-up for service businesses