Notes for owners · Sales management
A quotation follow-up routine for manufacturers with long enquiry lists
How a manufacturer with dozens of open quotations can sort them by who decides, ask one question per quote, and record why each was lost. Includes a lost-reason code list.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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With forty quotations open, sorting by date puts the oldest on top, and the oldest may be the one the buyer has forgotten. Sort by who decides instead, ask one question per quote, and give every lost quote a one-letter code. An afternoon on the sheet puts the right five calls in front of you each morning, and after a quarter the codes tell you something about your price.
Why the date sort misleads
The oldest quote is the easiest to chase and often the least likely to move. Meanwhile the quote you sent yesterday to a plant engineer who said "I decide on Thursday" sits at the bottom, waiting for a call that would have mattered. A date list answers "when did I send it?", which the buyer never asks. Ask who is deciding, and when.
Add a "who decides" column
Put one new column in your enquiry register and allow only four values.
| Decider | What it looks like | One question that moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Owner or proprietor | A small firm; one person buys | "Shall I hold the rate till Friday?" |
| Purchase officer, price-led | A comparative statement is being prepared | "Which point in the statement is furthest from us?" |
| Engineer or user, spec-led | The part must be approved first | "Did the sample fit on the line?" |
| Committee or head office | Approval happens elsewhere | "Who signs, and when does the file move?" |
Sort by this column, then by the date the buyer said a decision would come. The top of the list is whoever has a decision date this week. Quotes with no decision date drop to the bottom with a single task: find the date.
The mix also shows where you are weak. If most open quotes sit with price-led purchase officers, your follow-up should explain what separates you, not remind them that you exist.
One question per quote
Write the question beside the quote before you call, so you are not improvising. "Any update?" is not a question; the buyer answers "will let you know".
- For an owner, ask for a date.
- For a price-led officer, ask for the gap in the comparison figures.
- For an engineer, ask for the result of the sample or drawing check.
- For a committee, ask for the name of the signatory and the date of the meeting.
A new date goes straight into the sheet, and a no goes in with its reason. If nobody answers, note the attempt and move on; chasing twice in one day only teaches the buyer to screen your number.
Lost-reason codes
Give every closed-lost quote one code, and keep the list short enough that people use it.
- P Price: another quote was lower, and the buyer named or hinted at the gap.
- L Lead time: you could not deliver when the buyer needed it.
- S Specification: you could not or would not meet it.
- B Bought elsewhere and gave no reason.
- N No project: it was dropped or postponed.
- X No response after three reasoned attempts.
Resist adding more. Codes you cannot choose between usually mean nobody asked the buyer. After thirty closed quotes, count each letter. If P dominates, test it before believing it, because a buyer may say price when they would rather not explain. If L stands out, put the lead time you quote beside the one you actually deliver.
An invented case: a woodworking machine maker in Yamunanagar
Take an invented maker of plywood-line machines in Yamunanagar with thirty-odd quotations in a notebook, sorted by date. The oldest went to a factory in Kerala four months ago. The sales head calls these first and hears "not decided yet". Nobody chases a quote to a unit near Bareilly, whose owner said "after the festival".
When the list moves into a sheet with the extra column, nine of the thirty turn out to have a decision date within two weeks, mostly with owners. Next morning the sales head asks each owner one question and gets four replies. One is an order, a small one, and one is a polite no on price. Two are still waiting for a date. Three of the old Kerala quotes close with an N once the buyer confirms the project is off. The sheet did not find new business. It stopped the sales head calling in the wrong order.
Old quotes and expired prices
A quote that has sat for two months may carry a steel rate that no longer holds. Decide first whether the price still stands. If the metal or resin has moved, say so on the call and offer a refreshed figure. A buyer who finds out later that your price was stale will not trust the next one. Write the validity date on every new quote, so the sheet can flag the lapsed ones without anyone remembering.
Where it is more than you need
With a dozen open quotes or fewer, a notebook and a good memory will do. If every quote goes to the same two buyers, you need a phone call, not a code list. The routine earns its place only once you start losing track of what is out there.
Do not let the codes turn into a blame sheet for the sales team. A pile of P codes may simply mean the product is priced above what that segment pays, which is the owner's decision, not the salesman's failing.
The daily top five
Take the top five by decision date, ask the five questions and update the sheet. It should take a short sitting, not a morning. The wording of the calls is in how to follow up on a quotation.
Add the column this afternoon
Open your enquiry list, add "who decides" and sort. Write the question beside the top five. If the list has outgrown a sheet, quotation and proposal follow-up is the service, the manufacturing hub has more for factories, and you can tell us what you need.
