Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How contract logistics providers follow up after bidding
After a contract logistics proposal goes in, weeks pass in clarifications, site visits and negotiation. This post covers who to keep talking to, what to send and what to record in that silence.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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After a contract logistics proposal goes in, the work that wins it is mostly answering questions, hosting a site visit and holding a price through negotiation. Keep one named person on the thread, put every clarification and every date in a register, send something useful at each stage and never ring just to ask whether there is news. The firms that go quiet after submission are not saved by a better proposal. They are usually replaced by the one that stayed in the room.
What actually happens in the weeks after you submit
A shipper does not read a proposal and decide. The supply chain head reads it, sends it to finance and quality, and asks operations to look at your site. Procurement lines up your price against two or three others. A consultant, if there is one, writes a comparison sheet. Questions come back in batches, sometimes from three different people who have not spoken to each other.
During all this, you are being assessed on how you behave as a vendor. Do you reply consistently? Do you turn up when you said you would? Does the operations person who answers the safety question agree with the sales person who answered the price question? The buyer is trying out what working with you would be like.
Who is on your side of the thread?
Name one person who owns the conversation with the buyer, and one person in operations who owns the technical answers. Say who they are in the covering note. Buyers are put off by a proposal followed by five people phoning separately.
If a consultant runs the process, the consultant is the buyer you are talking to. The contract logistics provider's FAQ covers how to treat that relationship. The rule is simple: answer through the consultant, in writing, and never go round.
What to put in the register
For every live bid, a single row or card records:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Buyer, consultant and each person who has asked a question | You will forget who asked what in week five |
| Date submitted, and the dates the buyer gave for the next steps | Your follow-up hangs on their dates, not yours |
| Each clarification asked, who answered, and the version sent | Answers must agree with each other and with the proposal |
| Competitors you know of, and the incumbent | Decides whether you compete on price, service or transition |
| Version of the price and who approved it | A discount must be traceable |
| Next action and its owner | The bid is alive only while this line is filled in |
The CRM page for contract logistics providers lists the same fields with the reasons. A spreadsheet is enough to start.
What to send, and when it is useful
Think about the buyer's next step and send what helps with it. If the client's team will visit your site, send a visit plan: who they will meet, what they will see, which safety induction applies. If finance is comparing, send a one-page note that explains the pricing model, what is fixed, what moves with volume, and what happens to the price if volumes swing. Procurement tends to flatten a model to a rate per pallet position. A note that shows why that comparison misleads gives them something they can defend internally.
If a reference is likely, check that the client agreed to take calls, and brief them before the buyer rings. Arranging that in an evening is the scramble the referral marketing page tells you to avoid by asking for consent at signing.
What to do when the buyer goes silent
Silence in week three is normal. Silence after the date they gave you is not. If the buyer said a decision would come at the end of the month and the month has ended, send a short note that offers something specific: an updated transition plan, an answer to a point raised earlier or a proposed date for a call with the client's operations head. Do not send a general reminder.
For example, a Bhiwandi warehousing firm bidding for a consumer durables client's regional distribution centre might send a one-page transition note, setting out how the existing stock would move across and who in the firm would stand at the dock. That tells the client the work has been thought through. A message that asks for an update tells them nothing.
What to do next
Open your last three bids, won and lost, and list every contact you had after submission, with the date and what it carried. Mark each as useful or empty. If most were empty, the register above and a standing rule that no contact goes out without something in it will change that. Next, make sure the next person who asks to call a client reference gets an answer the same day. If you would like your bid follow-up reviewed against how your enquiries and proposals are actually handled, book the free audit.