Notes for owners · Sales management
Quotation follow up: how to get an answer without chasing or discounting
Quotation follow up works when the next step is agreed before the quote is sent, each contact asks a specific question, and a price change is never the first move. Timings and messages you can copy.
The GullySales team · Updated 15 Sept 2026 · 7 min read
Quotation follow up works when three things are true. The next step was agreed before the quotation was sent. Every follow-up after sending the quotation asks one specific question rather than "any update?". And price is never the first thing you change. In practice that means a call within one working day to walk through the quote, then four or five contacts over two to four weeks, each carrying something new. The file closes with a polite final message. Most quotations are lost to silence and a missing next step, not to price.
Why quotations go quiet
A buyer who asked for a quotation and then stopped replying has usually not rejected you. More often one of these has happened:
- They are waiting for the other quotations to arrive.
- The decision sits with someone else, a partner, a plant head or a spouse, who has not seen it yet.
- The project date moved.
- Something in the quote was unclear and they did not ask.
- They chose someone else and did not tell you.
Each needs a different follow-up. So the first job of every follow-up call is to find out which one it is. Our note on why businesses lose leads after the first conversation goes through the causes in more detail.
Agree the next step before you send the quote
The strongest follow-up happens before the quotation leaves. When the buyer asks for a price, ask two questions in return: "When are you planning to decide?" and "Who else will look at this before you decide?" Then agree when you will call to walk through it: "I will send it by this evening. Can I call you on Thursday morning to go through it?"
A buyer who has agreed to a Thursday call takes it. A buyer who receives an unannounced PDF puts it in a folder with the others.
Make the quotation itself easy to follow up on. State the specification, quantity, price, taxes, delivery, payment terms and validity date, with a reference number and your name and mobile at the bottom. Our proposal development work treats the quotation as the most-read sales document a business sends, because it is.
A follow-up after sending quotation that you can run
Adjust the days for how fast your buyers decide. A modular kitchen or a machine takes longer than a consumable.
| When | Channel | What to do or say |
|---|---|---|
| Same day | "Quotation Q-214 attached as discussed. I will call on Thursday at 11 to go through it." | |
| Day 1 or 2 | Phone | Walk through the quote line by line; ask what the other quotes include |
| Day 4 or 5 | Send one piece of proof: a photograph of a similar job, a test certificate, a customer the buyer can call | |
| Day 8 to 10 | Phone | Ask directly: "Where does the decision stand, and is anything in our quote holding it up?" |
| Day 15 | A one-page summary the buyer can forward to whoever approves it | |
| Day 21 to 30 | Closing message: stopping for now, validity date, your number |
Every line carries something the buyer did not have before. That is the difference between a sales follow up process and a string of reminders.
Quotation follow up messages that get a reply
A quotation follow up message should be short, in your name, and end with a question that can be answered in one line.
Instead of "Just following up on the quotation I sent", try:
- "Did the 18 mm BWP ply in the quotation match what your carpenter specified, or should I requote in 19 mm?"
- "Your partner mentioned he would review the kitchen layout this week. Would a ten-minute call with him help?"
- "The quotation is valid until the 30th because steel prices are moving. Is the order likely before then, or should I hold the date for you?"
The last one is honest urgency. Only use a validity date that is real.
When price is the problem
Sometimes the buyer tells you another supplier is cheaper. Do not match it on the spot. Ask what the other quote includes, because a lower number often leaves out freight, installation, a warranty or a grade of material. Put the two quotations side by side with the buyer. If yours genuinely costs more for the same thing, decide whether to change the scope, the payment terms or the price, and trade: a lower price for a larger order, an advance, or a longer commitment.
Our guide to common sales objections covers the price conversation and the others that come up at this stage.
An example: a modular kitchen company in HSR Layout
For example, imagine a modular kitchen company in HSR Layout, Bengaluru, sending about sixty quotations a month after home visits. The details and figures below are illustrative. The designers email the quote and wait. Most families never reply, and the owner assumes they found something cheaper.
The company changes three things. The designer books the walk-through call during the home visit, with both decision-makers. Every quotation goes out on WhatsApp the same evening with the call time in the message. And the sequence above runs from the CRM, with the day five message carrying photographs of a finished kitchen in the same apartment complex where possible.
The owner now sees, every month, how many quotations had the walk-through call, how many reached the day ten question, and the reasons lost in the family's words. For example, if a typical kitchen is ₹3.5 lakh, winning four more of those sixty a month is worth far more than any discount would have saved.
What to do next
Pull your last twenty quotations and write next to each how many times it was followed up and whether a next step was agreed before it was sent. The gaps show where the work is. The free audit looks at the full path from enquiry to quotation to order, and the monthly report afterwards tracks quotation conversion against the baseline we record at the start.