Quotation and proposal follow-up · Sales
The quotation went out three weeks ago and nobody has called them since.
Our proposal development page covers writing the document, and lead response and follow-up covers the first reply to a new enquiry. This page starts the moment the quotation leaves your office.
In one paragraph
Quotation and proposal follow-up is the routine that runs after a quote is sent: who calls, on which day, what they ask, and when a quotation is declared dead. GullySales builds the register, the follow-up ladder and the closing question, then reports what value of quotations is sitting open.
Most small businesses can tell you what they quoted last month. Very few can tell you what value of quotations is open right now, how old the oldest one is, or who is supposed to call it today.
So the quote sits in a WhatsApp thread with a blue tick and no reply. Sir will check and revert. Six weeks later somebody says the market is slow.
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“We do not know what is pending”
Quotations live in sent items, in a WhatsApp thread and in a rep's notebook. Nobody can total the open value on a Monday morning, so nobody manages it.
“The customer said he will revert and never did”
Nobody asked when he would decide. Without a date from the buyer, your follow-up has no reason to happen today rather than next week, so it happens never.
“We chase twice and then give up”
Two unanswered calls feel like a no. The buyer is usually waiting on somebody inside his own company, and the order goes to whoever was still present when that person finally moved.
“We revise the price before finding out what the objection is”
A discount is offered on the second follow-up to restart the conversation. The customer was actually waiting on a delivery date, so you have given away margin and answered the wrong question.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
A quotation register
Every quotation numbered, with value, date sent, buyer, the decision date they gave, the current stage and the next action date. It lives in your CRM if you have one and in a shared sheet if you do not.
The decision date asked for at send
One question added to the covering message: when do you expect to decide? An answer gives you a legitimate reason to call on a named day. A refusal to answer tells you something too.
A follow-up ladder by value
A two lakh quotation and a fifteen thousand rupee quotation do not get the same treatment. The ladder sets how many contacts, on which channel, over how many days, for each band.
What to say on each rung
The first call confirms the document was received and understood, and asks nothing about the order. Later contacts carry a reason: a validity date, a revised delivery slot, a question about their drawing.
The revision rule
Versions numbered, what changed noted, and a limit agreed. By the third revision the price is rarely the problem, and the conversation moves to whoever has not yet been spoken to.
Close-out in three buckets
Won, lost, or no decision, with the reason captured in the buyer's own words. No decision is usually the largest bucket and the one nobody measures.
Owner escalation for the top quotations
A short list where a call from you, not the rep, is worth making, and the point in the ladder where that call happens.
The monthly read
Open quotation value, ageing, contacts made per quotation, and win rate by value band, in the monthly report against the baseline taken before the work started.
How the result is measured
- Value of quotations open, and the age of the oldest
- Quotations with a decision date recorded
- Contacts made per quotation against the ladder
- Win rate by value band
- Share closed as no decision rather than lost
- Reasons recorded in the buyer's words
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, then reported every month against it.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Manufacturers and fabricators sending a dozen or more quotations a month against a drawing or a tender
- Interior, modular kitchen and turnkey firms whose quote is revised three times before anyone decides
- Service firms selling annual contracts, where the renewal quote and a new quote look identical in the file
- Owners who personally chase the big quotations and have no idea what is happening to the rest
- Teams where the rep says following up looks desperate and the quotations quietly age out
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- A counter or retail business with no quotation stage, where the price is on the board and the sale happens once
- Firms sending four or five quotations a month, where a diary and a disciplined owner already do this
- Anyone hoping automated reminder messages will replace the call, because a large quotation is closed by a person on the phone
How it works
From your first message to the first monthly report.
No open-ended retainer. Each step has a point in time and something you receive.
01 · Day 1
Free audit call
45 minutes with whoever handles your enquiries: how they arrive, how fast they are answered, where they are lost.
02 · Within a few working days
Written, scored report
Six areas scored, fixes ranked by return and cost. If you want our help, the scope and fee come with it, in writing.
03 · Before work starts
Baseline recorded
Enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order, written down so every later month has an honest comparison.
04 · Month 1
The first fix goes live
Usually the cheapest one on the report: reply time, a follow-up sequence or the marketing-to-sales handover.
05 · Every month
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words.
06 · Month 3 to 6
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. No twelve-month lock.
How the quotation and proposal follow-up work runs
- 1
Pull six months of quotations
We count them, total them and find out what happened to each. Most owners discover here that a third were never followed up at all.
- 2
Find where they die
Usually one stage does most of the damage: no first confirmation call, or no contact after the first revision. We fix that rung before building the rest.
- 3
Design the ladder and the wording
Value bands, contact counts, channels and days, with the actual words for each step written in your team's language rather than a script they will not read aloud.
- 4
Set up the register and the reminders
In your CRM where one exists, in a sheet where it does not, with the next action date on every open quotation and an owner's name against it.
- 5
Run one cycle with the team
We sit through a fortnight of real follow-ups, listen to the calls and correct the questions. This is where a good ladder survives contact with a busy rep.
- 6
Report and tune
Win rate and no-decision share are read monthly, and the ladder changes where the numbers say it should.
Proof
What happened when owners fixed this.
Real clients, the work we did, and the result as it was recorded. Where no number was recorded, none is claimed.
Kambar Group
- Situation
- Selling ran on instinct. There was no settled sales process and no objectives concrete enough to measure a month against.
- What we did
- Direction and targets
- The customers researched
- Prospecting and qualification
- Marketing channels developed
- Result
- No numbers were recorded for this engagement. The work is described in full in the case study.
Chord Road Hospital
- Situation
- Patients who knew the hospital trusted it. Patients who searched for a department or a treatment in the area did not find it.
- What we did
- Website rebuilt around patient needs
- Search visibility
- Social media on a schedule
- Review management
- Result
- Organic traffic increased 60% within six months
- Online appointment bookings increased 40%
- Social following grew 45%, and engagement on it rose 70%
Hotel Felicity Inn
- Situation
- A traveller compares three hotels on a phone and books one. The website was not built for that.
- What we did
- The site rebuilt around booking
- Photography and one look
- Search work for destination searches
- Content a traveller reads
- Result
- Online bookings increased 35%
- Organic traffic increased 50% within six months
- Positive reviews on Google and TripAdvisor increased 30%
Also worked with
Curtain Label · Difesa Security Services · Hands On CSR · Implevista · Kalessi · Kerur Pain Clinic · LL Trust · Lucky Deals · Natural Gases · NavaShakthi Souhardha · NewCom Logistics · Proton Technical Services · SB Engineering · Shakthi Foundation · Shakthi Group · Urbanest · Insyde Studio · Venkateshwara Laser Tech · Vivara Studios
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every monthly report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No lock-in, no guarantees we cannot keep
Three to six months at a time. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Engagement options
Ways to work with us.
Pick the size of commitment that fits. Every option starts with the free audit.
Option 1
The audit on its own
A 45-minute call and a written, scored report. It says honestly whether you need outside help, and many fixes are ones your own team can make.
Option 2
One fix, scoped
Start with the fix the audit ranks first, such as reply time or follow-up. The fee is in writing before anything starts.
Option 3
A three-to-six-month programme
We run the work month by month, report against the baseline every month, and you renew on the numbers. No twelve-month lock.
Option 4
Guidance for your own team or agency
We plan, brief and check the work of your in-house team or current agency, instead of replacing them.
The offer
Start with a free audit of how you sell.
It is useful on its own, whether or not you hire us.
What you receive
- A 45-minute call with the person who will do the work
- A written, scored report on the six places orders leak, within a few working days
- Every fix ranked by what it returns and what it costs
- The one thing to do first, and why
- An honest line on whether you need outside help at all
- If you do, the scope and the fee in writing
No invoice. No obligation. No sales script.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How many times should we follow up before stopping?
Does following up this much annoy customers?
Should this be done on WhatsApp or by phone?
Our win rate is low. Will follow-up fix it?
Do we need a CRM for this?
What does this cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
By industry
Quotation and proposal follow-up, written for your industry.
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Read before you buy
- How to advertise to purchase managersA purchase manager is unreachable until a requirement exists. The only work that pays before that is getting into the vendor file, and getting your model into the specification someone else writes.
- How to promote a manufacturing companyA purchase manager is not buying your company. They are buying a process, a tolerance, a certificate, a capacity and a delivery date. Promote those.