How to follow up a quote without sounding desperate

You went round, measured up, answered the questions, went home and wrote the price up that evening. Then nothing. A week goes by and you start telling yourself they have gone with someone else. Most of the time they have not. They have just not got round to it. Knowing how to follow up a quote without sounding desperate is the difference between those jobs coming back to you and quietly going to whoever rang them next.

In my book I wrote that communication is where most tradesmen fall down, and reconnecting after quoting is one of the worst. The thinking goes “if they want me, they will ring me”. It sounds dignified. In practice it hands the job to somebody else.

Why most electricians never follow up a quote

It is rarely laziness. It is how it feels. Ringing someone about a price you have sent feels like asking for a favour, and nobody wants to sound like they are short of work. So the quote goes out and you wait.

Turn it round and look at it from the kitchen table. The customer has three prices, a busy week and a job that is not urgent. The electrician who rings back to check the quote made sense looks organised. The other two look like they did not care much either way.

Sounding desperate comes from what you say, not that you rang

Customers do not mind hearing from you. What puts them off is lines like these:

• “Just wondering if you had made a decision yet?”
• “I can probably do something on the price if that helps.”
• “Sorry to bother you again.”
• Ringing every other day.

Every one of those is about you. The way to follow up a quote that sounds professional is to make every contact about their job, their house and their dates. If a call does not tell them something useful or help them decide, do not make it.

Set it up before you leave the house

The easiest follow up is the one the customer already expects. Before you walk out of the door, tell them what happens next: “I will have the price over to you tomorrow, and I will give you a ring on Thursday to go through it in case anything needs explaining.”

Now Thursday’s call is not a chase. It is you doing what you said you would, which already puts you ahead of most of the others.

The two follow ups that win the job

The first one, two or three days after the quote goes out. Check they got it and ask if anything needs explaining. That is all. Something like: “Hi Mrs Taylor, it is Dave the electrician. Just checking the quote for the kitchen came through all right, and whether there is anything on there you want me to go through.” This is where the real questions come out. They did not understand what the second line meant, or they wanted to know if you would move the cooker, or they had a figure in their head and yours surprised them. You cannot answer any of that if you never ring.

The second one, about a week later, with a date. “I am booking up the next few weeks now. I could start on Tuesday the 10th or Monday the 16th. If either of those suits, let me know and I will pencil you in.” Two dates, not “whenever suits”. It gives them a reason to decide now instead of next month.

Ring first, text if they do not answer. A text that follows a missed call gets read. A text on its own is easy to ignore.

When they say “is that your best price?”

This question comes up on follow up calls more than anywhere else, and it is where most electricians give money away. Do not knock anything off. If you drop the price the second they ask, you have told them the first price was made up.

Ask what is behind it. Often it is another quote, and the other quote is for less work. Go through what yours includes, then add value rather than taking money off: test the rest of the circuits while you are there, or fit the extra socket they mentioned at the same time. If the job truly needs to cost less, change the job, not the price. Fewer lights, a simpler finish, phase it over two visits.

You can only hold your ground if you know the number underneath your price. If you are not sure your minimum charge covers what it costs you to open the van each morning, run it through the free Minimum Charge Calculator before you make another follow up call. A price you believe in is a lot easier to stand behind.

If price keeps being the sticking point, the article on what to say when a customer says another electrician is cheaper goes through that conversation properly.

Know when to stop

Two follow ups about the job, then stop chasing it. If they have not come back after the second, they either went elsewhere or they are not doing it yet. Ringing a third and fourth time is what desperate looks like.

What you do not do is bin them. Send a short, friendly last message: “No problem if the timing is not right. I will keep your details and if anything changes, give me a shout.” Then put them on your keep in touch list with everyone else. They hear from you a few times a year, without being sold to. Plenty of people who said no in the spring ring in the autumn, because you were the one who kept in touch.

Keep a list, not a memory

You will not remember who you quoted three weeks ago, not with a full diary. Keep a simple list: name, job, date sent, value, first follow up, second follow up, result. A notebook works. So does a spreadsheet or the notes in your quoting app.

After a couple of months that list tells you something useful: how many quotes you win, how many go quiet, and what changes when you follow up properly. Most electricians who start doing this find they were losing jobs they had already done all the work for.

If a lot of your prices never come back at all, look at which jobs you quote in the first place. The guide on whether electricians should charge for quotes covers qualifying on the phone.

What to do this week

Go back through every quote you have sent in the last month that has not had an answer. Ring each one and ask if the quote made sense. For the ones you have already spoken to, offer two start dates. Then start the list, and every time you leave a house after measuring up, tell them when you will ring.

The follow up messages, the quote template and the tracking sheet are the sort of things we work on together inside My Electricians ToolBox, along with the pricing tools. Membership is £127, and it is currently £97 a month if you want to have a look.

So how many quotes are sitting in your sent folder right now that you never rang about?