Why You're Losing Jobs You Already Quoted For

Every exterior cleaner has a folder full of quotes that went nowhere. You drove out, measured up, worked out a fair price, wrote it up that evening — and heard nothing. After a week you assume they went cheaper, and you move on to the next one.

Some of them did go cheaper. But a lot of them didn't go anywhere at all. They meant to reply, the week got away from them, and by the time they thought about it again your quote was four screens down in their inbox. That job wasn't lost on price. It was lost to silence — and silence is the one reason you can actually do something about.

Quick answer: Get the quote out the same day — general sales research consistently finds that quotes sent within 24 hours close 20–30% better than ones sent a few days later. Then follow up. Around 80% of lost opportunities are never followed up at all, and closing typically takes about five touches, while most tradespeople stop after none.

The quote you sent on Tuesday

Put yourself on the customer's side of it. They asked three cleaners for a price. One never turned up. One quoted on the spot. You quoted on Tuesday night.

By Thursday they've read all three, and they're not comparing quality — they can't, they don't know what good looks like. They're comparing who feels most organised. Then their kid gets ill, the weekend arrives, and the whole thing drops off the list until the next time it rains and they look at the patio again.

Two weeks later they book whoever is in front of them at that moment. That's usually the one who followed up, not the one who was cheapest.

Speed beats price more often than you'd think

The single highest-return change most cleaners can make isn't their rate — it's the gap between looking at the job and sending the price.

Quote while you're still on site, or the same evening at the latest. Not because customers are impatient, but because of what a fast quote signals. Someone who prices a job in four minutes looks like someone who has done a thousand of them. Someone who takes four days looks like someone who's busy, disorganised, or working out whether they can be bothered.

You do not have to be the cheapest to win on this. You have to be the one who makes the customer feel like the job is already in hand. (If you're not confident in your numbers yet, our UK pricing guide covers the rates to anchor to.)

How many follow-ups is too many?

Most tradespeople send zero. A few send one. Almost nobody sends three — which is roughly where the research says the work actually gets won.

The fear is always the same: I don't want to pester people. Worth being honest about what pestering actually is. Pestering is three messages in five days, all saying the same thing, all obviously chasing money. It is not one polite message a week later asking whether they'd like to go ahead.

Nobody has ever thought less of a tradesperson for following up once. Plenty have gone elsewhere because nobody did.

A sensible ceiling for domestic work:

When	What it's for
~3 days after they've read it	They've seen the price and not replied — a nudge while it's fresh
~10 days	They meant to reply and forgot. This one wins the most work
~3–4 weeks	Closing the file. Surprisingly, often the highest reply rate of the three

Three, then stop. Put them on the list for next spring instead.

A sequence you can actually keep up

The reason most cleaners don't follow up isn't laziness — it's that following up properly means keeping a list of every quote you've sent, what date it went, whether they opened it, and when each one is next due a nudge. That's an admin job, and you're on a driveway.

So make it something that doesn't need remembering:

1. Send the quote from site, before you drive off. No evening admin, no backlog.
2. Know when they've read it. Following up three days after they opened your quote is a completely different message from chasing three days after you sent it into the void.
3. Automate the first nudge so it goes without you doing anything.
4. Keep a two-minute Friday habit — scan anything older than a fortnight and send the closing-the-file message.
5. Stop at three and add them to a spring list.

The bit that matters most is the second one. A follow-up sent to someone who has read your quote and gone quiet is a warm nudge. The same message sent to someone who never opened it should be a different message altogether — because their problem isn't the price, it's that they never saw it.

What to say

Keep them short. A follow-up that reads like a sales email gets deleted; one that reads like a bloke checking in gets a reply.

Day 3 — they've read it, no reply

Hi James — just checking you got the quote for the driveway alright. Happy to talk through anything on it, and I could fit you in the week after next if you'd like to go ahead.

Day 10 — still nothing

Hi James — following up on the driveway quote from a couple of weeks back. Still happy to do it at the same price. Is it something you're looking to get done before the winter?

Day 21–28 — closing the file

Hi James — I'll assume the timing isn't right for the driveway, so I'll leave you be. If it comes back round, drop me a line and I'll sort you out. All the best.

That last one gets more replies than either of the others, because it removes the pressure entirely. People answer it to say no, actually, can you still do it?

Three things to avoid:

• Don't drop your price in the follow-up. You teach the customer that waiting saves them money, and every future quote you send them is a starting offer.
• Don't apologise for following up. "Sorry to bother you" tells them it's a bother.
• Don't send "just checking in" with nothing after it. Give them something to reply to — availability, a date, a question.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly should I send a quote?

Same day. On site is better. The general finding across sales research is that quotes sent within 24 hours close 20–30% better, and the effect is strongest on jobs where the customer is getting three prices.

How many times should I follow up on a quote?

Three, spread over about a month. Most work that's going to come back comes back on the second or third. After that, keep them on a list for next season rather than continuing to chase.

Should I follow up by text or email?

Whichever they contacted you on. If they messaged you on Facebook, reply on Facebook. Text gets read fastest, but a quote worth several hundred pounds is worth an email the customer can show to their other half.

What if they've gone with someone cheaper?

Ask, politely, once. "No problem at all — was it down to price or timing?" You'll learn whether you're actually being undercut or whether you're losing on something you could fix for free, like how long you took to reply.

The bottom line

You almost certainly do not have a lead problem. You have a folder of people who liked you enough to ask for a price, and never heard from you again. Quote faster, follow up three times, keep the messages short, and stop discounting to solve a problem that was never about money.

That's the part MossyKit takes off your hands. The quote goes out from the driveway in about four minutes, you can see when the customer has read it, and the first follow-up sends itself three days later — so the jobs that were dying quietly in your sent folder come back to you instead.