How to follow up a quote you’ve sent to a business

Why a quote to a business goes quiet

When a homeowner goes quiet after a quote it usually means no. When a business goes quiet it often means nothing has happened yet, because the person you sent it to can't say yes on their own. The property manager is waiting on an owner who lives interstate, the strata manager is holding three quotes for the next committee meeting, and the builder can't book you until their own client signs. A good follow-up finds out which of those is going on and makes you easy to say yes to when the moment arrives. Writing the quote itself is covered in how to quote for commercial work. If you're chasing a business that never answered your first email, following up a business email is the better read.

Set up the follow-up when you send the quote

The easiest follow-up is one you've already announced. In the email that carries the quote, say when you'll check back and why, so your next message doesn't arrive out of nowhere. Something as plain as this does the job:

Hi Priya, the quote for the stairwell repaint at 22 Wattle St is attached and it's valid until 30 November. You mentioned the committee meets on the 12th, so I'll ring you on the 13th to see if they had any questions.

If you didn't find out at the site visit who decides and when, ask in this email, because most business buyers will happily tell you. The Queensland Government's business advice suggests getting in touch 7 to 14 days after you send a quote, which is a sensible default when you have nothing better to go on. When you do know the decision date, follow up the day after it instead.

Check that the quote arrived as well. A large attachment sent to a general admin address can sit in a filter for weeks, so a one-line text to the person you met is worth sending.

Find out who decides, and when

Each kind of business client has its own reasons for taking time. Knowing them stops you chasing someone who can't act yet.

Strata in Queensland

Strata is where the rules really shape the timing. Queensland's Standard Module regulation, which covers many bodies corporate, gives the committee a spending limit. Unless the owners have set another figure at a general meeting, it's $200 multiplied by the number of lots, so the committee of a 12-lot building can approve $2,400 on its own. A job over that limit generally needs the owners' approval at a general meeting. There's also a separate limit for major spending, which by default is the lesser of $1,100 per lot or $10,000, and above it at least two quotes have to be obtained and considered. When the decision goes to a general meeting, copies of those quotes go out with the notice of the meeting. That's why a strata manager who likes your price may still need a second quote before anything moves.

Strata in NSW

The NSW Government says every scheme, whatever its size, must get at least two independent quotes for work valued at $30,000 or more, except for emergency repairs. The owners corporation or the strata committee then approves the preferred quote and supplier. Below that figure, who can approve depends on what each scheme has delegated, so ask the strata manager what their approval limit is for a job like yours.

In either state, don't offer to break a job into smaller quotes to slip under a limit. The Queensland regulation treats a series of proposals that form a single project as one cost, and a strata manager won't thank you for putting them in that spot. Offering a first stage that genuinely stands on its own is different, and it's often how a big job gets started.

What to say in each follow-up

Every follow-up should be easy to answer in one line. "Just checking in" makes them work out who you are and what you quoted, so name the job, the site and the date of the quote, and ask a single question.

The first follow-up asks whether they have any questions and whether the timing has changed. The second, around the decision date, should bring something new. That might be a start date you can hold, a material price that's about to move, or an offer to walk the committee through the scope. A property manager whose owner has had the quote for a fortnight might get this:

Hi Sam, following up the gutter and fascia quote for 8 Ridge Rd that I sent on 3 October. If it helps the owner decide I can send photos of the worst sections, and I can still hold the week of the 17th for it.

Ring the people you'd normally ring. Property managers and site supervisors often answer a call faster than an email, while a strata manager looking after dozens of buildings usually prefers something they can forward. If you do call, send a two-line email afterwards, because the final decision is often made by someone reading the record rather than the person you spoke to.

If they tell you the price is too high, ask what they're comparing it with before you change anything. A cheaper quote sometimes leaves out something yours includes, and pointing to that line in your scope does more than dropping your price. If you do revise it, send a new quote with a new date instead of a figure buried in an email.

What the validity date means

The Queensland Government's business advice says that a quote, once accepted by the customer, becomes a legally binding contract. It also warns that without an expiry date you may have to honour a price that loses you money. So the date on your quote is the last day they can take up that price. If a client comes back after it has passed, treat it as a new conversation and confirm in writing whether the old price still stands or send a fresh quote with a new date.

The validity date is also an honest reason to get in touch. A week before it runs out you can remind them the price holds until then and ask whether they'd like it extended, and that isn't pressure as long as the date was real when you set it.

Councils and other public bodies work the other way around. When you quote through a request for quote, their conditions usually decide how long your price must stay open and who you're allowed to contact. One Queensland council's quotation terms, for example, treat a quote as an irrevocable offer that stays open for 90 days from the closing date. They also send every enquiry to a single quotations email address and warn that contacting other staff may get a quote rejected. Follow up only through the channel they name, and ask for the debrief they offer once the contract is awarded. Our guide to winning council work covers the rest of that process.

When the work is on someone's home

A property manager is a business client, but the house they manage is still a home, and that changes what happens after they say yes. In Queensland the QBCC says domestic building work priced over $3,300 (including labour, materials and GST) needs a written contract that is dated and signed by each party. Repairing, altering or improving a house, duplex or unit counts as domestic building work, and the QBCC also says a variation has to be put in writing before the extra work starts. In NSW, Building Commission NSW requires a written contract for residential building work over $5,000. Work worth $5,000 to $20,000 uses a small jobs contract, and a large jobs contract over $20,000 must include a cooling-off period of five clear business days. For both kinds of contract the deposit can't be more than 10 percent.

So for building work on a rental, an email saying "go ahead" starts the paperwork rather than finishing it. Your next step is to send the contract promptly and ask who will sign for the owner. These rules cover residential building work only, so a commercial cleaning or grounds maintenance contract sits outside them. The licence side is in our guide to insurance and licences business clients ask for.

When to let it go

Two follow-ups after the quote, plus one around the decision date if you know it, is usually enough. Past that, more messages make you sound like hard work rather than keen. Let it go when they've told you they chose someone else, when the decision date has passed and two messages have gone unanswered, or when the job keeps sliding to next month with no reason given.

Close the loop with one short message that makes it easy to come back:

Hi Priya, I'll take the stairwell job off my list for now. If the committee picks it up again I'm happy to requote, and if you have a minute I'd like to know what decided it.

Then put a reminder in your diary. Committees come back to jobs at the next annual meeting, maintenance contracts come up for renewal, and the contractor who won doesn't always last. The quote you lost in March can turn into the job you win in September, because you stayed polite and kept the file. If you'd rather spend your time quoting than finding the next business to quote for, Curlew finds and writes to strata managers and other business clients in your business name.