An enquiry comes in. You quote. You follow up once, maybe twice. Nothing. You move on and quietly assume they went elsewhere.
Sometimes they did. Often they simply had a week where your quotation was not the most important thing in their life.
Why people stop too early
Because silence feels like rejection, and following up a third time feels like begging.
It is worth separating those. A customer who has said no has said no. A customer who has said nothing has not decided, and the person who is still politely present when they do decide has a real advantage.
A sequence that is persistent without being irritating
- Day 1: Quotation sent, confirmed received
- Day 3: Short check that everything is clear
- Day 8: A phone call, not a message
- Day 15: Something useful, not a chase
- Day 30: A plain close-out
The two that matter most
Day 8, because it is a call. Messages are easy to leave unanswered and calls are not, and a two-minute conversation usually reveals the actual position.
Day 30, because a clear ending gets a surprising number of replies. "I will assume this is not going ahead for now, do let me know if that changes" often produces the answer that four polite reminders did not.
Change the message each time
Five copies of "just following up" is what makes persistence feel like pestering. A question, a relevant example, a note that something has changed. Each one should give the reader a reason to reply that is not guilt.
Then record the outcome
Won, lost, or postponed, with a date. A quotation with no recorded ending is what quietly becomes the pile everybody stops looking at.
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