Quote follow-up template for builders: the day 3 and day 7 messages

Most quotes that never turn into jobs were not lost to a cheaper price. They were lost to silence: the quote went out late, nobody followed it up, and the customer picked whoever replied first. Following up is the cheapest sales work a trades firm can do, and it is the first thing to slip when you are busy.

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Quote follow-up message maker: day 0, day 3 and day 7

Fill in the job, the total and the date the quote went out, then pick the day. The messages work out the date the quote runs to and print the diary date you are offering.

Which letterDay 0, with the quoteDay 3Day 7 Customer's first name The job, in a few words Quote total including VAT What the quote itemises Date the quote went outFor the day 3 and day 7 messages, put the date the quote was really sent. The 30 days it is valid for are counted from here. Diary date you can offer (day 7 message) Date you will hold it until (day 7 message) Your phone number Your name

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• Send the first message the day the quote goes out, the second on day 3 and the third on day 7.
• Only offer a diary date you can keep, and hold it until the day you said.
• Check the quote itself lists the exclusions, the payment terms and the 30 days it is valid for. A follow-up cannot rescue a vague quote.
• Keep each message short, and end it with a question or a choice.

The rule this rests on: The day 0, day 3 and day 7 follow-up sequence in our guide; the 30 days a quote stays valid is the firm's own term, not a legal rule. A draft to check and adapt, not legal advice.

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The follow-up messages

Send the first message the day the quote goes out, then one on day 3 and one on day 7. Change the names and details; keep them short and plain.

Day 0, with the quote

Hi [name], thanks for having us round. Your quote for [job] is attached: £[total] including VAT, with [labour and materials] itemised. It is valid for 30 days. If anything in it is not what you expected, tell me and I will change it. If you are happy, reply "yes" and I will find you a start date.

Day 3

Hi [name], just checking the quote for [job] reached you OK. Any questions on what is included? If it helps I can talk it through on the phone for five minutes.

Day 7

Hi [name], I have a gap in the diary on [date] if you still want the [job] done, and I would hold it for you until [day]. If you have gone another way, no problem at all; just tell me and I will close this off.

Three things make these work. Each ends with a question or a choice, so the easiest reply is a short one. The day 7 message gives a real date, which gives the customer a reason to answer now. And the last line makes it easy to say no, which gets you an answer rather than silence, and the reason a job was lost is the most useful thing you will learn all month.

What the quote itself must contain

A follow-up cannot rescue a vague quote. We tested what a good quote looks like by running the Quote Writer job description from our trades workflow pack against an invented site note. The note:

Mrs Example, 14 Sample Road. Bathroom refit, small room. Strip out old suite, new bath, toilet, basin, tile walls half height. Customer wants white. Two days plumber, three days me and lad, one day tiler.

The draft quote it produced:

Quote: bathroom refit, 14 Sample Road Strip out existing suite and dispose: £260 Supply and fit new bath, WC and basin (white, customer to approve model): labour £780, materials by choice Wall tiling, half height: labour £420, tiles at cost plus 10% Making good and clean: £120 Excluded: electrical work, structural changes, asbestos found on stripping out, any rot found behind existing walls. These are priced separately before we start. Payment: 25% deposit to book, balance on completion. Invoices are due 14 days from the date shown. Late payment by a business customer attracts statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Valid for 30 days.

What we learned from it: the useful parts were the exclusions and the payment terms, which busy owners most often leave off. The prices in it are placeholders we made up, because the test had no real price list. In a real firm they come from your price list and day rates, which an AI assistant set up by Overlyft keeps in its own notes, and Quote Writer asks you before anything goes to a customer: the prices are always yours to decide.

We tested one invented job, not a hundred real ones. It tells you the shape of the output, not how it copes with an awkward job, and we would not claim more.

Put the payment terms in the quote

The last line of the quote above is deliberate. Stating your terms up front means a late business customer has no surprise when the chasing letter arrives. Our guide on what late payment interest a builder can claim has the sums, and the letter template for chasing an unpaid invoice is what to send when it is late.

Doing it every time

The hard part is doing this for every quote, at the right time, when you are on a roof. That is the Quote Writer's job: it turns your site notes into the quote, waits for your approval, sends it, and follows up on day 3 and day 7. The messages above are the ones it starts from, in your voice.