Why Most Quotes Die
Most local business owners send one follow-up after a quote, hear nothing back, and quietly write the lead off. They blame the customer, the price, the market. The real problem is the system — or the absence of one.
Industry data on long-cycle home services quotes consistently shows the same pattern: 30–40% of 'dead' quotes are recoverable with the right follow-up sequence. That's not a tiny slice. For a business doing $500K a year in quoted work, it's six figures sitting in a graveyard of unanswered text threads.
Why one follow-up isn't enough
- Day 1–2: They're comparing quotes. Your message gets buried.
- Day 3–7: They're stalling. Life got busy. The job isn't urgent yet.
- Day 8–14: They've cooled off — or another contractor is reeling them in.
- Day 15–30: They've either booked someone else, or that someone has flaked.
Each window needs a different message. Sending the same 'just checking in' four times in a row is what makes follow-up feel like nagging.
The 5-rung ladder
- Day 3 — the first check-in
- Day 7 — the value-add re-engage
- Day 14 — the soft close (the highest-converting message in the whole sequence)
- Reply-handlers: 'I got a cheaper quote' and 'we went with someone else'
- Day 30 — the dormant lead revival
Save this module. Each lesson is a copy-paste script you can drop into your phone, your CRM, or your truck — and use the same day a quote goes quiet.