After the quote
You sent the quote. Then nothing. Silence is not a no.
The short answer
Silence usually means they cannot decide yet, not that they picked somebody else. A follow-up that asks for an answer makes replying harder; one that brings new information makes it easy. Two messages, then stop.
Wednesday evening you wrote it properly. Dates, exclusions, what happens if you find something under there. You sent it, and it was a good quote.
It is now the Friday of the following week and there has been nothing at all. Not a no. Not a question. Nothing — which is worse, because you cannot do anything with it.
Silence is almost never a decision
It feels like one, which is why most people either write the job off or start nudging. Both are answers to a question that has not actually been asked yet.
Think about what is usually happening on the other side. The second quote has not arrived. The person who has to agree to it is away until the 20th. The money they were going to use has gone on a boiler. They have realized the driveway has to be done first and now the whole thing has moved to spring.
Not one of those is about you, and not one of them is resolved by being asked whether they have decided. Which is exactly what the usual follow-up asks.
“Just checking in” asks them to do the work
Look at that message from their side. It contains no information. It gives them nothing they did not have. So the only possible reply is a decision — and the decision is the thing they do not have yet.
So they do not reply. And now not replying has become the situation, and it gets heavier every week. By the third nudge, answering means explaining three weeks of silence, which is more awkward than the original decision ever was. You have made it harder to say yes.
A follow-up has to carry something new
That is the whole rule, and everything else follows from it. If the message contains a fact they did not have, replying is easy, because there is something to reply to. If it contains only a request, replying is work.
| What usually gets sent | What it asks of them | What to send instead |
|---|---|---|
| “Just checking in — any thoughts on the quote?” | Produce a decision they may not be able to make yet. | “The timber I priced goes up on the 1st. If you want it at this number I would need to order before then.” |
| “Did you get my quote?” | Confirm a fact you can already see in your sent folder. | “I have got a gap the week of the 14th that would suit your job — want me to hold it while you decide?” |
| “Just wondering whether you had made a decision?” | Explain the silence, which is now the awkward part. | “No rush at all. I will hold the price to the end of the month, then it moves with the materials.” |
| Nothing at all, ever | Nothing — but you have written the job off on their behalf. | One message at six weeks. See below; it is the one that earns. |
Every one of those only works if it is true. If the timber is not going up, do not say it is. A deadline you invented is the fastest way to become somebody whose word means nothing, and in a trade where people talk to their neighbours that is expensive for years.
Send it the way they last contacted you, not the way that suits your records. If the inquiry came by text, reply by text — it will be read within the hour. An email lands in a folder that a self-employed plumber’s customer might open on Sunday. And never re-attach the quote: the attachment says read all this again, which is the opposite of easy, and it makes a two-line message look like a demand.
You will be told elsewhere that it takes five to twelve contacts to close a job, and that most people give up after two. Those figures come from business-to-business selling, where a buyer expects a rep to stay in touch and nobody takes it personally. A fence is not that. Look at the same search results one line further down and you will find homeowners in forums describing how a tradesman who kept chasing made them feel — the people commissioning the work are telling you directly, on the same page, and they are the ones worth listening to.
The six-week message is the one that earns
It feels like the least likely of the two, and it is the opposite. By six weeks the other quotes have gone stale. If they did pick somebody, that person may have not turned up, or turned up and been a disappointment. And crucially, nobody else is still in touch, because everybody else stopped at day fourteen.
Here is what that is worth, using the same shape as elsewhere on this site. Twelve quotes a month, four of them won, so eight went quiet. The six-week message goes to those eight and takes about two minutes each.
| If this many of the eight come back | Extra jobs a month | Against the four you already win | Time it cost you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 4 | 2 | +50% | 16 minutes |
| 1 in 8 | 1 | +25% | 16 minutes |
| 1 in 12 | 0.7 | +17% | 16 minutes |
Read the last column rather than the first. Even the pessimistic row buys most of an extra job for a quarter of an hour, once a month. There is nothing else you can do with sixteen minutes that comes close.
Two messages, then genuinely let go
The third nudge is where a follow-up turns into a reputation. Not because anybody will be rude about it, but because you become the one who did not take the hint — and that gets mentioned, in the same conversation where the good recommendations get made.
Letting go is not deleting. The quiet ones are the most useful list you own: they wanted the work, they know your price, and they have already met you. That is the list to open in January, not a fresh advert.
The short version
- Silence is almost never a rejection. It is usually a delay you cannot see.
- Never send a message whose only content is a request for a decision.
- Every follow-up carries one new fact — and it has to be true.
- Day four, then six weeks. Two messages, not five.
- Build in a way for them to say “not yet” without deciding.
- Diary the six-week one the day you send the first.
- Then stop, and keep the name on a list.
- That list is what you work in a quiet month.
- Reply on the channel they used, and never re-attach the quote.
None of this is chasing. Chasing is what happens when the only thing you have to say is “well?”. Two messages that each hand somebody a reason to answer is not chasing — it is the part of the job that happens after the driving and before the digging.