Prompt · Follow-up
Follow-up after sending a quote
Get a decision. A no now is worth more than a maybe for six weeks.
- Email type
- Follow-up
- Business
- Local service
- Tone
- Professional
- Length
- 60-100 words
The follow-up email prompt
Write a plain-text follow-up to someone I sent [THE QUOTE] to, who has not replied. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes. A clear no is a good outcome here. Write it that way. Rules: - 60 to 100 words. Shorter than the quote email. - Reference the quote and roughly when it went, so they do not have to go looking. - Address [THE OPEN QUESTION] in one sentence — the thing they were probably weighing. Naming it is what turns a nudge into a useful email, and it often surfaces the real objection. - Do not discount. Do not offer to "work with their budget". A price that drops on the first follow-up was never the price, and they will remember that on the next job. - State [WHAT CHANGES WITH TIME] only if it is genuinely true. If nothing changes, say the quote stands and leave it there. - Make a no easy and explicit: one line inviting them to say if they have gone another way, with no guilt attached. - Never invent a number, statistic, price or deadline beyond what I have supplied. - No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case. Write a subject line of five words or fewer referencing the job, not the follow-up. Return subject, body, sign-off.
What to fill in first
[THE QUOTE]- What you quoted for, and roughly when. Specific enough that they do not have to search.
[THE OPEN QUESTION]- The thing they were probably weighing. Timing, scope, price, a decision they need from someone else.
[WHAT CHANGES WITH TIME]- Anything genuinely time-bound. A booked-up month, material costs, a price valid for 30 days. If nothing, say nothing.
When to send it
Three to seven days after the quote, depending on the size of the job. Big decisions take longer and chasing early reads as needing the work; small ones go cold fast. One follow-up, then one final note weeks later, then stop.
What to change first
[THE OPEN QUESTION]. A follow-up that only asks whether they have had a chance to look is a request
for attention. Naming the actual hesitation — the timing, the scope, the person they need to ask —
gives them something easy to reply to, and the reply usually tells you whether the job was ever real.
What good output looks like
Subject: The loft quote
Sent you the loft conversion quote a week ago, so following up once.
My guess is the question is whether it can be done before Christmas. It can, but only if we start before the end of October — after that the next slot is February.
If you have gone with someone else or shelved it, just say so and I will stop chasing. Either is a fine answer.
The prompt writes the words. Bring them here and the studio builds the campaign — branded, dark-mode safe, and ready to import.
Generate your ownIn the studio
A model writes copy. It does not write email.
Production HTML that survives Outlook, dark mode and a Gmail clip is a different job from writing the words. Describe the send once and export it to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign or MailerLite.