Three Follow-Ups That Don't Make You Feel Like A Pest

Look. You sent the quote. Then nothing. And you sat there for a week and a half deciding whether following up makes you look desperate, and by the time you talked yourself into it they'd already gone with somebody else.

Here's what's actually true. Most people who go quiet on a quote aren't saying no. They're busy, or they're waiting on their spouse, or they forgot, or the email fell down the pile. Somebody else follows up and gets the job you already did the work to earn.

Stop being afraid of what you have control over. Three messages. Written once. Sent on a schedule you set. That's the whole thing.

What you need

• Claude
• Your phone and email
• A calendar. Any calendar. Your phone's is fine.

Setup

1. Run the prompt below. You'll get three messages: one for day 2, one for day 5, one for day 12.
2. Save all three somewhere you can find them fast. A note on your phone, a doc, a saved email draft, doesn't matter.
3. The part that makes it work: the second you send a quote, put three calendar reminders in. Day 2, day 5, day 12. Title them "Follow up: [customer name] quote." Ten seconds of work.
4. When the reminder pops, you copy the message, swap in their name and the job, hit send. Under a minute.
5. Send touch 1 and 3 by text, touch 2 by email. Text gets read, email gives them something to forward to whoever else has to say yes.

That's it. No software. No subscription. The system is a calendar reminder and three things you already wrote.

The prompts

Write the sequence:

I run a [YOUR BUSINESS TYPE] in [YOUR CITY]. I send quotes for
[WHAT YOU QUOTE, example: roof replacements / kitchen remodels /
monthly cleaning contracts / a treatment package]. Typical price range
is [RANGE]. Typical decision time is [HOW LONG PEOPLE USUALLY TAKE].

Write me a 3-touch follow-up sequence for a customer who got my quote
and went quiet.

TOUCH 1, day 2, by text. Under 200 characters. Just makes sure it
landed and didn't go to spam. Zero pressure. Do not ask if they've
decided.

TOUCH 2, day 5, by email. Under 120 words. This one adds something
useful instead of just checking in. Based on my business, pick one:
answer the objection people in my industry most often have but don't
say out loud, or clarify something in the quote that people commonly
misread. Tell me which one you picked and why.

TOUCH 3, day 12, by text. Under 250 characters. This is the honest
close. Gives them an easy out so they don't have to feel awkward
telling me no. Something like giving them permission to say it's not
happening. Make it feel like a real person wrote it, not a technique.

Rules for all three:
- No "just checking in." No "circling back." No "bumping this to the
  top of your inbox."
- No fake urgency, no fake discount deadline
- Never guilt them
- Write like I talk: [DESCRIBE HOW YOU TALK, or paste a real message
  you sent a customer]
- Each one has to work on its own, in case they only read one

Add a fourth for the big ones:

Same business. For quotes over [YOUR BIG NUMBER], write me one more
touch to send at day 30. This one assumes the job didn't happen and is
about staying on their list for later, not about reviving this quote.
Under 150 characters. It should be genuinely useful or genuinely human,
not a sales message.

Handle the answers:

Same business. Write short replies for the 4 most common things people
say back to a quote follow-up:
1. "Still thinking about it"
2. "We went with someone else"
3. "It's more than we budgeted"
4. "Can you do it for [lower number]"

Each under 100 words. For number 4, do not have me cave on price. Have
me offer to change the scope instead. Show me exactly how to say that.

What to check before you trust it

Read all three out loud before you send anything. If any of them sounds like a template, rewrite that one line. People can tell.

Never send touch 2 or 3 if they already answered you. Sounds obvious. It happens constantly, because the calendar reminder fires whether they replied or not. Delete the remaining reminders the second you hear back.

Put their actual name and the actual job in every message. "Following up on your quote" is dead on arrival. "Following up on the quote for the back bathroom" gets read.

Don't run this on somebody who told you no. One clean close-out message and you leave them alone. Chasing a no is how you become the person nobody takes a call from.

If your industry has rules about how you can contact people, and some do, check them before you set up anything that goes out on a schedule.

— Jordan