Quotations & Follow-Up
Construction companies can spend hours — sometimes days — pricing a project.
Labour is calculated. Materials are checked. Subcontractor prices are chased. Programme implications are considered. Margins are reviewed. The quotation is submitted. Then surprisingly little may happen.
DATUM BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT / COMMERCIAL INSIGHT
Quotation follow-up
For many contractors, the work before submission has a clear sequence. Drawings are reviewed, packages are priced, risk is considered and the final number is checked before issue.
After submission, the process can become much looser. The opportunity may sit in a sent folder while the estimator moves on, the director becomes busy, and nobody is quite sure when the client will respond.
A QUOTATION ISN’T FINISHED WHEN IT’S SUBMITTED.
IT’S FINISHED WHEN YOU KNOW THE OUTCOME.
Submission
Once the price is issued, the business should understand what happens next. That does not require a heavy process, but it does require basic visibility.
For every meaningful quotation, the company should know:
Why it slips
Most missed follow-up is not caused by lack of interest. It is caused by lack of ownership.
01
The estimator moves onto the next tender.
02
The director becomes busy operationally.
03
Nobody owns the opportunity after submission.
04
The business is wary of appearing pushy.
05
There is no central pipeline or follow-up date.
06
Everyone assumes the client will make contact.
Useful follow-up
Good follow-up is not repeatedly asking: “Any update?”
Useful follow-up can include confirming receipt, checking whether clarification is required, understanding the procurement timetable, discussing alternatives, providing requested information, confirming the decision date, arranging a tender interview and keeping the relationship active.
The point is not to hassle the client. It is to understand the opportunity properly and keep the commercial conversation alive.
Feedback
Losing a quotation is still commercially useful if the business records why.
Possible reasons include price, programme, specification, incumbent supplier, relationship, capacity, scope misunderstanding, procurement change or project cancellation.
Without feedback, the same mistakes and assumptions can continue. A company may keep pricing unsuitable work, misunderstanding buyer priorities or missing the same clarification points because nobody is capturing what happened.
Process
01 Quotation issued
↓02 Receipt confirmed
↓03 Next review date recorded
↓04 Follow-up completed
↓05 Clarifications / revisions managed
↓06 Decision recorded
↓07 Won / lost reason captured
↓08 Future relationship action set
If your business spends significant time pricing work, it should spend enough time managing what happens to those prices afterwards.
Construction Growth Review
Datum's Construction Growth Review looks at how enquiries, quotations, follow-up and pipeline ownership are currently managed in your business.