Illustrative example, not a specific client.

Quotes go out and go quiet → a bid board with a next touch.

Two estimators and an owner who still babysits the big bids. The proposal goes out as a PDF. After that, follow-up is whoever remembers. The GC awards the job to the sub who called back.

Book discovery →

18 quotes go quietBefore

2 awards from that pileAfter

5 hrs/wk down to 45 minTime

$56k awarded/moValue

01 · Problem

About 30 quotes go out in a month. 12 of them get a real second conversation, because the GC calls or someone remembers. 18 go quiet. On the 12 that get a conversation, about 1 in 4 awards, which is 3 jobs. On the quiet 18, about 2 still award, usually because the number was low, not because anyone followed up. The big hospital bid is not in this pile. The owner is already on that one. This pile is the smaller project and service quotes, around $28,000 each, that leave the building and vanish.

02 · Trigger

The owner asks, on a Thursday, which GCs are deciding this week. The honest answer is a scroll through Sent mail. A project engineer has already awarded two jobs the estimators did not know were due.

03 · Diagnosis

Estimating is not the leak. The number is already out the door. The leak is the 18 quotes with no next touch, no decision date, and no one who owns the reply. A "just checking in" email, written from scratch when someone feels guilty, is not a follow-up system.

04 · Build

Every quote that goes out lands on a board with a sent date, the GC, the decision date they gave, and a next touch. Day 2 is a short note that names the bid date, the scope, and one alternate. Day 7 is a call. If nobody picks up, the note asks where they are in the award, not whether they saw the email. The day they said they would decide, one last touch, then it closes. A reply, an award, or a loss stops the sequence the same day. A person writes anything after the GC responds. The owner keeps the large bids they are already on.

05 · What stays human

→Pricing, value engineering, and any fight about scope.
→The relationship with a GC who wants the number changed.

06 · Adoption

Estimators stop rebuilding "circling back" from a blank email. That was about 5 hours a week. They spend about 45 minutes reviewing replies that actually came in. Monday, the owner looks at the board, not at Sent mail.

07 · Designed change

Of the 18 quotes that used to go quiet, 11 get a conversation they were not getting. 2 of those 11 become awards that were going to whoever called the GC back. At about $28,000 each, that is $56,000 a month in awarded work. It is not margin, and it is not the large bids the owner already chases. It is the pile that currently gets nothing after send.

08 · 30 and 60 days

30 days. New quotes land on the board the day they are sent. The day-2 and day-7 touches run on those new bids only. Old Sent mail is not backfilled.

60 days. The board is the Monday meeting. Quiet GCs are visible, decision dates are on the card, and a reply pulls the quote out of the sequence so nobody gets a nudge after they already said no.

Questions owners ask

Will this email a GC who already told us we lost?

No. A reply, an award, or a loss closes that quote the same day. The next touch does not go out.

What about the large bid the owner is already on?

It stays with the owner. The board is for quotes that currently get nothing after they are sent.

Does the estimator still build the number?

Yes. The sequence starts after the PDF goes out. Takeoff, pricing, and alternates stay with the estimator.

Quotes go out and go quiet → a bid board with a next touch.

Questions owners ask

Will this email a GC who already told us we lost?

What about the large bid the owner is already on?

Does the estimator still build the number?

Book a call if Sent mail is your bid log.