Stop letting quotes go quiet

What's inside

• Quotes. One row per quote: client, service, value, status (Draft, Sent, Won, Lost), date sent and next follow-up. The expiry date, days open and what to do next work themselves out.
• “What to do”. Follow-up overdue and Expired in red; Follow up today and Expiring soon in amber. Chase – no follow-up set in orange marks a quote sent days ago with nothing planned. Those are the ones that quietly die.
• Dashboard. Open quotes and their value, win rate by count and by value, quotes needing action today, average days to a decision, won this year, plus win rate by service and the reasons you lose.
• Settings. How long your quotes stay valid, when to warn you before they expire, your list of services and your lost reasons.
• Check column. Flags a missing value, date sent, decision date or lost reason, so the numbers stay honest.

How the numbers work

• Win rate = quotes won ÷ quotes decided (won + lost). Quotes still open don't count either way. Some CRMs divide by every quote sent instead, which gives a lower number, so compare like with like.
• Win rate by value = value won ÷ value decided, using the won value you enter, such as after a discount, when there is one. If it's lower than your win rate by count, you're winning the small jobs and losing the big ones.
• Expiry = date sent + days valid. There's no fixed legal period for how long a quote lasts. Thirty days is common practice, so it's the default, and you can change it per quote or in Settings. State the expiry on the quote itself.

Using it

1. Set your validity period and services on Settings.
2. Log each quote the day you send it, and set a Next follow-up date.
3. Each morning, work through the red and amber rows.
4. When a client decides, change the status to Won or Lost and add the date. Add the reason if you lost it.

In Google Sheets: upload to Drive, right-click → Open with → Google Sheets, then File → Save as Google Sheets.

Part of a set

Quotes come from leads and turn into jobs and invoices. Track leads with the lead tracker, the cost of each won job with job costing, and getting paid with the invoice tracker.