OpsByFabian
Fabian Janiszewski
fabian@opsbyfabian.com
+34 656 674 297
opsbyfabian.com
Working playbook
Recover the quotes that go cold and tidy up follow-up
For companies with a sales or office team that prepare quotes. First you see where the sale is lost. Then you decide which process to tidy up first.
How to use this playbook
- Print it on A4 or open it on your phone and take notes as you go.
- Have 5 to 10 recent real quotes in front of you.
- Tick the boxes based on how you work today, not how you should.
- What stays unticked is usually where the sale slips away.
- Finish with the 7-day plan to tidy up the most urgent gaps.
Why quotes are not just documents
A quote is the moment the customer decides whether they trust you. Behind every proposal sits price, margin, response time, and follow-up. When that process is slow or leans on memory, you do not lose a document: you lose the sale and the reason you lost it.
- A slow proposal leaves room for the customer to ask someone else.
- Without follow-up, a good proposal goes cold on its own.
- If margin is not visible before sending, you sell cheap without knowing.
- When a sale is lost and nobody notes why, the mistake repeats.
The full commercial workflow
This is the path of a quote. Mark the step where yours usually gets stuck.
- Request
- Preparation
- Margin
- Approval
- Send
- Follow-up
- Won or lost reason
- Knowledge retained
If the last step, knowledge retained, does not exist, every sale teaches something that is then forgotten.
Quote speed checklist
Tick what you already have sorted today.
- I know where prices come from and they are up to date.
- Someone checks the margin before sending.
- Product notes live in a fixed place, not in people's heads.
- Repeated quote lines are reused, not rewritten.
- I know which part is built from scratch every time.
- There is a shared template so everyone quotes the same way.
Follow-up checklist
Tick what is clear and defined today.
- Every quote has a named owner.
- It is defined when the first follow-up happens.
- There is a clear step for when the customer does not reply.
- High-value quotes are flagged and prioritised.
- We know how many proposals are open right now.
- Nothing depends only on someone remembering.
Margin visibility checklist
Tick what is visible before a proposal goes out.
- The real cost of what is quoted is visible.
- The discount applied is visible.
- The resulting margin is visible, not just the final price.
- There is an approval threshold for large discounts.
- A warning appears when margin drops below an acceptable level.
- Management can see the margin without asking by email.
Commercial knowledge checklist
Tick what is written down somewhere, not just known.
- Client preferences (how they like to work, timelines, payment terms).
- Common objections and how they are answered.
- Notes on competitors and how they compete.
- Delivery constraints or lead times by product.
- Product notes: details that prevent quoting mistakes.
- What leaves the company the day a salesperson does.
Lost sales review
Take 3 to 5 recently lost quotes and answer honestly.
Why was it really lost? (not the first excuse)
Was follow-up done, or was it left to die?
Was price the real issue, or just what the customer said?
Was it speed: did we get the proposal there too late?
Pattern that repeats across lost sales
7-day cleanup plan
One step a day. You do not need software to start: a sheet and discipline are enough.
Day 1. Map the current quote process from start to finish.
Day 2. List every active quote and its status.
Day 3. Mark the quotes with no follow-up.
Day 4. Define the follow-up rules (when and who).
Day 5. Gather product notes into a single place.
Day 6. Define margin warnings and the approval threshold.
Day 7. Review it all with the team and agree the first change.
Want me to go through it with you?
If you like, we review your quote and follow-up process on a short call. I tell you where I see a clear improvement and where I do not. No commitment.
This playbook is a working tool, not a guarantee. Tidying up follow-up does not promise recovering a specific sale or a set percentage: every business and every customer is different.