Record a reason for every quote that does not become a job, including the ones that simply go quiet, and sort the reasons into a few categories: price, timing, scope or change of plans, understanding, and no answer at all. Once you have twenty or thirty, look for the category that costs you the most money, not the most quotes, and check it against two other things you can measure: the size of the job and how quickly the quote went out. Then change one thing and measure again. A single decline tells you about one customer. Thirty of them tell you about your business.
Collecting the reasons
Most trades never learn why they lost a job, because they never ask. Three habits fix that.
- Give the customer an easy way to say no. A customer who can decline with one press, and add a reason if they like, will often tell you more than they would on the phone.
- Ask once, kindly, when a customer declines by phone or text. "No worries, thanks for letting me know. If you don't mind me asking, what tipped it?" Most people answer. Do not argue with the answer.
- Record the silent ones too. A quote with no answer after your last follow-up is a lost quote with the reason "no answer". It is usually the biggest category, and leaving it out hides the problem.
If you quote through Quote Desk, the "No thanks" button on the accept page asks one optional question, and the answer is kept on the quote under Lost; the quote statuses article shows where.
Five categories
Keep the categories few, or you will spend more time sorting than learning.
- Price. "Cheaper quote elsewhere", "more than we budgeted". Useful only when you split it by kind and size of job, because losing on price for big jobs and small jobs means different things.
- Timing. "Someone could start sooner", "we needed it this week". This is about your diary or about how fast your quote arrived.
- Scope or change of plans. "Decided to do it ourselves", "going with a different product", "the neighbour said no". Often not about you at all, but worth tracking in case your quote is steering people away.
- Understanding. "Didn't understand what was included", "wasn't sure what the extra line was for". Rare in words, common in reality, and entirely within your control.
- No answer. Silence after the quote and the follow-ups.
Two things to measure alongside
Reasons explain what the customer felt. Two numbers explain what happened.
The first is job size. Sort your sent quotes into three or four bands by value and work out the share you won in each. Most trades find their win rate falls as the job gets bigger, but the shape of the fall tells you where to look.
The second is speed: the time from your site visit or the enquiry to the quote being sent. Split your quotes into those sent the same day and those sent later, and compare how many of each you won.
A worked example
Ochre Flat Fencing is a fictional two-person fencing business. Over two months it sends 60 quotes and wins 24, a win rate of 40 per cent. The 36 lost quotes, by category and by value:
- No answer: 22 quotes, $58,300
- Price: 7 quotes, $41,600
- Timing: 4 quotes, $9,800
- Change of plans: 3 quotes, $5,100
By job size, quotes under $2,000 were won 16 times out of 28, quotes between $2,000 and $6,000 were won 7 times out of 22, and quotes over $6,000 were won once out of 10. By speed, quotes sent the same day as the site visit were won 19 times out of 34, and quotes sent two or more days later were won 5 times out of 26.
The story is in the overlap. Five of the seven price declines were long boundary fences over $6,000, shared between neighbours, and almost all of the big fences had been quoted days after the site visit, because the owners wanted to talk to their neighbours first. The neighbours then got another quote in the meantime. Ochre Flat changes one thing: every fence is quoted before the crew leaves the street, and shared fences go out as two quotes, one per neighbour for their share, so each owner has a figure on the day. The fencing contractors page shows that layout.
The silent category gets a second change: a reminder at two, five and ten days on every quote. Over the next two months Ochre Flat sends 58 quotes and wins 28, a win rate of about 48 per cent, with the biggest gain in the over-$6,000 band. Price, the reason the owner would have guessed, was never the main problem. The follow-up guide covers the reminders.
What not to conclude
One decline is not a trend. A customer who says your price was high might be right, might have been comparing a different scope, or might have been looking for a reason to say no. Wait for numbers before you change a price.
"Cheaper quote elsewhere" does not mean you should be cheaper. Check your win rate on that kind of job first. If you are winning a healthy share and losing a few on price, your price is probably right for the customers you want.
Answering a decline
Thank the customer, briefly. If the reason is something you could genuinely fix, such as a start date or a cheaper material, offer once to re-quote. Otherwise leave it. Customers who declined politely and were treated politely come back, and they recommend people who were decent about a no.
Mistakes to avoid
- Counting only the declines with reasons and ignoring the silent quotes.
- Changing prices after one bad week.
- Looking at the number of quotes lost instead of the value lost.
- Ignoring quoting speed, which is often the cheapest thing to fix.
- Arguing with a customer about their reason.
What to do this week
- List every quote from the last two months that did not become a job.
- Give each one a category, including "no answer" for the silent ones.
- Add up the value lost in each category.
- Work out your win rate by job size and by how quickly the quote went out.
- Pick one change, write it down, and check the numbers again in two months.