WANOGuide · Templates included
Roofing quote follow-up templates: what to send on day 1, 3, and 7
A quote follow-up sequence is three messages: a day-1 check-in, a day-3 value nudge, and a day-7 break-up. This page has copy-paste SMS and email versions of all three, the timing rules that make them land, and the math on why the quotes you're not chasing are the most expensive silence in your business.
Why quotes die in silence
You measured the roof, built rapport in the driveway, wrote the estimate, sent it — and then nothing. Per sales follow-up research compiled across home services, 73% of leads never get contacted a second time, and the average rep quits after about 1.3 follow-up attempts. The same body of research shows most deals close between the third and fifth contact. The gap between 1.3 and 5 is where your quotes die.
The homeowner isn't ignoring you out of malice. They got three quotes, life got loud, and the contractor who followed up looked like the one who'd also show up on time with a crew. Lead-response research cited by Harvard Business Review and Vendasta found 78% of customers hire the company that responds first — and persistence works the same way further down the funnel. Follow-up isn't pestering. It's the tiebreaker.
The cost of not doing it is easy to size. How many quotes did you send last month that you never heard back on? With residential roofing jobs running $8,000–$25,000 per industry pricing data, every one of those is a real number walking out the door — on a lead that market data says you already paid $124–$300 to create. Three short messages is cheap insurance on that math.
The three-touch template set
Each touch below has an SMS and an email version. Use one channel per touch — the one the homeowner has already been using with you — and swap the [bracketed] placeholders for real names. The tone rule across all six: sound like the owner texting from the truck, not a marketing department.
Day 1 · The morning after the quote goes out, around 10am
The check-in
One job only: confirm the quote arrived and open the door to questions. No selling, no urgency. Most homeowners who ghost aren't rejecting you — the estimate landed in a busy inbox and life moved on. This message puts it back on top of the pile.
Hi [Name], it's [Your name] with [Company] — wanted to make sure the quote made it to you okay. Did you get a chance to look it over? Happy to walk through any line on it — just reply here.
Hi [Name],
[Your name] here with [Company]. Just making sure yesterday's quote landed and didn't get buried. If anything on it needs explaining — a line item, the timeline, the material choice — reply and I'll walk you through it.
[Your name]
[Company] · [Phone]
Day 3 · Mid-afternoon, two days after the check-in
The value nudge
By day 3, silence usually means one of two things: the price needs a conversation, or the decision got parked. This touch gives them a concrete reason to re-engage without applying pressure — something useful they didn't have on day 1.
Hi [Name] — no pressure on the quote, but two things worth knowing while you decide: we can talk through financing if spreading it out helps, and booking earlier gets you a better pick of the schedule. Reply here and I'll walk you through either.
Hi [Name],
No pressure on the quote — just two things worth having in hand while you decide. If spreading the cost out would help, we can talk financing options. And our schedule fills front-to-back, so the earlier you book, the better your pick of dates.
Reply to this email and I'll walk you through either one.
[Your name]
[Company] · [Phone]
One caveat: If you don't offer financing, cut that clause and lead with the scheduling point alone. Never invent a payment option you can't deliver.
Day 7 · Around midday, a week after the quote went out
The break-up
The most useful message in the set — because it gives the homeowner explicit permission to say no. People avoid replying when the only options feel like “buy” or “conflict.” Offer a third option — “tell me it's dead and I'll close the file” — and you get answers. A “we went another way” today beats a maybe that wastes your attention for a month. And the ones still deciding often reply precisely because you were willing to walk away.
Hi [Name] — last check-in from me on the quote. If you went another direction or the timing's off, just say the word and I'll close the file — no hard feelings. If it's still on the table, I'm here.
Hi [Name],
Your quote's been out a week and I haven't heard back — usually that means the price needs a conversation, the timing's off, or life just got busy. All three are normal.
If it's the number, reply and we'll walk through the scope — sometimes there's room to phase the work. If it's timing, tell me when to check back and I will. And if you went with someone else, just say so and I'll close the file — no hard feelings.
Whatever it is, a one-line reply saves us both the guessing.
[Your name]
[Company] · [Phone]
The timing rules that make it work
- Day 1 means the next morning — not minute one. A follow-up that fires the instant the quote sends reads as automated desperation. Let the estimate sit overnight, then check in around 10am — late enough that they've had coffee, early enough that the day hasn't swallowed them.
- Keep every send inside daytime hours. Nothing before 9am or after 8pm in the homeowner's time zone. A 9:30pm text about a roof quote doesn't read as hustle — it reads as a company with no systems.
- A reply kills the sequence instantly. The moment the homeowner responds — with anything — the remaining touches are cancelled and a human conversation takes over. Nothing burns trust faster than a "checking in!" message landing mid-conversation.
- A signed deal kills it too. Obvious, until the day you're running follow-ups from memory across nine open quotes and someone who signed on Tuesday gets a break-up text on Sunday. If you're doing this manually, keep one list and check it before every send.
- Vary the hour, touch to touch. Morning, mid-afternoon, midday — three sends at three different times of day reads like a person. Three sends at exactly 10:00am reads like a robot.
Why day 7 ends it — instead of trailing off
Three touches in seven days, then done, is deliberate. The alternative — sporadic "just checking in" messages for a month — annoys the homeowner and drains you. The break-up message converts the open loop into an answer: a yes, a "check back in spring" you can calendar, or a clean no that frees your attention for quotes that are still alive.
And a no isn't the end of the story. A quote that dies today goes into your CRM, and a CRM full of dead quotes is exactly the raw material a database reactivation campaign runs on months later. Follow-up and reactivation are the same discipline at two distances — chase the quote while it's warm, revive it after it's cold.
Common questions
Want this to run automatically?
These templates work sent by hand — the catch is remembering to send them, across every open quote, at the right hour, forever. That's the part that breaks when the crew's short and the phone's ringing. We build sequences like this into a system that fires on its own the moment a quote goes out, stops the moment someone replies, and hands you the conversation. If you'd rather run it manually, these templates are yours — no email gate, no catch.