James runs a small electrical contracting business in Sydney's inner west. He's been in the trade for 11 years, has a team of three, and by his own admission, "never really had a quoting problem — until I looked at how many quotes were actually converting."
The Wake-Up Call
It started when James's accountant asked him to pull together his revenue figures for the previous quarter. While going through his records, he noticed something that stopped him cold.
"I'd sent out 34 quotes in three months. I won 9 of them. That's about a 26% conversion rate. I thought that was normal. But then I looked at how many of those 25 losses I'd actually followed up on."
The answer: three. He had followed up on three out of 25 outstanding quotes — the others he'd simply never gone back to.
"I wasn't chasing work. I was waiting for it to come back to me. And most of it never did."
The Problem Wasn't Price
James's first instinct was that he was being beaten on price. He started discounting quotes to be more competitive. It didn't move the needle.
"I dropped my prices by about 8% across the board for a month. Won a couple more jobs, but my margin took a hit and I still had a pile of quotes sitting there with no response."
He spoke to a few customers who'd gone with competitors and got a consistent answer he wasn't expecting.
"Three different people told me some version of the same thing: 'I just went with whoever got back to me first.' Not the cheapest — the first."
Finding WinYourQuote
James came across WinYourQuote through a Facebook group for electrical contractors. He was sceptical.
"I've tried a few 'business tools' over the years and most of them are either too complicated or just don't do what they say. I signed up for the free trial mostly to prove it wouldn't work."
Setup took him about 40 minutes on a Friday afternoon. He connected his email, uploaded a few outstanding quote PDFs to test the system, and set up a follow-up message template in his own words.
By Monday morning, he had three replies in his inbox.
The First Month: $12,000 Recovered
Of the quotes WinYourQuote followed up in James's first month, four converted to jobs that he hadn't expected to hear from again.
- A $3,800 switchboard upgrade in Marrickville
- A $2,200 outdoor lighting and power job in Leichhardt
- A $4,100 commercial fit-out in Surry Hills
- A $1,900 rewire for a landlord in Newtown
Total: $12,000 in jobs from customers who had simply needed a nudge.
"The Surry Hills one I'd completely written off. It had been three weeks, no response. WinYourQuote sent the follow-up on day 5 and the guy replied saying he'd been flat out and was ready to go. That was a $4,100 job I'd left for dead."
What Changed
James is now running WinYourQuote across all his quotes, not just the ones he thinks are at risk.
"The thing is, you never know which quote is going to convert with a follow-up. You'd think the big ones are worth chasing, but some of my best WinYourQuote recoveries have been $2,000 jobs that turned into repeat customers."
His overall conversion rate has moved from 26% to 41% over the past three months. His average monthly revenue is up by roughly $6,000.
More importantly, he stopped discounting.
"I put my prices back to where they were. The follow-up is doing the work. I don't need to be the cheapest anymore — I just need to be the one who shows up."
WinYourQuote helps trade businesses send automatic follow-up texts and emails after every quote. James's results are representative of what happens when tradespeople stop letting quotes go cold.