Guide · Winning work
After you send a proposal, send three short follow-ups: an offer to walk through it, a note with one useful detail and a question, and a close-the-loop email that makes a no easy to send.
Put all three dates in your calendar the day the proposal goes out. The calculator below writes the dates, skipping weekends, and fills in the emails.
In the cover email, ask when they expect to decide. A date they gave you makes every follow-up easier to write and easier to receive.
A suggested schedule is 3, 7 and 14 working days after sending. It is a starting point, not a measured best practice; move it to fit the decision date they gave you.
Check it arrived, and offer a short call to go through it.
Answer a question clients often have, such as what happens in the first two weeks, and ask one question back.
Ask whether to keep the proposal open or close the file. A no is easy to send, so people answer.
Mark each proposal won, lost or no answer, with the reason if you have it. That record shows which parts of your proposals to change.
Free tool
Enter the date you sent the proposal. It gives you three send dates, skipping weekends, and the three emails filled in.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent, saved or uploaded. Replace the values with yours.
A proposal that gets no answer is rarely a firm no. More often the client is comparing firms, waiting on a partner, a lender or a board, or simply busy. A follow-up gives them an easy way back into the conversation. The aim of each email is a decision, either way, so you can plan your workload.
| Purpose | What it must not do | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Walk-through offer | Catch questions early, while the proposal is fresh | Restate the whole proposal |
| 2. One useful detail | Answer a likely question, invite a reply | Add new scope or a discount |
| 3. Close the loop | Get a yes, a no or a new date | Sound like a last warning |
Most of the work happens when you send the proposal. A cover email that does these three things makes every follow-up shorter:
Knowing who can decide matters for the whole project, not only the proposal. AIA Contract Documents makes the same point about changes: understand the client's decision-making authority so the right person can decide in time. The decision log guide builds on it.
The simplest way is three calendar reminders on your own calendar, created the day you send, with no guests. The calculator on this page gives you the dates. A fuller version reads a Proposals sheet (project, client, date sent, status) each morning and prepares the due follow-up as a draft for you to read and send. Nothing should go to a prospect unread.
After the third email, stop. Mark the proposal closed in your log with the reason if you know it. If the client comes back later, start again from the walk-through offer. A closed file with a note is more useful than a proposal that sits as maybe for months.
Keep one row per proposal: project, client, date sent, decision date they gave, follow-ups sent, outcome and reason. Five or six columns are enough. Over a year, the log shows patterns no single proposal can: which project types you win, how long decisions usually take for your clients, and which reasons for a no come up again. Those patterns are evidence for changing your proposals, rather than guesses.
An AI assistant can rewrite the three templates in your own tone, or adjust follow-up 2 to answer the question this client is most likely to have. Give it the template and two lines about the project, and read the result before it goes. It must never add a fee, a discount, a date or a promise that is not in the proposal. The Admin Prompt Pack has prompts for client emails that follow the same rules.
Each one is shorter than the last. Replace everything in [square brackets], and never add a discount to a follow-up.
Download the templates as a plain text file, no signup needed.
When: About 3 working days after sending
Subject: [Project name] proposal: any questions?
Hi [First name], Checking that the proposal for [project name] arrived safely. If it would help, I can walk you through it in a 20-minute call: [booking link]. Best, [Your name]
When: About 7 working days after sending
Subject: [Project name]: what the first two weeks look like
Hi [First name], One thing clients often ask is what happens right after they say yes. For [project name], the first two weeks would be [first step, for example a site visit and measured survey], then [second step]. Is there anything in the proposal you would like changed or explained? Best, [Your name]
When: About 14 working days after sending
Subject: [Project name]: keep the proposal open?
Hi [First name], I have not heard back on the [project name] proposal, which is fine. Should I keep it open, or close the file for now? Either answer helps us plan. If the timing has moved, tell me when to check back. Best, [Your name]
Three is a reasonable rule of thumb: enough to get an answer, few enough not to annoy. We know of no reliable study specific to architecture proposals, so treat both the count and the gaps as a starting point.
No. A follow-up is about the client's decision, not your fee. If they raise price, talk about scope: what could change in the services to fit their budget.
Use their date. Send follow-up 1 a day or two after it, and space the other two from there.
Thank them, ask in one line what tipped the decision, and log the reason. The pattern across several lost proposals is more useful than any single answer.
Archon & Partners