Why Your Quotes Are Not Converting (And the Fix Is Rarely Price)

Every trade who is quoting plenty and winning little reaches the same conclusion: I must be too expensive. Then they drop their rates, win slightly more work at worse margin, and end up busier and poorer.

Before you touch your prices, check whether price is actually the problem. It usually is not.

First, work out your real conversion rate

Count the quotes you sent last month and the ones that turned into jobs. That percentage is the number that matters.

Rough expectations for domestic trade work:

• Under 20% — something is structurally wrong. Keep reading.
• 25–40% — normal for competitive domestic work with cold enquiries.
• 50%+ — you are converting well. If you are also fully booked, you are too cheap.

That last one catches people out. A very high conversion rate and a full diary is not proof you are doing well — it is the clearest signal in the business that your prices are below market.

Cause 1: You are too slow

This is the big one, and it is boring, which is why people skip past it to talk about price.

Domestic customers typically contact three trades. In most cases the job goes to whoever quotes first with something credible — not because customers are impatient, but because the first quote sets the reference point and the others are judged against it.

If your quotes go out two or three evenings after the visit, you are routinely third. You will lose jobs you were the best-value option for, and conclude you were too expensive.

Test it: for the next two weeks, send every quote within four hours of leaving the property. Do not change a single price. Compare the conversion rate.

Most trades who try this see the number move more than any price change would have moved it.

Cause 2: Your quote is a number, not an answer

A quote that says "Bathroom refit — £6,400" gives the customer nothing to judge except the number. When the only comparable data point is price, you get compared on price.

A quote that breaks the job into what is included, what is not, what happens when, and what the payment terms are, gives them something else to buy: confidence that you have thought about it.

The cheapest quote frequently loses to the clearest one. Not always. Often enough to matter.

Include:

• Line items with enough detail that they can see what they are getting
• What is explicitly excluded (this prevents arguments later and signals experience)
• Rough timescales
• Payment terms and deposit, stated plainly
• A validity date, which is a gentle reason to decide

Cause 3: You never follow up

Most trades send a quote and wait. Meanwhile the customer got distracted, went on holiday, or is waiting for their partner to look at it.

A single polite follow-up two or three days later recovers a meaningful share of quotes that would otherwise go quiet. Not a discount, not a hard sell — just "just checking you got this, happy to talk through anything."

The reason it works is unglamorous: most non-responses are inertia, not rejection.

Do it twice — around day three and around day ten — and stop. Beyond that you are annoying someone who has decided.

Diagnosing which one is yours

• Quotes go out days late → speed problem. Fix that first, it is free.
• Quotes go out fast, customers go quiet, no follow-up sent → follow-up problem.
• Customers actively say "we went with someone cheaper" and you have decent margin → possibly a real price problem, but check the other two first.
• You win nearly everything and you are rammed → you are too cheap. Put your rates up.

Making it automatic

Speed and follow-up are both process problems, which means they are solvable without willpower. Quoting from a priced template on your phone before you leave the driveway removes the evening admin that causes the delay. Automatic reminders remove the "I'll chase them tomorrow" that never happens.

Gaffer does both — 218 priced templates so you are not starting from a blank page, and follow-ups that send themselves on a schedule you set once.

The short version

• Measure your conversion rate before you change anything
• Send every quote within four hours for two weeks and re-measure
• Break the job down — the clearest quote often beats the cheapest
• Follow up twice, politely, then stop
• If you win nearly everything, you are too cheap