Why the fastest quote usually wins
The best price doesn't always get the job. The quote that lands first often does. Here's how to get yours out the same day without living at your laptop.
Quoting is where a lot of good work leaks away. The 2026 HeyBRB survey of UK owners found more than a third spend over twenty minutes writing a single quote from scratch. At six to ten quotes a week, that's two to three hours gone, and worse, it's why quotes sit in the "I'll do it tonight" pile for days. By the time yours lands, someone else's is already signed. Here's how to fix it, and the groundwork costs nothing.
Never start from a blank page
If every quote is built from scratch you'll always be slow. A template with your details, your terms and your usual line items means you're filling in gaps, not writing an essay.
Do this: build one clean quote template you're proud of. That's the twenty minutes turned into five.
Price your common jobs once
You do the same handful of jobs over and over. Work out your price for each once, write it down, and stop reinventing it on every call.
Do this: a simple price list for your bread-and-butter jobs. Custom ones still need thought, but most won't.
Get something over the same day
Even a ballpark the same day beats an exact figure three days late. Send a clear "here's roughly where it'll land, firm quote to follow" and you've kept the job warm.
Do this: make it a rule that nobody waits more than a day to hear a number from you, even a rough one.
Make it easy to say yes
A quote that's just a number makes people hesitate. One that says what's included, what's not, and how to give you the go-ahead gets signed off on the spot.
Do this: spell out what they get, and finish with a plain "reply yes and I'll book you in."
Follow up if it goes quiet
People get distracted. A quote with no reply isn't a no, it's a not-yet. A short nudge wins back more jobs than you'd think.
Do this: if you've not heard back in a few days, one friendly "did that quote make sense?" message.
Same price, sent same day, beats a sharper price sent next week. Speed is an edge you can actually control.
An honest word: a good template and a price list get you most of the way there, and you can build both yourself this week. If that's all you need, do it.
Where I come in is taking the writing out of it entirely. You speak the job into your phone, or send a photo and a line, and a tidy, consistent quote goes out in your name, same day. Follow-ups handled too. That's one of the systems I build on a flat monthly fee.
How many quotes are you behind on?
Tell me how long a quote takes you and how many you send a week. I'll tell you straight what it'd take to get them out same-day. No hard sell.
Source: UK Admin Drain Report 2026, HeyBRB (via Electrical Times).