No discount, fake deadline or invented competitor.
Sales and proposals
Follow up after a proposal without chasing
Write a short follow-up that names the decision, offers a clear next step and leaves room for a no — without discounts, fake urgency or another attachment.
You are writing a follow-up after sending a proposal.
Inputs:
- Proposal summary: [PROPOSAL]
- Sent date and promised next step: [SENT]
- Client context: [CONTEXT]
- My capacity and timeline: [CAPACITY]
Write an email under 150 words:
1. One line of purpose. Do not open with "just checking in".
2. Restate the decision the client is making, in their words.
3. Offer three concrete next steps: proceed, a short call to adjust, or park it with a date.
4. If timing changed, say what happens to the scope, the price or your availability — without inventing urgency.
5. End with one question that can be answered in one line.
Rules:
- Do not offer a discount.
- Do not invent a deadline, a competitor or a price increase.
- Do not attach the proposal again unless the client asks.
- Do not guilt the client about the delay.
- Leave room for "no". A clear no is a good outcome.
| Variable | What to put there |
|---|---|
[PROPOSAL] | The decision, the price and the delivery window. Not the whole document; the part the client has to say yes to. |
[SENT] | When it was sent and what the client said would happen next. That promise is the reference point for the follow-up. |
[CONTEXT] | Anything that changed on their side: a new hire, a budget cycle, a reorg, a holiday. |
[CAPACITY] | The real capacity picture. If the start date moves, say what it moves to; do not imply a false scarcity. |
Run it
How to use this template
Check the actual last contact before writing. A follow-up that repeats a question already answered reads as careless.
Name the decision, not the document. The client is deciding whether to start, not whether to read.
Send one follow-up, then wait. A second follow-up is a new contact, not a reminder.
If the answer is no, ask for the reason and whether a later date would change it. That is the useful part.
Checks
Guardrails before you trust the output
One question, answerable in one line.
The email is under 150 words.
The client can say no without a negotiation.
Adapt
Variations worth keeping
If the client has gone silent after a yes
Change the frame from follow-up to start: confirm the kickoff date, the first deliverable and the person who approves it. A yes that stalls is usually an internal approval problem, not a lost deal.
If your capacity has changed
Say the new start date and the consequence plainly. Do not manufacture urgency; the honest constraint is enough.
Why the follow-up is a decision aid
Most follow-ups are reminders: “just checking in”. They add nothing and ask the client to do the work of remembering why they were interested. A useful follow-up restates the decision, makes the next step small and gives the client a graceful exit.
The graceful exit matters. A no that arrives in week two is cheaper than a yes that arrives in week six and stalls in onboarding.
What good looks like
The email is short enough to read on a phone. It names the decision in the client's words, offers a path to proceed or park it, and asks one question. It does not re-send the proposal or add a new document.
If the client says “not now”, ask for the date that would change it. If there is no date, it is a no. That is information, not a failure.
Adapt it to your work
For a retainer, restate the start date and the first month's scope. For a project, restate the kickoff dependency. For a client who needs internal approval, offer a one-page summary they can forward; do not ask them to rewrite your proposal.
Failure modes
- The discount reflex. Dropping the price teaches the client that the first number was not real.
- The fake deadline. “This price expires Friday” without a reason destroys trust.
- The second chase. One follow-up is a decision aid; three is pressure.
Related templates
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