Subs rarely hear back on the bids they lose, and often not on the ones they win until the GC needs them on site Monday. The electricians' forums are full of the same complaint. You cannot make a general contractor reply, but you can make it easy, and you can stop losing track of which bids are still open.
Here is a follow-up timing that respects how GCs work, three emails, a free bid log, and how Tensor Autonomous drafts the follow-ups for you. For trades, Tensor is Gmail and Google Workspace today; if your office runs on Outlook, read this for the routine and come back when Microsoft 365 is supported.
Timing
- Day 2 after the bid date: confirm it arrived and that your number is complete. GCs lose attachments.
- Day 7: ask where the award stands and offer anything that helps them decide: a value-engineering option, a lead time.
- After the award date passes: one email asking for the result, win or lose. Most GCs will tell you if you ask plainly.
Then stop, and log it. A sub who asks once, politely, after the award date is remembered well; one who asks every three days is not.
Day 2
Subject: Electrical bid, Harbor Street tenant fit-out
Hi Mike, confirming our electrical bid for the Harbor Street fit-out reached you on Tuesday with the panel schedule attached. If anything is missing or you need the number broken out differently, say the word.
Day 7
Subject: Harbor Street: anything we can clarify?
Hi Mike, following up on the Harbor Street electrical bid. If the lighting package is a sticking point, we can price the alternate fixtures from the spec's second option, which would take about $8k off. Panel lead time is six weeks from release, so if the award is close we can hold a slot.
After the award date
Subject: Harbor Street award
Hi Mike, the award date for Harbor Street was last Friday. Could you let me know where it landed? If we were not successful, a sentence on where our number sat would help us bid you better next time.
The bid log
| Date sent | GC | Project | Trade scope | Amount | Award date | Status | Follow-up drafted | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | Northside Builders | Harbor Street fit-out | Electrical | $142,000 | Oct 15 | Sent | Alternate fixtures −$8k |
When the award date passes and Result is empty, that row needs the third email. The log is the part everyone means to keep and nobody does; that is the part to hand off.
Tensor drafts the follow-ups
The Library's Follow up on open quotes starter is written for home-service quotes, and a bid is a quote with a bid date. Its line, exactly: it drafts a friendly follow-up for each quote with no answer after 5 days, and notes it in your quotes sheet. Take it as your own and point it at the bid log, with the columns it expects (status Sent, the date sent, a Follow-up drafted column it fills and then skips):
- You connect the Gmail account bids go out from and the log above.
- Run it when you like ("Follow up on my open bids today"), or put it on a schedule, say weekdays at 8am. Each run reads the log, finds the bids with status Sent, no result after 5 days and an empty Follow-up drafted cell, and leaves a follow-up draft for each in your Gmail, in your words, with the GC, the project and the scope filled in. Nothing is sent by Tensor; you read, add the detail only you know, and send. Each run's drafts and sheet changes wait for your approval unless you have set limits that cover them; sending never runs without asking.
- It fills in the Follow-up drafted cell on the bid's row, and skips the row next time.
- Every run leaves a receipt: the log it read, the drafts it made and the rows it wrote, read back and compared.
Once the starter is yours, change its timing to 2 and 7 days and its wording to the emails above. Logging the result is yours, or a responsibility you describe: "when a GC replies with an award or a loss, record it in the log."
Tensor does not price, does not change a bid, and does not promise a crew date. It does the follow-up and the log, which is where bids quietly die.
Where to start
- Try it live on sample data: log an order, book an appointment or answer a rental inquiry, with your approval before anything is saved.
- Plans from $149 a month: Starter, Operator and Operations Team.
Related reading
- How to follow up on an estimate: day-3 and day-7 emails
- Lead follow-up that never goes quiet
- Google Sheets automation for CRM and records
See it in a demo
Watch Tensor do a sample task (log an order, book an appointment or answer a rental inquiry), wait for your approval and hand you the receipt.