The proposal went out on Monday. By Thursday the silence feels personal. Agency owners ask the same two things: how do you politely follow up on a proposal, and when does following up become pestering? The answer is a cadence you decide in advance, three short emails, and a rule for stopping.
The cadence
- Day 2: confirm it arrived and offer a call. Short.
- Day 7: one new reason to decide. A date you can start, a question you anticipated, the proposal's end date.
- Day 14: close politely. Leave the door open; do not slam it.
Then stop. A fourth email rarely wins the work and often loses the referral.
Reset the clock if they say "we decide next month"; follow up a few days before the date they named, not on your schedule.
Day 2
Subject: Your proposal for the website and SEO
Hi Jordan, I wanted to make sure the proposal reached you and see whether a 15-minute call this week would help with any questions. I am free Wednesday afternoon or Friday morning.
Day 7
Subject: Starting in November
Hi Jordan, following up on the proposal from last week. If you would like to start in November as planned, we would need to begin discovery by the 20th, so I am holding that slot for you until Friday. Happy to adjust the scope if the monthly SEO is more than you need to begin with.
Day 14
Subject: Closing the loop
Hi Jordan, I will assume the timing is not right for now and take the proposal off our schedule. If anything changes, reply here and we will pick it straight back up. It was a pleasure learning about Brightpath.
The sheet
Every proposal in one place, with the dates:
| Date sent | Client | Proposal | Value | Status | Follow-up drafted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 | Brightpath Consulting | Website + SEO | $3,000 + $500/mo | Sent |
Status stays Sent until they answer. Those are the columns Tensor's starter expects: it reads the status, the date sent and the Follow-up drafted cell, and skips a row once that cell is filled. Keeping the sheet current is the job that slips.
Tensor drafts the follow-up
The Library's Follow up on open quotes starter is written for quotes, and a proposal is a quote with more pages. 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. For an agency:
- You connect the Gmail account proposals go out from and the sheet above.
- Run it when you like ("Follow up on my open quotes today"), or put it on a schedule, say weekdays at 8am. Each run reads the sheet, finds the proposals with status Sent, no answer 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 client's and the proposal's details filled in. Nothing is sent by Tensor; you read, edit 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 that proposal's row, and skips the row next time.
- Every run leaves a receipt: the sheet it read, the drafts it made and the rows it wrote, read back and compared.
The starter follows up once, at 5 days. The three-step cadence above is yours to run from the drafts; once the starter is your own copy, you can change its timing and its wording, or describe a second responsibility for the day-14 close.
What Tensor never does here: change your price, promise a start date you have not set, or send anything. Those stay with the person whose name is on the proposal.
Where to start
- Tensor for marketing and B2B agencies: Log new leads and draft a reply, and the follow-up on quiet proposals.
- Try it live on sample data. Plans from $149 a month.
Related reading
- Lead follow-up that never goes quiet
- How to respond to new client inquiries: templates and a same-day routine
- Polite overdue invoice reminders for agencies
See it in a demo
Watch Tensor answer a sample inquiry on sample data: the draft, your OK, the receipt.