How to follow up on a quiet proposal.

What does a quiet proposal usually mean?

Rarely that they read it and hated it. A quiet proposal is usually waiting on something you cannot see: a budget meeting, a colleague who has not read it yet, a quarter that has not started, another supplier's quote. The silence tells you almost nothing. What the buyer did with the proposal tells you much more, and if you sent it as a link, you can see that.

Find your case in the left column, then send what the right column says.

One rule runs through all five. The reading data picks the subject of your email, then stays out of it. "I saw you spent four minutes on our pricing page" makes a buyer feel watched, and a watched buyer gets defensive. Write about the price as the obvious next question, which it is.

Why does "just checking in" fail?

Because it asks for a reply and gives no reason to send one. To answer it, your buyer has to find the proposal, remember where they got to, form a view and write it down. The email offers nothing in exchange for that work, so it slides down the inbox, and so does the next one.

A follow-up earns its reply by carrying one of three things: something new, an answer to a question they already have, or a question so easy that replying takes ten seconds.

Every email below does one of those three things. They all use one example: Brightlane's proposal for Harrow Retail, sent by Hannah at Brightlane to Olivia Bennett. Swap in your own names and pages, and keep the shape.

What if they never opened it?

Then nobody has turned the proposal down, because nobody has read it.

What it probably means: it sank under a busy week, or was saved for a quiet moment that never came. Not reading it can still be a choice, though: they may have read your covering email, decided the timing was wrong and parked the rest.

What to send: a reply in the same thread, shorter than the first email, with the link where it cannot be missed and one reason to read it this week. Add a deadline only if it is real.

What if they stopped at the price?

Your buyer read steadily and stopped at the page with the number on it. In a services proposal the same thing happens on the scope page, where the size of the commitment becomes clear.

What it probably means: the price raised a question they were not ready to ask you. It may be above this year's budget or another quote, or big enough that someone else now has to sign. Or it is good news: a long stay on the pricing page can also mean someone was copying your numbers into a budget request. Write an email that works either way.

What to send: not a discount. A discount nobody asked for tells the buyer your first price had room in it. Send a smaller decision they can say yes to: a pilot, a first phase, a split payment, or a plain comparison of what each plan includes. And offer to talk about the money with them, so they do not have to talk about it around you.

It also helps to make the price question cheap to ask. Where readers can ask privately on the page, "is there a smaller way to start?" comes in from the Plans page itself, and you get an email when it does.

This is what Brightlane saw. Olivia read the proposal the day after it went out and stopped at page 6, Plans. Five days later she came back on her phone and spent two and a half minutes on Plans. The next morning a new reader opened the same link, from somewhere around London, and also spent longest on Plans.

None of this says what Olivia thought. Together, though, the visits say where the conversation at Harrow has moved, and that someone new has joined it.

What if someone new is reading it?

Usually that is good news: someone at the client thought it worth passing on. It also means the decision has moved to people who were not on your call and have only the document to go on.

What it probably means: it went to a colleague, often whoever holds the budget or would run the project. Do not read more into it than that. You can see that someone new opened the link, not who passed it on or why, and it might be someone asked to check one detail.

What to send: something your contact can pass on without rewriting it: a version short enough to paste into a message, and an offer to answer the new people directly. Do not write to the new reader yourself, even if you can guess who it is.

What if they read it all and said nothing?

This one stings, because everything looked right. They read every page, came back days later for a second look, and still said nothing.

What it probably means: they are interested, and something outside the proposal is in the way: a budget that opens next quarter, a project that jumped the queue, a manager who has not said yes, a cheaper quote that needs answering. A second read can also be someone looking for a polite way to say no. You will not know until you ask, so ask.

What to send: a direct question with an easy way out. Name the usual blockers so they can point at one instead of explaining, say what you can do about each, and propose a next step with a day attached.

What if you sent a PDF?

Then you cannot tell which of the four cases above you are in. A plain attachment reports nothing back: not whether it was opened, how far they got or whether it travelled. If you want to know what can and cannot be detected, how to tell if someone opened your PDF goes through the options.

What it probably means: the same as most quiet proposals, that it is waiting on something you cannot see. The caveat is the whole problem: you are guessing.

What to send: an email that does the sorting for you. Offer three answers, so replying takes one number and no explanation. The third option matters most. It gives the buyer a polite way to say "not now", which is better than silence for both of you.

For the next proposal, send it as one link, and you will know which case you are in before you write a word.

How often should you follow up on a proposal?

Less often than your nerves suggest, with longer gaps each time. This is the rhythm we would start from, counted from the day you send, with the reason for each gap so you can bend it:

1. Day 0, when you send. Ask on the call when they expect to decide and who else will weigh in, then name the next step in the email that carries the proposal: "I'll call you on Thursday the 12th to go through any questions." A follow-up you agreed in advance is not chasing.
2. Day 3, only if it is unopened. Long enough to tell a buried email from a busy morning, soon enough that your call is still fresh. If it has been opened, leave it.
3. Day 7. Your first real follow-up, written for your case. A full working week gives a busy buyer time to read it and talk to at least one colleague.
4. Day 14. Something new: a pilot option, a short case study, an answer to the question you think they have. If you have nothing new, skip this one rather than send a reminder.
5. Day 21 to 28. The closing email, below.

Two things beat the calendar. A date the buyer gave you wins: if Olivia said "after our budget meeting on the 20th", write on the 21st. And if she returns to the proposal, send your next email a few days early rather than adding an extra one.

How do you close the loop?

After two or three follow-ups without a reply, stop chasing and say so. The last email is short, warm and easy to answer, and it is often the one that finally gets a reply, because it asks for nothing more than a yes or a no.

Leave out guilt and invented deadlines. "I guess this isn't a priority for you", or "this price expires on Friday" when it does not, turns a polite exit into an argument.

Then stop, and keep what you will need when the timing changes:

• The date they gave you, in your calendar, with the reason next to it.
• Where the reading stopped, and whether anyone new read it. That is where the next conversation starts.
• Any question they asked, with your answer.
• The link, kept current, so that if Olivia opens it in March she sees March's prices. Decktrace emails you when a reader comes back to a deck, so you will know if she does.

Is it different for an agency or a consultant?

The moves are the same. The page where reading stops is usually different. In an agency pitch it is the scope and fees page, where the client meets the size of what you are proposing. Ideas get read with pleasure. Scope gets read with a calculator.

So the smaller decision becomes a first phase: one idea instead of three, a paid discovery before a retainer. For a consultant, a short diagnostic with a fixed fee and a written result lets the client buy proof before the project. If the pitch went out as a link, which idea held the client's team longest tells you what that first phase should be.

The email is the price email above with the nouns changed. Studio Nine, whose pitch to Atlas Freight proposed a twelve-part video series, might send "Re: Ideas for Atlas Freight: starting with one episode": the Rotterdam episode on its own, with its own fee on the scope page, so the client can decide on the other eleven with the first one in hand.

A checklist for a quiet proposal

• Agree the next step and its date before the proposal goes out.
• Work out which of the five cases you are in before you write.
• Let the reading data choose the subject, and keep it out of the email.
• Give every follow-up a reason to reply: news, an answer or an easy question.
• Offer a smaller first step before you think about a discount.
• Help your contact sell it to people you have not met.
• Space them out: day 3 if unopened, days 7 and 14, then close by day 28.
• Keep the date, the stopping page and a current link for later.