Stop Quoting by Email and Start Sending Proposals

Somebody asks what it would cost. You reply with a number in an email, maybe a couple of lines about what it covers. They say they will have a think.

And then nothing. Not a no. Just a silence you cannot interpret, followed by you deciding whether today is too soon to chase, and whether chasing makes you look desperate.

Most quotes do not die because the price was wrong. They die because a number in an email is easy to leave unanswered.

A proposal is the same information, arranged so it can be answered

The difference is not formality for the sake of it. It is that a proposal is a document with a decision attached to it, rather than a paragraph with an implied question.

It has its own number. It lists exactly what they get, line by line, with a price against each one. It carries your terms. And it ends with a button that says accept, so the reply is one press rather than a sentence somebody has to compose.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Writing "yes please, let's go ahead" is a small piece of work, and small pieces of work get postponed. Pressing a button does not.

Build it in about two minutes

Proposals sit under Payments. A new one opens with its own number already assigned, so your paperwork stays in sequence without you tracking anything.

Pick the client from the contacts you already have, so it is tied to a real record rather than a name typed into a document. Give it a title named after what they are buying, not your internal reference, because that is the first thing they read.

Then add the offer, line by line. Each line takes a name, a description, a price and a quantity, and the total updates as you go so you can see what you are asking for.

Use the description field. A price with no explanation beside it invites somebody to ask what it covers, and every question is another day.

If you sell the same things repeatedly, pull them straight from your products list instead of retyping the wording each time. Your prices then stay consistent across proposals, invoices and your store, which is harder to achieve by hand than it sounds.

The setting that changes everything: deposit on accept

This is the one worth stopping on.

Set a deposit on accept, either a fixed amount or a percentage of the total, and the client pays it at the moment they agree. Not in a follow-up invoice you have to remember to send. Not after a phone call. At the exact moment their intent is highest, which is the second they decide.

That is the difference between a signature and a commitment. Somebody who has paid half of something turns up. Somebody who only agreed to a date sometimes does not, and you find out on the morning.

It also removes the most awkward conversation in the whole job, which is asking for money after somebody has already said yes and started thinking of the work as booked.

What your client sees

They get a private link. They open a web page, on whatever they are holding.

No login. No account to create. No PDF to download, which on a phone is where half of all attachments go to be forgotten.

Your introduction is at the top, every line is itemized, the total is stated, your terms are there, and the accept button is at the bottom. They can read it standing in a car park and act on it before they have got back in.

Nothing left to negotiate by email

A quote in an email invites a reply that starts "just to check". What is included, does that cover travel, is that per person or in total.

An itemized proposal has already answered those, in writing, where both of you can see it. So the conversation becomes yes or no instead of a thread about what you meant. And if it turns into a dispute months later, what was agreed is a document rather than two different memories.

The status column tells you where you stand

Back on your side, every proposal shows as sent, accepted or declined, and it moves on its own as the client acts. You are not asking anybody where they got to.

Declined is worth as much as accepted. A proposal that has been declined is one you can stop thinking about, stop half-planning around, and stop feeling vaguely guilty about not chasing. Most businesses have no equivalent of that, so old quotes just hang around indefinitely in a state of maybe.

And when one is accepted with a deposit, the money lands in your Payments tab like any other payment, against the contact who accepted it, on the same ledger as everything else you take.

Send the next one as a proposal

You do not need to change how you price anything. Next time somebody asks what it would cost, put the answer in a proposal instead of an email.

Itemize it, put a real number on it, add a deposit on acceptance, and send the link.

Then watch what happens to the ones that would otherwise have gone quiet. Some will still say no, and you will know, which is the point.

Start your free trial of ClientBranch and send your next quote as a proposal.