The quote that never got chased: an automatic follow-up for sent quotes

What you'll have by the end: every quote you've sent logged in one Google Sheet, and a robot that reads it each morning. If a quote has been sitting three days with no reply, it writes a polite nudge and drops it into your Gmail drafts, ready to send. If it's been seven days, it writes a firmer one. You read the draft, hit send — or don't. The quote you'd have forgotten gets chased, on time, without you keeping a running list in your head.

No statistics theatre: you quoted the aircon job, the catering, the renovation — then got busy. Two weeks later you remember, and by then they've gone with whoever followed up first. Un-chased quotes rarely lose on price. They lose to silence. This closes the silence.

It's the twin of automate your invoice chasing: that one chases money you're owed, this one chases money you haven't won yet.

Is this for you?

Build it if you send quotes, proposals or estimates and some go cold because nobody followed up — renovation and contracting, aircon servicing, events and catering, print, design and marketing agencies, B2B services.

Skip it if you send fewer than about five quotes a month. Below that, a phone calendar reminder — "chase Acme quote" set the second you hit send — does the same job in ten seconds and there's nothing to build or maintain. Automation earns its keep on repetition, not on your first quote.

Skip it for now if you chase almost entirely over WhatsApp on the free WhatsApp Business app. Make can't send from that app — that needs the paid WhatsApp Cloud API, which is not a beginner tool (the difference). You can still use this build to have the automation write each nudge, then paste it into WhatsApp yourself; there's a note on that in What's next.

What it costs

S$0 at the volume this is built for, and no credit card to start. The real numbers, checked today:

• Google Sheets and Gmail — free with any personal Google account (the one you already log in to Gmail with). No card.
• Make — the Free plan gives "Up to 1,000 credits/mo" with "2" active scenarios and a "15-minute minimum interval between runs" (Make pricing, 27 Jul 2026), and needs no card to sign up. This build is one scenario, run once a day. Make counts each step a scenario runs as one credit — roughly one credit to read the sheet, plus about two more for each nudge it drafts. A shop sending a handful of quotes a week spends a small fraction of the 1,000.

If you outgrow the free tier: the cheapest paid tier is the "Make Plan" at "$9/mo" for "5k credits/mo" (Make pricing, 27 Jul 2026) — but a quote-chaser running once a day almost never gets near the free ceiling. The card-free path is the free plan itself; you never have to enter a card.

Before you start (about 5 minutes)

You need:

• A Google account — you have one if you use Gmail. This gives you both the Sheet and the Gmail this build runs on.
• A free Make account — go to make.com, click Sign up, and use Continue with Google with that same account. No card.
• Your last few sent quotes to hand, so you've got real rows to put in.

That's the lot. Nothing to install, nothing to host, no command line.

Build it, step by step

Four steps: build the sheet, add the one formula that decides who's due, write your two nudges, then wire it together in Make. The first three are quick. The fourth is the meat — give it room.

Step 1 — Make the quote sheet (10 minutes)

In Google Drive: New → Google Sheets. Name the file Quotes. Double-click the tab at the bottom and rename it Quotes too. In row 1, type these nine headers, one per column, from A to I, exactly:

Quote # | Client | Email | Amount (S$) | Date sent | Status | Day 3 nudged | Day 7 nudged | Nudge due

Then set it up so the automation can trust it:

• Select column E (Date sent), then Format → Number → Date. Enter dates as 2026-07-27. This matters — the formula does date maths, and a date stored as plain text will break it.
• Column F (Status): you type Awaiting here the moment you send a quote. Later you change it to Replied, Won or Lost — anything other than Awaiting stops the chasing.
• Columns G and H (Day 3 nudged / Day 7 nudged): leave blank. The automation writes yes into these so it never nudges the same quote twice. Don't type in them yourself.
• Column I (Nudge due): leave blank for now — Step 2 fills it.

Add two or three real quotes you've sent recently, each with Status Awaiting. What you should see: a tidy table of open quotes, with columns G, H and I empty.

Step 2 — Add the formula that flags who's due (10 minutes)

This is the brain of the whole thing: one formula that works out, per quote, whether today is a nudge day. Click cell I2 and paste this exactly:

=IF(F2<>"Awaiting","",IF(AND(TODAY()>=E2+7,H2<>"yes"),"day7",IF(AND(TODAY()>=E2+3,G2<>"yes"),"day3","")))

In plain words: if the quote isn't Awaiting, do nothing. Otherwise — if it's been 7+ days and the day-7 nudge hasn't gone yet, say day7; else if it's been 3+ days and the day-3 nudge hasn't gone, say day3; otherwise stay blank. (Day 7 is checked first, so a quote you added late jumps straight to the firmer nudge rather than sending a stale "3-day" one.)

Now copy the formula down the column so future quotes are covered: click I2, copy, then select I3 down to about I300 and paste. Blank rows stay blank; only Awaiting rows that have reached day 3 or 7 light up.

What you should see: a quote you dated 4+ days ago shows day3 in column I; one dated today shows nothing; one marked Won shows nothing. If column I shows an error or stays stubbornly blank on an old quote, see When it doesn't.

Step 3 — Write your two nudges (10 minutes)

You're chasing a prospect you want to win, so keep both short and warm. Write them in a note now; you'll paste them into Make in Step 4. The [...] bits are placeholders you'll swap for real sheet columns in the next step.

Day 3 — the gentle nudge:

Subject: Following up on your quote ([Quote #])

Hi [Client],

Wanted to make sure this reached you — I sent over the quote for [Amount (S$)] on [Date sent] and wanted to check it didn't slip into spam. Happy to walk through anything on it, adjust the scope, or answer questions. Is this something you'd like to move ahead with?

Thanks, [your name]

Day 7 — firmer, still friendly:

Subject: Still keen to help — quote [Quote #]

Hi [Client],

Circling back one more time on the quote I sent on [Date sent] ([Amount (S$)]). No pressure at all — but if the timing or the price isn't quite right, tell me and I'll see what I can do. If you've decided to go another way, a quick note lets me close it off my end. Either way, thanks for considering us.

Regards, [your name]

Keep your own edits in the same warm-then-direct range. A nudge that reads as annoyed loses the sale you're chasing.

Step 4 — Build the Make scenario (give this a patient 30–45 minutes the first time)

This is the meat. You'll wire five things across Make's canvas: read the sheet → split into day-3 and day-7 → draft the right email → mark it done. The first Make scenario can feel fiddly. Go slowly; every screen names its buttons, and the docs may have nudged the layout, so if a label sits somewhere slightly different, look for the same words.

Log in to Make and click Create a new scenario (top-right of the Scenarios page).

a) Read the sheet. Click the large +, search Google Sheets, and choose the Search Rows module — the plain one, not "Search Rows (Advanced)". Only the plain Search Rows hands back a row number, which you'll need at the end. Click Create a connection, sign in with the Google account that owns your Quotes sheet, and grant access when Google asks. Then set:

• Spreadsheet: your Quotes file.
• Sheet: Quotes.
• Table contains headers: Yes (header row 1).
• Filter: column Nudge due → Contains → type day. That matches both day3 and day7 and skips every blank row.

b) Schedule it daily. On the scheduling control (the clock, bottom-left of the canvas), set Run scenario: Every day at a time you'll have your phone, say 09:00. This is what makes it check every morning. The free plan's floor is a 15-minute interval, so once a day is well within it.

c) Split day-3 from day-7. From the right edge of the Search Rows module, add a Router (the module that looks like a splitting path). It gives you two branches.

d) Branch one — the day-3 draft. On the first branch, add Gmail → Create a Draft Email and connect your Gmail (sign in, grant access). Then:

• To: map the Email field from Search Rows (it appears as a coloured chip from the field picker — don't type an address).
• Subject and Content: paste your Day-3 template, and where you left [Client], [Amount (S$)], [Date sent], [Quote #], delete the bracket text and drop in the matching Search Rows field.
• Set this branch's filter (click the wrench on the line feeding the draft module): Nudge due → Equal to → day3.

After the draft module, add Google Sheets → Update a Row: same spreadsheet and Quotes sheet; for Row number, map the Row number that Search Rows returned for this quote; then set the Day 3 nudged column to yes. That yes is the "never nudge twice" stamp.

e) Branch two — the day-7 draft. On the second router branch, repeat (d) with three changes: set the branch filter to Nudge due Equal to day7, paste your Day-7 template into Create a Draft Email, and have Update a Row set Day 7 nudged to yes.

f) Save and switch on. Click Save (bottom bar), then flip the scenario toggle to ON.

What you should see when it worked: after the next scheduled run (or a manual Run once), every quote that hit day 3 or day 7 has a ready-to-send draft in your Gmail Drafts, and back in the sheet that quote's Day 3 / Day 7 nudged column now reads yes and its Nudge due has gone blank.

Prefer it fully hands-off? Once you trust the wording, you can swap Create a Draft Email for Send an Email so nudges go out on their own. Weigh it up: a prospect you're trying to win is exactly the person you want eyes on before hitting send, which is why this build drafts by default. If you do auto-send, note that consumer Gmail stops you after "more than 500 emails sent in a day" (Gmail limits, 27 Jul 2026) — irrelevant at quote volumes, but worth knowing.

Test it works (10 minutes)

Don't wait for real days to pass — fake them. In the sheet, add two test rows with Email set to your own address and Status Awaiting:

• Row A: Date sent = a date 4 days ago (so Nudge due shows day3).
• Row B: Date sent = a date 8 days ago (so Nudge due shows day7).

Confirm column I shows day3 and day7 for those two. Then in Make click Run once, and check in order:

1. Two drafts sit in your Gmail Drafts — the day-3 wording addressed to Row A, the day-7 wording to Row B, each with the client name, amount and date filled in.
2. Back in the sheet, Row A's Day 3 nudged = yes, Row B's Day 7 nudged = yes, and both Nudge due cells are now blank.
3. Click Run once again straight away — no new drafts should appear. The yes stamps stop repeats. That's the guardrail proving itself.

Now change one test row's Status to Won and confirm it drops off. Delete the drafts and the test rows when you're satisfied. Only then let it loose on real quotes.

When it doesn't

• Column I (Nudge due) stays blank on an old quote, or shows #VALUE!. Column E isn't being read as a real date. Select column E → Format → Number → Date, then re-type the date as 2026-07-27. The formula does maths on the date, so a date stored as text breaks it.
• Column I is blank even on a 5-day-old quote. The Status cell probably isn't exactly Awaiting — a stray space, a lower-case awaiting, or a different word like Sent. The formula only flags rows whose Status is exactly Awaiting. Fix the word.
• Make's Update a Row step has no "Row number" to map. You picked Search Rows (Advanced) instead of the plain Search Rows — only the plain one returns a row number. Swap the first module for Search Rows.
• No drafts appear after a run. Check three things: the scenario is toggled ON; the Search Rows filter is Nudge due Contains day (not "Equal to"); and at least one row shows day3 or day7 in the sheet right now. If Make reports a run with "0 bundles", nothing matched — no quote was due today, which is correct on a quiet day.
• A draft goes to the wrong person, or the name/amount is blank. In Create a Draft Email, the To and the [Client] / [Amount (S$)] spots must be mapped fields from Search Rows (coloured chips), not typed words. Re-open the module and drop the fields in from the picker.
• A client already replied but a nudge got drafted anyway. The automation only knows what the sheet knows. The moment someone replies, set that row's Status to Replied (or Won / Lost). And because these are drafts, not auto-sends, you get a second safety net: you'll see their reply in the thread before you send, and delete the draft.
• Make warns you're low on credits. At quote volumes that shouldn't happen on a daily run — check you haven't set the schedule to run every few minutes, and that you have one scenario, not several copies. If your quote volume really is that high, see What it costs about the S$9 tier.

Your data (read this one)

Be plain about what leaves your business.

• What's in play: your clients' names, email addresses and quote amounts — personal data under Singapore's PDPA.
• Where it goes: it lives in your own Google account (the Sheet and Gmail). To do its job, Make reads a row and writes a draft on your instruction, so your quote data passes through Make's servers (an overseas automation company) on each run. That's the trade for not doing it by hand.
• What Make does with it: it processes the data to run your scenario. Make is an automation vendor, not an advertising company, and its free plan is the same product as the paid one. Even so — put only the columns you actually need in the sheet. You don't need NRIC, home address or anything sensitive to chase a quote, so don't add them.
• The PDPA angle: emailing your own prospect to follow up on a quote they asked you for is using their contact detail for the purpose they gave it — ordinary business use. What you must not do is quietly fold those addresses into a marketing newsletter; that's a different purpose that needs its own consent.
• If you'd rather nothing left your Google account at all: the honest alternative is the phone calendar reminder from Is this for you?. Less clever, and it works.

Switch it off

• In Make: open the scenario and toggle it OFF to stop it running, or Delete it entirely. On the free plan you were never charged — there's nothing to cancel.
• Revoke Make's access to your Google data: go to your Google Account → Security → Third-party apps & services (or open myaccount.google.com/connections), find Make, and remove its access. That cuts the Sheet and Gmail connection at the source.
• Your data stays put: the sheet and any drafts remain in your own Google account — they're yours to keep or delete. Nothing keeps running once the scenario is off and access is revoked.

What's next

• Chase by WhatsApp instead? The free WhatsApp Business app has no automation hook, so Make can't send from it — that's the paid Cloud API, a different animal (the difference). The card-free workaround: keep this build, read the drafted nudge, and paste it into WhatsApp yourself. The automation still does the remembering and the writing; you do the sending.
• Close the loop on the money. When a won quote becomes an invoice, automate the invoice chasing so the follow-up doesn't stop at "yes".
• Before a vendor sells you a "sales follow-up CRM" on a monthly fee, run their quote past the markup math — you may already have built the useful 80% for S$0.
• Outgrowing a spreadsheet? A free CRM tracks quote stages without formulas — see HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Monday.