Most lost quotes are not lost on price. They are lost by being slow, vague, or so bare that the customer has nothing to compare except the total.
Speed is the biggest single factor
The first credible quote frames the decision. It sets the specification everyone else is judged against, and it signals that you are organised. A quote sent three days later arrives at a decision already halfway made.
If a same-day quote is not possible, send a same-day holding reply with a time: "I'll have this to you before 10am tomorrow." That still beats silence by a distance.
Quote one recommendation, not a menu
Give your recommendation, then two quantity options around it:
Recommended: 100 x mid-weight ring-spun tee, two-colour front. £7.50 each, £750, ten working days. At 50: £9.10 each. At 200: £6.40 each.
One clear answer plus a visible volume incentive. A page of alternatives makes the customer do your job, and slows the decision down.
Show what is included
This is what stops your number being compared against a cheaper quote for a worse job:
- Garment named, with weight and fabric.
- Print positions, and colours per position.
- Setup included or itemised.
- Lead time from artwork approval.
- Delivery or collection, and its cost.
- What a reorder would cost.
A quote listing these is not comparable to "£6 a shirt" in a text message, and the customer can see why.
Say what happens next
End with a single action and a consequence: "Approve and I'll book you into the week of the 14th." Quotes that end with "let me know" sit. See cutting approval time, which is the same problem one step later.
Follow up twice, then stop
A single chase at 48 hours and one at a week converts a meaningful share of quotes. Most shops never send either. Ask a question rather than repeating yourself: "Is the mid-October date still what you're working to?"
When you are the expensive one
Name the difference in plain terms:
"The lower quote is probably a lighter garment and a single-hit print. Mine is a 190gsm ring-spun with an underbase so the colour holds after washing. If budget is the constraint I can quote the lighter garment too."
That gives them a real choice, keeps your price intact, and often sells the better option. Dropping the number teaches the customer your first price was decoration.
Do not compete with shops making a mistake
Some quotes you lose to a shop that has not costed setup. That is not a market price, it is an error, and matching it just means two shops losing money instead of one. Know your floor from your pricing formula and let those go.
Track conversion by source and by size
A single win rate hides everything useful. Split it, and the actions become obvious.
| Enquiry type | Quotes | Won | Rate | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repeat customer | 22 | 19 | 86% | Protect this, it is your margin |
| Referral | 14 | 9 | 64% | Ask for more of them |
| Website enquiry | 40 | 15 | 38% | Speed and clarity matter most here |
| Price shopper, no detail | 25 | 3 | 12% | Answer quickly and cheaply, do not invest |
The practical conclusion most shops reach: they were spending their best quoting time on the worst segment. A price shopper with no artwork and no date deserves a fast, templated answer. A referral deserves twenty minutes and a phone call.
Quote from a matrix, not from memory
Two people in the same shop quoting the same job differently is worse than either price being wrong. It makes your pricing look arbitrary, it makes discounting impossible to control, and it guarantees that some jobs are sold below cost.
A price matrix fixes it: blank cost, cost per impression or per thousand stitches or per square centimetre, setup, quantity breaks, markup. Behind a quote form, it means the price is a lookup and the margin is visible on the line while you work. Printer's Friend shows the margin per line as you build the quote, and snapshots the cost onto the line when you save so the figure you quoted is the figure the report reads later.
Answer the objection with structure, not a discount
When someone says you are expensive, the wrong response is a lower number and the right one is a different specification. Three moves that keep the margin:
- Change the garment, not the price. A tier-two blank at the same decoration is an honest saving you can pass on.
- Change the quantity. Show what the price becomes at the next break, with the setup arithmetic visible.
- Change the specification. One position instead of two, or a simplified colour count, both reduce your cost genuinely.
What you should not do is match a price that is below your cost. See the closing point about shops making a mistake: their quote is not competition, it is a forecast of their closure.
Know which work you actually want to win
Winning is not the goal; winning profitable work is. If you know margin after labour by job type, you can aim your quoting effort at the work that pays and be relaxed about losing the rest. The job costing report makes that concrete: the work with the best margin per shop hour is the work worth quoting fastest, following up twice and holding your price on.
Most shops find one or two job types they had been treating as bread and butter that are worth declining, and one they had been treating as a nuisance that deserves a marketing push. Neither insight is available from a win rate alone.
Printer's Friend builds quotes off your price matrix so the same job prices the same whoever quotes it, shows margin per line while you work, and chases automatically at 48 hours and a week. See the quoting feature.