You sent a quote on Monday. The client asked to review it with their partner. On Friday, another team member asked again what was needed. The proposal is still open, but no one knows when to resume the conversation.
Quote tracking consists of recording what was offered, who will attend to the client, and what the next agreed action is. A CRM can help you gather that information and prevent each salesperson from working with a different version of the opportunity.
This guide proposes a simple method for SMEs that sell services, equipment, or projects and need to organize what happens after sending a proposal.
Why it is beneficial to organize follow-up
The 2024 INEGI Economic Censuses, with information from 2023, identified that the percentage of economic units selling online increased across all business sizes between 2018 and 2023.
Receiving digital requests opens opportunities, but also requires preserving context when a person moves from the form to email or to a call.
The problem arises when “quote sent” becomes the last available record. Without a responsible person or next step, it is difficult to distinguish between an interested customer, a stalled proposal, and an opportunity that has already ended.
1. Create one record per opportunity
A company may request two quotes for different projects. It is advisable to maintain a shared contact and a separate record for each opportunity.
You can start with these data:
- Folio y versión de la cotización.
- Cliente y persona de contacto.
- Producto, servicio o alcance solicitado.
- Importe y moneda.
- Fecha de envío y vigencia.
- Responsable del seguimiento.
- Estado actual.
- Última conversación relevante.
- Próxima acción y fecha acordada.
- Resultado y motivo de cierre.
If you work with pesos and dollars, explicitly log the currency. Also define whether your reports compare amounts with or without taxes to maintain the same criterion.
Keep a reference to the current proposal. When the scope changes, record a new version to prevent sales and operations from working with different documents.
2. Define states that the team understands the same
These stages are a starting point that can be adapted:
- En preparación: faltan datos o validaciones internas.
- Enviada: la propuesta se entregó por el canal acordado.
- En revisión: el cliente confirmó que la está evaluando.
- En ajuste: pidió cambios concretos de alcance o condiciones.
- Aceptada: existe evidencia de aceptación según el proceso del negocio.
- Cerrada sin venta: la oportunidad terminó y se registró el motivo.
You can add “postponed” when the client indicates a future date. It should retain a review date so the record is not abandoned.
Avoid moving a proposal to “in review” just because the file was opened. A technical signal does not prove that the person evaluated the offer.
3. Assign a person and a next action
Each opportunity should have a primary owner, even if others participate. This makes clear who must confirm that the next step occurred.
The next action should describe a concrete task:
- Confirmar las medidas pendientes.
- Enviar una propuesta revisada.
- Resolver una duda sobre instalación.
- Llamar el jueves después de la reunión del cliente.
“Follow-up” is too ambiguous to know if the work is finished.
This separation between owner, stage, and future activity also appears in HubSpot’s business properties documentation. It serves as a design reference for the process; available features depend on the CRM you use.
4. Agree when to contact again
There is no universal frequency that works for all quotes. An urgent purchase and a project requiring internal approval have different timelines.
When sending the proposal, ask when they expect to review it and what is the best channel to continue.
As a work example:
- Al enviar: explica qué incluye y propone una fecha de revisión.
- En la fecha acordada: pregunta si falta información para decidir.
- Si solicita cambios: confirma quién enviará la nueva versión y cuándo.
- Si no responde: realiza un contacto breve adicional y ofrece pausar el seguimiento.
This sequence is indicative. Adjust timings to the agreement with the client and respect when they request to stop receiving messages.
5. Use messages that provide context
Avoid sending multiple times “have you reviewed?”. A helpful message reminds the topic and facilitates a specific response.
Next step confirmation: “Hi, Mariana. I’m sharing the proposal for maintenance of the two branches. It includes the visits we discussed. Do you think we should review it on Thursday?”
Follow-up agreed: “Hi, Mariana. I’ll resume the proposal as we agreed. Are there any questions about the scope or dates we should resolve before they review it internally?”
Pause of follow-up: “Hi, Mariana. Do you prefer that we resume the proposal later? If priorities have changed, I can leave it paused and update it when you need it.”
Personalize each message with real information. Do not invent discounts, limited availability, or expiration dates to provoke a response.
6. Automate reminders after you complete the process
Before automating external messages, test simple internal tasks, as long as your tool allows them:
- Avisar de una próxima acción vencida.
- Identificar registros sin responsable.
- Recordar que una cotización está por vencer.
- Señalar oportunidades sin una siguiente actividad.
Also define when a workflow should stop: client response, acceptance, rejection, change of owner, or pause request.
Test with a small group of opportunities. Check if duplicate tasks appear and if alerts help decide what to address. Availability of these rules depends on the platform and its configuration.
7. Measure results with consistent criteria
You can start with four indicators:
- Porcentaje de oportunidades abiertas con responsable y próxima acción.
- Número de acciones vencidas.
- Tiempo transcurrido entre envío y decisión.
- Motivos de cierre sin venta.
To measure acceptance, choose a cohort of proposals sent in the same period and observe which were accepted after a defined interval. Also report how many remain open.
For example, if you sent 20 proposals and five were accepted at the cut-off, the acceptance rate is 25%. If ten remain pending, that result can still change. This is illustrative, not a performance benchmark.
How to start with Onix Board
Onix Board publicly offers tools to manage contacts, conversations, team tasks, and follow-up tickets. These are capabilities you can evaluate to focus the business context.
Take to a demo three real quotes and ask to review how to relate each request to its contact, owner, and history. Also confirm how to record statuses, next actions, and reports according to your operation and the available plan.
Start with a simple rule: every open quote must have a responsible person and a next step. That criterion will allow you to evaluate whether your follow-up process is actually working.