Proposal Follow-Up Playbook

You sent the proposal. You have a proposal follow-up sequence for consultants — or you thought you did. Then Day 3 passed. Day 7. Radio silence. You don't know if they're still interested, if the budget got pulled, or if they're just slow. You have other prospects in your pipeline, a referral you can't commit to, and no system for deciding what to do next. That's the problem this kit solves.

The kit includes five assets: the After the Proposal guide (PDF) that walks you through the full follow-up framework; the 5-Touch Follow-Up Email Sequence (PDF) with copy-ready emails for Day 3, Day 7, Day 14, Day 21, and Day 35; the Proposal Follow-Up Calendar Template (DOCX) so every open proposal has a scheduled next action; the Follow-Up Decision Tree (PDF) that tells you when to persist, when to pivot the scope, and when to close the file; and the Proposal Follow-Up Tracker Dashboard (XLSX) with status codes and date columns for every active proposal in your pipeline.

Here's how you use it: open the tracker, enter every open proposal with its sent date and current status code — SENT, TOUCHED-1, TOUCHED-2, and so on through ARCHIVED. The calendar template tells you which proposals need action this week. The email sequence gives you the exact copy for each touch, calibrated by tone: warm check-in at Day 3, value-add at Day 7, gentle urgency at Day 14, a pivot offer at Day 21, and a graceful close at Day 35. The decision tree handles the judgment calls — including what to do when a prospect asked clarifying questions before the proposal and then went silent after your first follow-up.

This kit came out of a real capacity problem. Managing three active client engagements while tracking two or three open proposals in a Notion doc that doesn't alert you to missed windows is how you lose $19,500 in a quarter without noticing until it's gone. The tracker and calendar exist because ad hoc systems fail under load. The email sequence exists because most consultants either wait too long, follow up too vaguely, or send something that reads as desperate. None of those outcomes are acceptable when you're running a $5K–$50K engagement pipeline.

If you already have a follow-up system that's working, you don't need this. If your CRM handles proposal status tracking and sends you reminders, you don't need this. But if you're manually tracking open proposals and you've missed a follow-up window in the last 90 days, the tracker alone is worth the price.

Download, open the tracker, and enter your open proposals before you do anything else. That's the first move.