How long to wait before contacting someone after giving a quote.
 

I gave a quote to a client for a wedding reception next year by email yesterday. Her menu choices and requests were a lot and I gave her a quote. I can do many things for her for a lot less than I quoted her but I don't want to call her and tell her this because she may go with what she asked for.

This got me to wondering what is an acceptable time period say in this case to wait for her to reply before I contact her and either ask if it was out of her budget or what she thought of the proposal we sent her? I'm thinking maybe 3 days? What say you?

I'd give no longer than a week

just like dating, give it a couple of days

I would base the timeframe to follow-up on how long the lead time is. The short the lead time, the shorter the time before you follow-up. I think waiting a week is about right given the wedding is next year.

I hear ya thanks all good advice. I guess what I am thinking is that this girl has called me and priced a huge 3 meats 5 sides wedding dinner and was shocked at the price and then calls another caterer and asks for pulled pork and two sides and if I wait too long to call her and she says we booked that for $X and I could have done it for the same but you priced $XXX with me.

In other words I want her to know that I can do a much less expensive menu but I don't want to talk her out of a great gig for me. Kinda like a car sales has someone wanting to buy a corvette and they talk them into a chevette.

Why didn't you just give her options then? menu 1 xx.xx a plate; menu 2 xx.xx a plate, etc

I would give it a week, that is the time frame I normally allow for proposals in my real life business. In truth, if I have a real shot at the job, a week has never been a big issue. If they are shopping price, then they will have made up their mind almost immediately.

When you call her, if she has not made up her mind, that is when you pitch that perhaps you and she should work together to get a budget and you can work to meet that budget. I mean, the sales person in me says that the initial contact, when she requests the quote is the time to say "...I am more than ready to provide you with the quote for your request, however, I want you to know, we offer planning and budgeting services, if you can offer me a budget to hit, I would be happy to put together a quote tailored to your wedding plans." It makes is sound more custom, it makes it sound like you are on her side, and that you want the gig.

She called me with what she wants in mind. I did not want to sell down if you know what I mean by saying I can do other things cheaper. Like I stated in my corvette/chevette statement. I did call her back and in fact she was looking for something less expensive however she wants the same menu and just me less expensive LOL. When I called her back I gave her several options in the price range that she said she wanted to spend, just like you suggested above. It's been a few days and I have not heard back from her.

I think by giving her a reasonble quote you've already done all you can do. She must realize by now that catering isn't cheap and if she does find someone that meets her budget and her preferred menu, she'll learn that you get what you pay for. If she's still on the fence you can always offer her a sample of your Q, that could close the deal. :thumb: