I’m researching how small service businesses handle estimates that were sent but never clearly accepted or rejected.
How do you currently decide:
I’m especially interested in construction, agencies, and other businesses with longer sales cycles.
What does your current process look like?
Hey @michael010101,
Great question for the community! Here are a few resources that might point you in the right direction while we wait for some peer input:
Hope this helps!
Sam, Community Manager
Quick update: I’m no longer looking for general advice — I’m looking for ONE real service-business operator to test this with.
If you have old estimates/quotes that were sent but never clearly accepted or rejected, I’ll run a free blind test on 3 anonymized examples.
For each one, I only need:
• approximate age
• approximate value
• last follow-up
• one-line context
No customer names.
No CRM access.
You rank the 3 privately first.
I’ll rank them independently and explain which one I’d follow up first and why.
Then we compare.
If my ranking adds nothing beyond your own judgment, that’s a useful result too.
If anyone here runs a construction, HVAC, roofing, remodeling, or other estimate-heavy service business and wants to test 3, reply “test”.
Hi @michael010101,
Thanks for the update and thanks for thinking of the HubSpot Community!
The HubSpot Community is a shared space of connection and learning.
Help make the HubSpot Community a richer place by sharing your expertise here, on this public space please, so that other Community Members can get help too!
Thank you very much!
Bérangère
One thing I’d add is that the problem often isn’t just creating another reminder or sequence.
For service businesses, there can be years of records sitting behind the current pipeline: estimates that went cold, leads that were contacted once and never revisited, closed-lost opportunities where timing may have been the real objection, and former customers who could be candidates for reactivation.
That creates two separate problems: keeping today’s follow-up from slipping through the cracks, and identifying which older opportunities are actually worth bringing back into the queue.
That second problem is something I’ve been working on with RevHarvester. We’re building it to analyze existing CRM records, filter out records that shouldn’t be pursued, prioritize the remaining recovery opportunities, and help businesses act on them rather than just producing another report.
I’d be interested in hearing how others here currently handle that older layer of the CRM — particularly once the database becomes too large to review manually.
Hello @michael010101 ,
For businesses that have sales cycles I usually look at a mix of the estimate age, the value and the recent customer engagement instead of just one single factor. A newer estimate that has email activity or a customer response might need attention faster while an older estimate that has no engagement might follow a different schedule.
For ownership it is important to have one person clearly responsible for the follow-up to make sure estimates are not missed. The follow-up timing can also be based on the decision cycle for that type of customer. HubSpot workflows and task reminders can be helpful, for keeping track of these follow-ups and making sure the assigned owner knows when an estimate needs attention.
With Regards,
Jaya Sinha