5 quoting mistakes that cost AU tradies jobs (and how to stop making them)

Most tradies lose jobs for the same five reasons, over and over. None are about your work quality. All are about the quote itself. Here's the honest list — and what to change.

1. You take too long to send the quote

Every hour your customer waits is an hour they have to ring the next tradie. Speed-to-quote is the single biggest win-rate driver. If you quote same-day, you win 3× more than if you quote next-week. If you quote on-site, you win 5× more. Voice-first tools exist to collapse this from hours to under a minute.

2. You round too round

A quote for "$1,500" looks made up. A quote for "$1,480" looks considered. Small psychological shift, real impact — customers perceive itemised, not-round numbers as more trustworthy. If your line items actually sum to a round number, adjust the labour figure by $20 so the total has character.

3. You give one price instead of three

When a customer sees one price, the only question is "is this too much?" When they see three options (essentials / standard / premium), the question becomes "which one do I want?" Different question, much better conversion.

4. You don't follow up

90% of quotes go quiet after send. Half of those quietly chose someone else. The other half genuinely just forgot. A 3-day follow-up SMS wins 15–20% more jobs back. Tools that auto-chase move the needle materially — the chase feels unprofessional to do manually but your software doing it politely feels like... software.

5. You make it hard to accept

If the accept path is "email back to confirm", you lose. Every extra step leaks customers. The best quotes have: (a) a link that opens on the customer's phone, (b) a big Accept button, (c) a signature in 5 seconds (typed name or finger-drawn). No PDF-printing, no signing and scanning, no rewriting your phone number.