The Bid Follow-Up Email That Gets Vendor Responses (With 3 Templates)

You sent the RFQ to eight vendors on Tuesday. By Thursday, three have replied, one said they can't quote, and four are silent. Your bid is due Monday. You need those numbers.

This is one of the most universal frustrations in construction project management, and the surface-level advice ("just follow up!") doesn't actually fix it, because the problem isn't that you need to follow up — it's that your follow-ups need to be structured in a way that actually gets a response.

Here's what works, why it works, and three templates you can copy, tweak, and use on the next RFQ that goes cold.

First, Why Vendors Actually Ignore Your RFQs

Before we get to follow-ups, it's worth being honest about the real reasons vendors don't respond. In most cases, it's not personal and it's not because they don't want your business.

The email got buried. A typical supplier rep gets 50-100 emails a day. Your RFQ landed between an order acknowledgment and a manufacturer rebate notice, and it got scrolled past. This is the single most common reason, and it's fixable — sometimes a simple resend is all it takes.

Your RFQ was unclear or hard to respond to. If your list is vague, your deadline is missing, or your request looks like a forwarded email chain with "can you price this?" at the top, the rep deprioritized it. Easy quotes get answered first.

They can't quote it and didn't bother telling you. Rep doesn't have the material, the spec calls for a product they don't carry, or the job size is too small to prioritize. Instead of declining, they just didn't respond. (This is annoying but common.)

They're waiting on their own information. Rep needs to check with the manufacturer on pricing or availability and hasn't gotten back yet. Your follow-up might be exactly what prompts them to chase the answer on your behalf.

It went to the wrong person. The rep you've been emailing changed roles, left the company, or was never actually the right quoting contact. Without a follow-up, you never find out.

Every one of these is fixable with the right follow-up. The goal isn't to be annoying; it's to give the rep a reason to move your RFQ back to the top of the stack.

Before You Follow Up: Check Your Original RFQ

The best follow-up is the one you don't need to send because your first email was good enough that you got a response. Before you blame the vendors, ask:

• Is there a clear, specific material list with quantities and specs?
• Is there a clear deadline for response?
• Is there a clear reply-to address?
• Does the subject line tell the rep what this is and why it matters?
• Is the tone professional and the format clean?

If any of these are off, fix them in the original RFQ and the follow-up problem mostly takes care of itself. Well-structured RFQs get response rates of 70-80%+; sloppy ones get half that.

Assuming your initial RFQ is solid, here are the three follow-ups to have in your back pocket.

Template 1: The 2-Day Nudge

Send this 2 to 3 business days after your original RFQ if you haven't heard back. The goal is low-friction — you're not pushing, you're just making sure the email wasn't missed. This one gets the highest response rate because it assumes the best and makes replying easy.

Subject: Re: RFQ – [Project name or material type] – pricing needed by [date]

Hi [Name],

Just making sure the RFQ I sent Tuesday made it through to you — these sometimes get caught in filters.

I'm compiling pricing for [project/bid name] and hoping to have it all in by [specific date]. If you have a few minutes to get me numbers on the list, I'd appreciate it.

If this one isn't a fit for you — wrong product category, too small, whatever the reason — just reply and let me know so I can plan accordingly.

Thanks, [Your name]

Why this works: It's short. It opens with a non-accusatory reason they might not have replied (email filters). It gives a clear deadline. And critically, the last line gives them an easy way out — "just reply and let me know." Making it easy to decline actually increases the chance of a response, because now they're not ignoring you, they're just declining quickly. Either way, you get information.

Template 2: The Deadline Push

Send this 4 to 5 business days after the original, or 2 days after Template 1 if that didn't get a response. This one adds urgency by referencing the real deadline and signaling that the quote is actually competitive (other vendors have replied).

Subject: Still looking for pricing — [Project name]

Hi [Name],

Circling back on the RFQ for [project/material type]. I have quotes in from [X] other vendors so far, and I'd like to include yours in the mix before I finalize numbers.

I'm submitting the bid on [date], so I need pricing by [specific date/time] to factor it in. Even partial pricing on what you have available is useful — I can note the rest as "to be quoted."

If this one isn't for you, a quick reply so I know is all I need.

[Your name]

Why this works: Three things are doing work here. First, "I have quotes in from X other vendors" signals that this is a real opportunity with real competition — the rep knows you'll buy from someone, and they'd rather it be them. Second, the "even partial pricing" line lowers the bar for response — sometimes the rep is stuck because they can't quote the whole list, and giving them permission to quote part of it breaks the logjam. Third, the real deadline creates actual urgency instead of vague "ASAP" language, which reps ignore.

Template 3: The Final Call

Send this the day before (or day of) the bid deadline, if you still haven't heard back. This is the last-chance email — no hard feelings, but you're about to close the loop.

Subject: Final call on [project] – submitting [today/tomorrow]

Hi [Name],

Quick note: I'm finalizing material costs for [project name] this afternoon and submitting the bid [today/tomorrow].

If you can get me pricing in the next few hours, I'd like to include your quote. If not, no worries — I'll reach out on the next one.

[Your name]

Why this works: It's honest and respectful. You're not guilt-tripping, you're not making it sound like they've failed you — you're just stating what's happening and giving them one final chance to be part of it. The "I'll reach out on the next one" line is important: it signals that this isn't a burned bridge, and a rep who missed this RFQ but wants to be in your next one will often scramble to get you numbers.

Don't send this as a first or second email. It only works as the final touch in a sequence. Sent prematurely, it feels manipulative.

Rules for Using These Templates

Space them out realistically. The sequence above assumes a week-long bidding window. If you have three days, compress it. If you have two weeks, stretch it. Don't send all three follow-ups in 24 hours — that reads as pushy and doesn't respect how supplier reps work.

Personalize the details. Blank placeholders are fine as starting points, but the best follow-ups reference the specific project, the specific material, and the actual deadline. Generic follow-ups get generic (or zero) responses.

Mix channels if it matters. For RFQs where you really need a response from a specific vendor, a phone call or text after Template 2 often works better than Template 3. Reps who are buried in email sometimes respond immediately to a 30-second phone call.

Track who got what. The worst thing you can do is accidentally send Template 3 to someone who already replied. Keep a simple log — who you sent the original to, who responded, who you've followed up with, and when. A spreadsheet is fine if you're doing it by hand.

Don't take silence personally. Some reps are just bad at email. Some companies don't want to quote certain job types. A 70-80% response rate across all three follow-ups is what good looks like — you're not going to hit 100%, and chasing the last 20% harder isn't worth it.

The Underlying Problem (And Where It Gets Harder)

These templates solve the individual follow-up problem. But there's a larger problem they don't solve: the volume problem.

If you're running three active bids at once, each with 8 vendors, that's 24 potential follow-up sequences to manage. Remembering who got the original RFQ, who replied, who needs a nudge, and who needs the final call — across all of those — is where most PMs drop the ball. Not because they're disorganized, but because the mental load is genuinely too high.

That's where a structured RFQ workflow starts to matter. Two specific pieces help:

A delivery log tells you who actually got the original email. If a rep never replies, it's useful to know whether the email was delivered successfully or bounced. A follow-up to someone who never received the original is just confusing; a fresh resend is what they actually need.

Saved email templates let you deploy the sequence fast. When you have a library of pre-written follow-ups, sending Template 1 to three laggards takes two minutes, not twenty. The templates above become a system instead of a one-off.

MultiQuote handles the RFQ side of this workflow specifically — sending the initial request to every vendor in a group simultaneously, logging exactly who received it, and saving reusable email templates for future RFQs. Follow-ups still go through your regular inbox (which is the point — vendors reply to you directly, no platform friction), but knowing who got the original and having your templates saved makes the whole sequence much more manageable.

The templates above work regardless of what tools you use. Save them somewhere you'll actually find them when you need them — an email drafts folder, a notes app, wherever. The next time an RFQ goes cold, you've got the next move ready.