Your Contact at the Company Left and Your Quote Is Stuck. Here's What to Do

You quoted a commercial job. The walkthrough went well, the property manager said it looked good, and then things went quiet. You send a follow-up and it bounces. Or you call and the front desk says, "Oh, he doesn't work here anymore."

Now you have a quote sitting in the air with nobody holding it. Here's how to get it back in front of the right person and what to say when you do.

Quick answer

Don't assume the quote is dead. Most of the time the job still exists, the building still has the problem, and somebody inside still has to deal with it. Your job is to find out who that somebody is, reach them fast, and make it easy for them to say yes without starting over.

Call the main number, ask who took over for your old contact, and send a short note to that person within a day. Attach the original quote, say what you were asked to do and when, and ask for ten minutes. Keep it simple. The new person doesn't know you, and they didn't pick you.

Why these quotes go cold

When the person who asked for your quote leaves, three things happen at once.

First, nobody remembers the conversation. Your contact walked the site with you, knew the budget, and maybe had already told the owner you were the pick. All of that left with them.

Second, their work gets dumped on someone who is already busy. The new person has their own pile. A half-finished quote from a contractor they've never met goes to the bottom.

Third, the new person has no reason to trust your number. They didn't hear you explain it. To them it's just a price on a page, and the safe move is to ask three more contractors for fresh quotes.

None of that means you lost. It means the job is paused until someone picks it up, and the contractor who makes it easy to pick up usually wins.

Step 1: Confirm what happened

Before you send anything, make sure you know the situation. A bounced email can also mean a typo, a full inbox, or a changed email system.

Call the main number of the company. Ask for your contact by name. If you hear "he's no longer with us," ask one more thing: "Who's handling his projects now?" Receptionists and office managers are usually glad to tell you, because it saves them a call later.

If they won't give a name, ask for a title. "Who's the property manager for the Maple Street building now?" or "Who handles maintenance approvals?" is enough to work with.

You can also check the company's website, or look up the person on LinkedIn. People change jobs and usually update it. If your old contact just moved to another company, that's a bonus. They may still have a say in the work, and they may want to hire you at the new place.

Step 2: Find who actually signs

The person who took over your contact's desk isn't always the one who approves the spend. Figure out which of these you're dealing with.

A new property or facility manager. This is the most common. They run the building day to day and often approve work up to a certain dollar amount.

The owner or a board. On bigger jobs, the manager brings it to the owner or the condo board. If your old contact was just passing your quote up the line, ask the new person where it was headed.

A management company above them. Some buildings are run by a third party. The person on site recommends, and somebody at the head office signs.

You don't need the whole org chart. One question gets you there: "Who needs to sign off on a job like this?" Ask it early and politely. Nobody minds.

Step 3: Reach out, short and easy

Send the first message within a day or two of learning who the new person is. Waiting makes it worse, because the longer it sits, the more it feels like old news.

Keep it short. They're new and busy. Here is what that can look like.

Hi Dana, I'm Mike with Reyes Roofing. I quoted the flat roof repair at the Maple Street building a few weeks back with Tom, before he moved on. I wanted to make sure it didn't get lost in the handover. I've attached the quote. Happy to walk the roof with you for ten minutes if that helps. When's a good time this week?

A few things make that work. It says who you are in one line. It says what the job was. It doesn't blame anyone or mention that Tom left badly, if he did. It attaches the quote so they don't have to dig. And it asks for a small thing, ten minutes, not a decision.

If you have a phone number, call once after the email. A person who just inherited a pile of work is more likely to answer a short call than reply to an email.

Step 4: Re-earn the quote, don't just resend it

Here's where a lot of contractors go wrong. They send the old quote again and wait. That puts all the work on the new person.

Instead, treat the first conversation like a mini restart.

Ask what changed. A new manager might have a different budget, a different timeline, or a different idea of what matters. The roof that was urgent last month might be second on their list behind a parking lot problem.

Ask what they were told. "What did Tom pass along about this one?" tells you whether they know the quote exists, whether the owner already approved the idea, and whether you're still the front runner.

Walk the site if they'll let you. Even a quick visit puts a face to the name. It also gives you a fresh look at the job, and if the scope has shifted, you can say so honestly.

Then offer to update the quote. If it's been more than a month or two, material prices may have moved. Be upfront: "Prices on membrane have gone up a bit since I wrote that. I'll send you a fresh one so you're not working off old numbers." That sounds like someone organized, not someone grabbing for more money.

What not to do

Don't go over their head right away. It's tempting to call the owner and say, "Tom promised me this job." Don't. You'll make the new manager feel bypassed, and they'll be the one working with you on the job.

Don't guilt them. "I already did a whole walkthrough for this" is true, and it will not help. The new person doesn't owe you anything yet.

Don't badmouth the old contact. You don't know who's friends with who.

Don't pile on messages. One email, one call, one follow-up a few days later. If you want a rough cadence, how many times to follow up on a quote covers it, and how long to wait before following up covers the gaps between.

If you still can't find anyone

Sometimes nobody picks up. The company is in a mess, or the position stays empty for months.

Send one clean note to the general address or whoever answers the main line. Say the quote is on file, you're still available, and the price holds for another 30 days. Then put a reminder on your calendar for a month out.

If the quote is old by then, how to re-engage old quotes has the wording for coming back to something that went cold.

And don't forget the building itself. Maintenance staff, tenants, and the on-site super often know exactly who's in charge now. A friendly word with the person who unlocks the door can save you a week of guessing.

Protect yourself next time

This will happen again. Commercial contacts change jobs all the time, and a quote that depends on one person is fragile.

On your next commercial quote, try to meet a second person. Ask who else is involved in the decision. Put both names on the quote. Ask for the main office number and write it down. It costs you nothing, and when your first contact leaves, you already have a way in.

Also note on your tracking list who each quote was sent to and who else knows about it. That way a bounced email is a five minute problem, not a lost job. If you're tracking your wins and losses already, what is a good close rate shows a simple way to do it. And for how commercial buyers differ from homeowners in general, follow-up for commercial vs residential is worth a read.

A short version

If your contact left, the quote isn't dead, it's paused. Call the main number, find out who took over, and send them a short note within a day or two with the quote attached and an offer of ten minutes on site. Ask what changed, offer to update the price if it's old, and don't go over their head. Next time, get a second name on every commercial quote.

The part that slips

The hard part isn't the wording. It's noticing. A bounced email sits in your inbox for a week while you're on a job, and by the time you see it the trail has gone cold.

That's what QuoteChaser is built for. It follows up on every quote that's gone quiet, in your own voice, and tells you when something comes back or doesn't. When a customer writes back, it pings your phone and you take it from there.

Join the QuoteChaser waitlist and stop losing jobs to silence.