Thursday evening. Forty minutes each way, an hour measuring up, another hour at the laptop getting the numbers straight. You send it over and hear nothing — not a no, just nothing. Six weeks later you drive past and the job hasn’t been done by anyone.

That enquiry was never a job, and the frustrating part isn’t losing it — it’s that you could have known on the first phone call. The skill isn’t being harder on people. It’s working out which kind of enquiry you’ve got before you spend the diesel, without turning away the careful, genuine customers who take three weeks to decide and then spend properly.

What a dead quote actually costs you

A survey and write-up on a mid-sized domestic job is easily three hours door to door once you count the drive, the measuring and the evening on the laptop. Price your time at, say, £45 an hour for illustration — your figure will differ — and four dead enquiries in a month is the best part of a day’s earnings, plus fuel. The hidden cost is worse: the enquiry you took four days to answer, because you were out pricing a job that was never happening, is the one that went to whoever replied first.

The early signs

None of these on its own means much. Two or three together is a pattern worth trusting.

“Can you just give me a rough idea over the phone?” Asked once, that’s fair. Pushed hard after you’ve explained you need to see it, a number is the only thing they’re collecting.
No job, just a price. “How much for a rewire?” with no property size, no age of house, no address, no timescale. Someone actually doing the work can describe it.
They won’t pin down a time for you to come out. Anyone serious finds half an hour. Three cancelled appointments is an answer.
No reason and no deadline. Real jobs have a trigger: moving in next month, landlord’s selling, the boiler’s packed up, the extension’s signed off. An enquiry with no “why now” usually stays an enquiry.
The budget and the job are in different postcodes. Someone wanting a full kitchen fitted for roughly what the worktops cost isn’t going to be talked round.
Nobody’s ever good enough. Five quotes in, mid-argument with the last trade who worked there, and everyone so far has been “a cowboy”. You’ll be number six.

Qualify on the phone before you get in the van

A ten-minute call does nearly all the filtering. Keep it conversational — you’re working out whether you’re the right fit, not interrogating anyone.

“Talk me through what you’re after.” The most useful question you’ll ask. Listen for whether they can describe the work at all.
“When are you hoping to get it done?” “No rush, we’re just exploring” isn’t an insult, it’s information — a spring job, not a this-month job.
“Have you had any other prices in yet?” First quote in means you’re educating them; fifth means they’re shopping on price alone.
“Do you have a budget in mind?” The question trades hate asking. Frame it as doing them a favour and it lands fine: “It saves us both an evening — if you’re working to £5,000 and this is a £12,000 job, better we both know now than after I’ve measured up.”
“Is it just you deciding, or is there someone else?” A price given to one half of a couple, or to a tenant rather than the landlord, needs explaining a second time.

Then put some work back on them: “Send me a few photos and the rough room measurements and I’ll tell you whether I’m in the right bracket before either of us spends an evening on it.” Serious people send the photos within the hour. The others don’t — and that’s your answer, free.

Give a bracket on the phone, not a quote

This is the single most effective filter, and it costs five minutes. Before you commit to a visit, give an honest indicative range and make absolutely clear it isn’t a price.

“Without seeing it I can’t give you a proper figure, but a job like that usually lands between £X and £Y depending on the units and the state of the floor. If that’s roughly the right ballpark, I’ll come and measure up and do you a firm price.”

Mismatched budgets end the conversation there, politely, with nobody having driven anywhere. The ones who say “yes, that’s what we thought” have told you they’re real. Mind the wording though — a ballpark is not a commitment, and the difference between a quote and an estimate matters if the job gets awkward later.

When a fee is the right filter

Where the quoting work is genuinely substantial — a measured survey, a kitchen layout, a lighting design, a line-by-line schedule for them to hand to three other firms — a fee is the strongest filter there is, especially if you credit it against the job when they proceed. It’s a judgement call per job, so read up on when charging for a quote or survey is fair and when it kills good leads before applying it across the board.

Careful is not the same as time-wasting

This is where trades get it wrong, and it’s expensive. Plenty of your best customers look slow from outside: spending a large chunk of savings, waiting on a house sale, or doing their homework on a job they’ll live with for fifteen years. The difference shows up in the detail, not the speed:

Genuine but cautious: describes the job properly, answers your questions, replies even when the reply is “still thinking it over”, and asks about the work — materials, sequence, how long you’ll be in the house, what happens if something turns up behind the plaster.
Time-waster: stays vague however much you ask, asks only about the number, and goes quiet.

A careful customer costs you time once. A time-waster costs you time repeatedly and never decides.

So don’t bin the slow ones — park them. A yes in April is still a yes, and a diarised nudge beats hoping they remember you. Most trades lose these by never going back, not by being too soft; a decent follow-up habit converts more of them than any clever qualifying question.

How to bow out without being the rude one

Say it straight, say it early, and leave the door open — you want to be the one they call when the budget changes.

Out of budget

Being honest, I don’t think I’m the right fit for this one. For what you’re describing I’d be nearer £X, which is above where you want to be. I’d rather say so now than waste your afternoon. If things change, give me a shout.

No detail, no visit

I can’t price that properly without seeing it, and I’d rather not guess and then change the number on you. Give me half an hour at the property and I’ll do it properly.

Closing off a stale lead

I’ll assume this one’s on hold for now. Drop me a line if it comes back round and I’ll re-price it for you.

That last one matters more than it looks: formally closing a lead gets it out of your head, which is where half the stress of quoting lives.

Keep score for a couple of months

Note three things against every enquiry: where it came from, how long you spent, and what happened. Eight weeks of that and the pattern is obvious — one lead source sends you jobs, another sends you evenings. What happens after you send the quote tells you as much: one opened three times and not answered is live and worth a nudge, while one never opened at all isn’t a time-waster — it’s a quote sitting in a spam folder.

The takeaway

You can’t stop time-wasters getting in touch, but you can stop them costing you evenings: qualify on the phone, give an honest bracket before you travel, ask for photos and measurements so the effort is shared, and charge for survey work that has value on its own. Then sort the slow-but-serious from the never-going-to-happen by how they answer questions, not by how fast they decide — and when it isn’t a fit, say so plainly and leave the door open.

Queezy tracks every quote from sent to viewed to accepted, so you can see which enquiries are genuinely live before you spend another evening on them — download it free on iPhone.

How to Spot (and Handle) Time-Wasters