Send four emails over the life of a bid, and no more: one to confirm it arrived, one when a question or addendum gives you a real reason to write, one just before the award date, and one after a loss. Each is below, word for word. If the bid is for a government agency, read the section on contact rules first, because in that case some of these emails are not allowed.
A bid is not a quote. A quote follow-up can be warm and persistent because the customer is deciding about you. A bid goes into a process with a deadline, a short list of evaluators and often a rule about who may talk to whom. Your follow-up has a narrower job: make sure the bid is in the right hands, fix anything that could knock it out, and learn the result either way. For ordinary customer quotes, our guide on following up on a quote and the one for contractor estimates are the better fit.
The example bid used below
Tomas Delgado runs Delgado Mechanical, a six-person HVAC shop. He bid $186,400 as a subcontractor to Harlan Builders, a general contractor, for the heating and cooling work in a library renovation on Alder Street. The estimator at Harlan is Marcus Webb. The bid is good for 45 days, and Harlan says it expects to award subcontracts on the 18th of next month. Every email here is Tomas writing to Marcus.
Email 1: confirm it arrived, within two days
Use it the day after you send the bid, or two days after if you uploaded it to a portal. Why it works: it is a yes-or-no question, it states the facts that matter (page count, total, how long the price holds), and nobody has to think to answer it.
Subject: Bid received? Alder Street library HVAC, Delgado Mechanical
Hi Marcus,
I sent our HVAC bid for the Alder Street library yesterday around 3:40 p.m. Could you confirm it reached you? It is one PDF, 12 pages, total $186,400, good for 45 days.
If your system needs a different format, tell me and I will resend today.
Tomas Delgado, Delgado Mechanical, 555-0142, tomas@delgado-mechanical.example
Variation for portal bids: look at the portal's status first. If it says delivered or viewed, skip the email. Write only if it shows nothing, and mention the portal by name so Marcus knows where to look.
Email 2: when an addendum or a question gives you a reason
Do not send this one on a schedule. Send it when something changes. Addenda are the most common trigger, and they are where bids quietly go wrong: you priced the original drawings, the buyer is comparing everyone to Addendum 2, and nobody tells you.
Subject: Addendum 2, Alder Street HVAC: does it change our number?
Marcus,
Addendum 2 moves the rooftop units from the roof deck to the mechanical yard. That adds one crane day, about $4,200. Our bid was priced on Addendum 1.
I can send a one-page revision with the added line, or hold the current price if you would rather compare as-is. Which do you want?
Tomas
Why it works: you show you read the addendum, you name the exact dollar effect, and you hand Marcus a choice instead of a problem. Variation for your own mistake: if you find an error in your bid, say so in one plain sentence the day you find it. "We left out the condensate piping on the second floor, $2,100, and I would like to correct it" costs you less than being called in two weeks later.
Email 3: check the award date, two days before it
Everyone in the process wrote the award date down once, and then the schedule moved. This email is a courtesy to the buyer and protection for you, because Tomas needs to know how long to hold crew dates and equipment pricing.
Subject: Award date check, Alder Street HVAC
Hi Marcus,
You mentioned awarding subcontracts on the 18th. Is that still the plan? If it has moved, I would like to keep our crew open for the right weeks.
Also, our price is good through the 24th. If the award slips past that, I can extend it. Just let me know.
Tomas
Variation if the date has already passed: wait three business days, send one email with the same question, and then pick up the phone. A call after a missed award date is normal. Three emails in a week is not.
Email 4: after a loss, ask what decided it
Most contractors go silent after a loss, and that wastes the best information the bid will ever give you. The buyer is no longer deciding anything, so there is nothing to protect, and the answer is usually one sentence.
Subject: Thank you, Alder Street library
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for the chance to bid, and for the clear schedule. I understand it went another way.
If you have a minute, I would value one line on what decided it: price, schedule or scope. I would like to bid the next one closer. No need to write more than that.
Tomas
Variation when the answer is price: ask once, gently, whether you were within five percent or further out. A range is something people are willing to give. Then log it. After four or five bids a pattern shows up, and it is more useful than any pricing advice.
How often, in total
Over one bid: an email on day one or two, an email only if a real question or addendum appears, an email two days before the award date, and one note after a loss. Add one phone call around day ten if you never got a receipt. That is the ceiling. A buyer with forty subcontractor bids on the desk remembers the one who made their life easier and forgets the one who wrote every week.
When the bid is public, the rules change
City, county, school district and state bids often come with a restricted contact period, sometimes called a cone of silence. During it, you may talk only to the named procurement contact, and only in writing, and only by the question deadline. Calling the facilities director, or a board member, or an evaluator can get a bid thrown out. The rule is written into the solicitation, so find the section on communications and follow it to the letter.
In practice that means Email 1 goes only to the named contact, and only if the solicitation allows a receipt check at all. Email 2 becomes a formal written question, submitted by the deadline. Email 3 is usually not allowed, because the award date is posted. Email 4 becomes a debrief request, and after an award many agencies publish a bid tabulation you can read for free. Federal debrief windows can be short, often a matter of days from the award notice, so read the notice the day it arrives. Your local APEX Accelerator (formerly called a PTAC) gives small contractors free help with these rules. Our guide to government contracts for a small business covers the wider process.
Log three dates for every bid
Write down the date you submitted, the date the award is expected, and the date your price expires. Those three dates are what make Emails 1, 3 and 4 automatic instead of a thing you remember on a Sunday. A spreadsheet works. If you keep your deals in a pipeline, put the dates in the deal.
The other half of bidding is getting invited to bid in the first place, which means knowing the contractors who hire your trade. Our piece on finding general contractors to sell to covers that, and building permit records show which projects are about to need subs. After the job is won, how to ask for payment has the wording for that stage.
A bid that nobody follows up on is a lead nobody is working. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own, so the people you want to bid for hear from you before the bid exists. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required. See what the AI workers do.