The usual way a pricing request dies is simple: you send the number, you wait, and nothing comes back. A price with no question attached is an ending, not a message. The fix is three short messages. The first sends a range and asks one question. The second, two days later, asks if the range fit. The third, around day six, closes the loop politely and leaves the door open.

Below is the wording, using a made-up business: Larkspur Catering, a two-kitchen caterer in Denver that does office lunches. Hannah, an office manager at a 40-person architecture firm, wrote in with "What do you charge per person?"

Why pricing questions go quiet

There are four common reasons, and only one is that your price is wrong. Hannah may be collecting numbers from three caterers and has not looked at any yet. She may not be the person who decides. She may have been asked by her boss to "find out what it costs" and has no authority to say yes. Or the number landed with no context, so she cannot tell whether $18 a head is cheap or expensive for what she'll get.

A follow-up that works addresses all four. It gives her context, asks about her situation, and makes it easy to answer in a few words.

Message one: a range plus one question

Send this within the hour. Do not send a PDF price sheet as the whole reply, and do not hide the number behind "it depends." Give the range, say in one line what moves it, and ask one question.

Hi Hannah, thanks for asking. For a team of about 40, lunch runs $16 to $22 a person, so roughly $640 to $880, plus a $45 delivery fee that we waive over $600. The gap is mostly hot entrees versus cold, and whether you want drinks. Are you thinking hot or cold? If you give me a date and a headcount I'll send exact numbers today. Laura at Larkspur

Why it works: the range lets her place you, the sentence about what moves it shows you are not guessing, and "hot or cold" takes four seconds to answer. Compare that with "Let me know if you have questions," which asks her to invent one.

Message two: the two-day nudge

Send it at about 10 a.m. two days later, Tuesday to Thursday. The nudge should be shorter than the first message and should add one thing: a real action you took.

Hi Hannah, I'm holding Thursday the 12th for your team through Friday, no deposit needed. Does that range fit what you had in mind, or is it more than you planned? Either answer helps me. Laura

"Is it more than you planned?" gives her an easy way to say no. A lot of people will not tell you the price was too high unless you make it comfortable. Only say you are holding a date if you really are. Fake urgency is easy to spot and costs you the next message.

Message three: the final check

Around day six, send the message that closes the loop. It tells her you will stop writing, which relieves pressure, and it asks for the one thing you can still use: the number she had in mind.

Hi Hannah, I'll assume lunch is on hold for now and close this out on my side. If it comes back, reply here and I'll pick up where we left off. If price was the issue, tell me the number you had in mind. I might be able to adjust the menu to fit. Laura

In practice this is often the message that finally gets an answer, and it can arrive as "Actually, can we do it for the 19th?" People answer a goodbye faster than a nudge. For more on timing and number of touches, how to follow up on a quote covers what to do after a formal quote, as opposed to a price range.

When to offer options

If she answers "that's more than we planned," do not discount. Offer two versions at different prices and let her pick, which changes the question from "yes or no" to "which one."

Understood. Two ways to bring it down: cold sandwich boxes at $16 a person ($640 for 40), or one hot entree at $19 with no drinks ($760). The boxes work best if you are eating at desks. Which sounds closer?

Both options are a yes to something, so she is choosing a lunch, not deciding whether to buy one. More on why founders hesitate at this exact moment is in the pricing conversation flinch.

When to call instead

If a job is worth over about $1,000, or if message two goes unanswered, make one phone call. It takes three minutes, and a real voice often unsticks a thread that email left frozen. If she does not pick up, leave a voicemail like this, then send the same words as a short email:

Hi Hannah, it's Laura from Larkspur Catering. I sent you lunch pricing for your team on Monday and wanted to make sure it reached you. I'll send a short note after this call. You can reply to it with a date and I'll hold it for you.

A fuller script for the call itself is in the phone script for following up on a quote.

The three replies you will actually get

"Too expensive." Ask what number would work and what she would give up for it. "What were you hoping to spend per person?" is a plain, friendly question.

"We'll get back to you." Say thanks, then ask for a date: "Sounds good. Should I check in Friday, or would next Wednesday be better?" A date turns a brush-off into an appointment.

"Can you match another quote?" Ask what the other quote includes, since delivery, drinks, setup and cleanup are where quotes differ. Do not quote against a price you have not seen. Telling her what you include is the whole answer: what to say when a prospect asks how much on a call goes through the phone version of the same moment.

Log the outcome so you learn from it

Write three things on the contact: the range you quoted, the date, and what she said. After 20 pricing requests you will see a pattern. Maybe everyone who hears $22 goes quiet and everyone who hears $18 books. Maybe the replies come only on the final check. That log is how you set your next price. If you keep leads in a CRM, put the range in a field and set the next-touch date there so it cannot be forgotten.

If you handle this by hand, set a reminder for each of the three sends. If you get more than a few pricing requests a week, the second and third messages are the ones that slip. Rocketship's email worker sends the reply, the nudge and the final check from your own Gmail, stops the moment she answers, and books the meeting if she says yes. What to do when someone replies to your cold email covers what comes back, and AI workers shows how the follow-up runs without you.

Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.