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The driveway close: why sending the quote before you leave wins 50% more jobs

· 3 min read
The driveway close: why sending the quote before you leave wins 50% more jobs

You just finished a site walk-through for a potential $2,000 job. You shook hands with the homeowner or facility manager. You feel good about it. You tell them:

"Great, I'll type up the estimate and email it to you tonight."

You drive home. You eat dinner. You watch TV. Finally, at 9:00 PM, you sit down at your computer, open Word, and type up the quote. You email it.

You just lost the job.

Why? Because in the 6 hours between you leaving the site and you sending the email, the customer:

  1. Called two other competitors.

  2. Started second-guessing the price.

  3. Simply lost the emotional excitement of getting the project done.

This is the "Cool Down Period." Every minute that passes after you leave the site reduces your chance of closing the deal.

To win in 2025, you need to master The Driveway Close.

Speed is a proxy for competence

When a client asks for a quote, they aren't just asking for a price. They are secretly asking: "Is this person organized? Are they reliable?"

If you say "I'll send it tonight" and you actually send it 2 days later (because life happens), you have proven you are unreliable before you even touched a screwdriver.

However, if you say: "I'm sending it to you right now," and their phone buzzes while you are still shaking hands... You look like a magician.

You signal that you have systems. You signal that you are efficient. The client thinks: "If he is this fast with the paperwork, he will be this fast with the repair."

The psychology of "yes"

There is a powerful psychological concept called Commitment and Consistency. If you can get a client to verbally agree to a price while you are standing there, and then immediately reinforce it with a written document, they are statistically much less likely to back out.

If you leave without sending the document, the verbal agreement evaporates.

How to quote without typing on a laptop

Most contractors wait until they get home because their quoting software is too hard to use on a phone. Trying to format a PDF on an iPhone screen feels impossible.

This is why we added Instant Quoting to SiteSignOff.

We built it for the "One-Thumb" workflow:

  1. Tap "New Quote."

  2. Add Line Items: (e.g., "Day Rate," "Cat6 Cable," "Travel").

  3. Snap a Photo: Include a photo of the problem area right on the quote so they remember why they need it fixed.

  4. Send.

The client receives a professional PDF estimate before you unlock your truck door.

The Result:

  • They stop calling competitors because they already have a hard number.

  • They can hit "Approve" instantly.

  • You don't have to spend your evening doing unpaid data entry.

Stop giving your customers time to change their minds. Quote it, close it, and drive away.