You sent the proposal on Tuesday. It's Friday. Has the client even opened it?
Most small studios can't answer that. So the follow-up runs on gut feel, and it tends to fail in one of two ways.
Chase too early and you're nudging someone who hasn't looked yet. You seem pushy before they've read a word.
Chase too late and the warmth from the discovery call has gone. The deal isn't lost. It just goes quiet.
Why does this keep happening? In a studio of a few people, whoever sent the proposal is also running live projects. Follow-ups live in memory or on a sticky note, and they lose out to whatever is urgent today. Memory also can't tell you the one thing that matters: whether the client has read it.
On a website rebuild worth several thousand dollars, guessing wrong is expensive either way.
A more useful rule: time follow-ups to what the client has done, not to how many days have passed.
- Not opened? Check it reached the right person.
- Opened, no reply? Offer to answer questions.
- Opened repeatedly? It's probably being shared. Ask who else needs to weigh in.
Then schedule the next touch, so it doesn't depend on anyone remembering.
If you'd like to see how viewing and follow-up fit into a proposal, there's an illustrative sample at https://accord.new-odyssey.com