The Pre-Quote Checklist

The four-word rule

Stevenson's shortest version of this entire page:

"Don't quote to strangers."

If the person on the other end of the quote request is somebody you don't know, whose job you haven't scoped, whose history you haven't checked, whose competitive situation you haven't read — you're not ready to quote yet. You're ready to ask a few more questions. The quote comes after.

Most sellers feel the pressure of a quote request as "get a number back fast." That's backwards. The number is cheap. The setup around the number — volume context, job size, location, strategic importance, bidder landscape — is what turns a quote into a win or a loss.

Industry terms this page covers

The checklist (in Stevenson's head, in order)

Here's the actual list Stevenson runs through, in his words:

"One — how much volume has this person bought for me? If they're less than this, do this. If they're more than that, do this."

"Second — how big is this work? Where is it located? Is it something that's in my strength or weakness? What's going to be there — some challenges?"

"Is there other work I could get? Does this tie into some other thing?"

"Is there going to be multiple bidders on this project? In which case, maybe I gotta pick which horse I want to win."

Broken out:

1. Relationship volume. Have they bought from us before? How much? What's the history? A quote for a 5,000-yard regular is a different conversation than a quote for somebody who's never called before.

2. Job scope. How big? Where? Strength or weakness for us? What hazards — access, spec, schedule?

3. Adjacent opportunity. Is this the only thing, or is there a bigger thing behind it? A small quote that's the doorway to a 50,000-yard relationship is priced differently than a one-off.

4. Bidder landscape. Are we one of three? One of ten? The only one? "Pick which horse I want to win" is the key line — sometimes the right strategic move is to deliberately not chase this one and save the ammo for the one you want.

5. Strategic intent. Are we trying to win this, or trying to set a price floor for the market, or trying to deliberately lose this one because we don't want the work?

A number without those five answers is a guess. A number with those five answers is a position.

The road-map metaphor

Stevenson's version of why you can't skip this:

"You don't just jump in there with your map and know where you're going. No — there's other things you look at. So it's not that I don't want you to quote, and I'm not trying to slow you down. I'm actually trying to keep you safe on the road. I just need you to ask a few more questions, because we might leave money on the table. We might lose the deal, leave deals on the table — because we didn't just go through the pre-quote inspection. The pre-quote checklist. The am-I-ready-to-quote."

Not anti-quote. Not slow-mo. Just pre-quote inspection. Same way you don't pull out of the driveway without glancing behind you. Doesn't take long. Prevents the wreck.

Write it down

Here's the shift that most sellers resist: the checklist has to live on paper, not in your head.

The version in your head: - Runs inconsistently (you skip steps when you're rushed). - Is invisible to your team (nobody else benefits). - Can't be improved (you can't audit what you didn't write down). - Dies when you leave.

The version on paper: - Runs every time (because you can see the boxes). - Trains the next seller (they inherit your judgment). - Gets sharper over time (you add lessons after misses). - Becomes company IP.

A single page. Five questions. Space to write the answer. Stapled or clipboarded to every quote before a number gets written.

The "am I ready to quote?" gate

The checklist is a gate, not a suggestion. The rule: if any of the five answers is "I don't know," you're not quoting yet. You're picking up the phone and finding out.

The phone call to get the answers is almost always short. "Hey — quick thing before I run the numbers. Is this just the slab, or are you going to want the stemwalls too?" Two minutes of conversation. And now you're quoting a real job instead of quoting a fantasy.

Sellers skip the phone call because it feels like friction. It's not friction — it's the work. The number is the easy part.

When you're forced to quote fast

Sometimes the customer wants a number in 30 minutes and there's no room for a full checklist run. Two moves:

1. Run the short version. Volume history + bidder landscape + gut on fit. Thirty seconds. Better than nothing.
2. Quote with a flag. "Here's a rough number pending a couple of questions — once I hear back on X and Y, I'll send the real one." You gave them speed. You also signaled that the real number requires actual scoping. You didn't hand them a firm commitment on half a picture.

What you don't do: give the full firm number to a stranger under deadline pressure, then spend the next three weeks regretting it. That's exactly what the rule is against.

Homework — write your checklist

This week:

1. Write your own version of the five-question checklist. Don't copy Stevenson's — write yours, in your words, in the order you actually think.
2. Print it. Fifty copies. Staple one to every quote request that comes in this week.
3. Fill one out for every quote — even the ones you think you know cold. Especially those ones.
4. At the end of the week, read them. Look for the quote where one of the five answers was "I don't know" and you quoted anyway. That's the one that's going to teach you the most.
5. Revise the checklist based on what you learned. It should evolve every quarter for the first year until it's sharp.

Where to go next

• Quote and Hope — what happens when you skip the checklist
• Slowing Down Before Quoting — the philosophy the checklist operationalizes
• Quote Posture — the checklist is how you earn the posture
• Bidding Matrix — one of the strategic-intent answers the checklist needs
• Classify As Today — the volume-history question gets its answer here

Source: drawn from 3 canonical moments across the live-coaching corpus — including the in-the-head checklist walkthrough (volume / job size / strategic fit / bidder landscape / adjacent work), the four-word "don't quote to strangers" rule, and the road-map / pre-quote-inspection metaphor for why asking a few more questions isn't slowing down — it's safety. Voice preserved.