The short answer: switch on alfred_’s Proposals waiting on a decision routine. Every Monday at 8 AM it reads the proposals, quotes and estimates in your Sent mail from the last 60 days, checks each full thread, and emails you only the ones still waiting on the owner’s decision, oldest first, each with one follow-up suggestion.
A management proposal usually goes out after a walkthrough: the fee schedule, the leasing fee, the management agreement attached. The owner writes back “looks good, let me talk to my partner.” Then nothing. Multiply that by every owner you pitched this quarter and your pipeline is scattered across your Sent folder. Each proposal with no answer is doors you aren’t managing yet, and the owner who went quiet is often the one another firm is still calling.
The native way, and where it stops
Gmail has follow-up nudges. In Settings, on the General tab, next to “Nudges,” turn on “Suggest emails to follow up on,” and Gmail shows “sent emails that you may need to follow up on” at the top of your inbox (Gmail Help).
Where it stops: Gmail doesn’t know which of your sent emails were proposals. A nudge about a proposal sits alongside every other sent email, at the top of one inbox, and there’s no Monday list of open proposals to work down.
Outlook lets you flag a proposal as you send it. Before you select Send, choose Follow Up on the Message tab and pick a flag such as Next Week, and Outlook reminds you then (Microsoft Support).
Where it stops: you have to remember to flag every proposal, and a flag is a date. It doesn’t know the owner replied “we’ll decide after the association meeting on the 30th,” so it reminds you too early, or you snooze it and it reminds you too late.
A CRM pipeline shows each deal’s stage, but only as current as the last update someone typed in. The owner’s “let me talk to my partner” reply lives in email, not in the stage.
Proposals waiting on a decision: the Monday list
Open Routines in alfred_ on the desktop, find Proposals waiting on a decision, and switch it on. (The iPhone app has a Routines screen too.) It runs every Monday at 8 AM, arrives by email, and is on the web in alfred_. Routines come with an alfred_ subscription; plans are on the pricing page.
Each Monday it:
- Reads the proposals, quotes, estimates and statements of work you sent in the last 60 days. The sent email, or the name of the attached file, is how it knows you sent one.
- Reads the complete thread behind each one.
- Keeps only the proposals still waiting on the recipient’s decision, oldest first, each with one short follow-up suggestion.
- Leaves out anything accepted, declined or completed, anything where the owner is waiting on an answer from you, and anything still inside a decision date the owner asked for.
It creates no tasks and no drafts, and it sends nothing.
What it looks like
Example, invented for this post. Monday, 8:00 AM.
3 proposals still waiting on a decision, oldest first:
- Management proposal, 12 units at 1180 Harbor Road. Sent August 4. The owner asked for references; you sent them August 6. Nothing since. Follow-up: “Did you have a chance to speak with our references? Happy to walk the building again if it helps.”
- Leasing-only proposal, duplex at 9 Birch Lane. Sent August 21. No reply. Follow-up: “Checking in on the leasing proposal for 9 Birch Lane. The fall leasing window is open now.”
- Management proposal, 220 Pine Avenue association. Sent September 2. The board said it would decide at its September 15 meeting, and that date has passed. Follow-up: “How did the board meeting go? I’m glad to answer any questions before a vote.”
In the same invented week, the owner who signed the agreement for 14 Oak Street isn’t listed. Neither is the owner waiting on your answer about the pet policy, because that one is on you, and it belongs in Wrap up my day. Neither is the owner who said she’d decide after October 1; that one returns if October 1 passes with no answer.
What it leaves out
- Proposals that didn’t go out from your mailbox. A proposal sent by a CRM, a proposal tool or an e-signature service from its own servers isn’t in your Sent mail, so the routine can’t see it.
- Anything older than 60 days. A proposal from last spring drops off, answered or not.
- The CRM. It reads email and writes nothing anywhere, so your pipeline stages stay as you left them.
What it changes for the company
- Nothing slips. Every open proposal comes back each Monday until there’s a yes or a no.
- It protects revenue. A proposal with no answer is a management agreement you might still win, and a follow-up in week three lands differently than one in month three.
- No manual pipeline report. The Monday email is the list. Nobody maintains a spreadsheet of who hasn’t answered.
- The owner of the firm sees status without chasing. If the person who sends proposals runs the routine, forwarding the Monday email is one click. It reads one person’s mail, so there’s no team-wide view.
If you also want the week laid out, Plan my week arrives at the same hour: one line per day with meetings and tasks due, and up to five emails from the last 7 days that need you this week.
Where each step happens
- Desktop, in the office: switch the routine on, open each thread, and send the follow-ups you choose.
- Email, Monday at 8 AM: the list, also on the web in alfred_. This routine doesn’t arrive by text.
- Text, between properties: text alfred_ “reply to the owner at 1180 Harbor Road and ask if the references were helpful,” and it shows you the reply and sends only when you say yes. More on texting alfred_.
- iPhone app: read the Monday email and open the proposal threads, with one inbox across your accounts.
The honest caveat
Deciding what counts as a proposal, and whether an owner has decided, is a judgment alfred_ makes from the thread. “Sounds great, send it over” might read as a yes before anything is signed. Treat the list as the Monday prompt for your follow-ups, not as the record of which agreements are signed.