Every caterer has the same theory about why they lose events. They went cheaper. Sometimes true. Much more often the event was lost days before anybody compared numbers, for reasons that have nothing to do with money.
The first day decides most of it
Somebody planning an event is usually contacting three or four vendors in one sitting. Whoever responds first with real information sets the standard everyone else gets measured against, and frequently just gets the booking because the search stopped feeling necessary.
If your reply takes three days, you are not competing on price. You are competing against somebody who already had the conversation.
"Most lost events are lost on day one, by silence, not by price."
Real information beats a fast nothing
Speed alone is not the whole thing. A same day reply that says thanks for reaching out, what is your budget, is not much better than silence. The reply that wins usually confirms you are available, gives a rough range for something like what they described, and asks one useful question.
That does three things at once. It proves you are real, it lets them picture the number without a negotiation, and it makes you the one who seems organized. Hosts are anxious about this event. Organized is worth a premium to them.
Your proposal is the product
For most of the buying process the client never tastes your food. They are choosing based on a document. If your proposal is a plain email with a total at the bottom and your competitor sent something that looks considered, you lose events you should have won.
You do not need anything elaborate. Clear packages, photos of real events you catered, what is included, what is not, and a clean total. Most of the field is doing this badly, which makes it cheap to be better.
Then follow up once
People go quiet because they are planning a wedding on top of a job, not because they hated your quote. One polite check in about a week later recovers a genuinely surprising number of events, and almost nobody sends it.
None of this is exotic. It is the unglamorous part of marketing for catering companies, and it usually returns more than any ad spend you could put next to it.