A lead qualification form for agencies screening inbound briefs
An agency’s most expensive mistake is a pitch for work it was never going to win. Inbound briefs look alike at first. The budget, the decision date, who decides and how many agencies are pitching tell them apart, and a form can ask all four before anyone writes a proposal.
What should agencies ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is there a set budget for this, and which of these ranges is it in? | No budget, or the wrong range, is the fastest no for both sides. |
| When will you decide, and when does the work need to start? | A brief with no decision date is a brief with no decision. |
| Who makes the final call? | Pitching to someone who cannot say yes means pitching twice. |
| Are you talking to other agencies, and how many? | One of three is a pitch. One of ten is a lottery. |
| Is there an agency doing this work now, and why are you looking? | An unhappy client and a scheduled review are different opportunities. |
| Will you expect creative work as part of the pitch? | Some agencies do not pitch unpaid creative. Ask before you agree to the process. |
| How did you hear about us? | A referral is warmer than a directory listing, and tells you who to thank. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “We’re still working out the budget.” | Is there a figure you would not go above, or will the budget come from the proposals? |
| “A few agencies are pitching.” | Roughly how many, and how will you choose between them? |
| “The decision is with leadership.” | Who in leadership, and will they be at the pitch? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
A brief that clears these questions earns a call, and a good one earns a pitch. The form is not the decision. It sorts the inbox so the people who write proposals spend their week on briefs the agency can win, and the rest get a fast, polite answer instead of silence.
How do you set this up from the Website lead qualification template?
Acquainto has a Website lead qualification template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick Website lead qualification, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
The template asks for a work email, company size and what the person hopes to solve, and branches on size: a company over 200 people is asked who else is involved and what the timeline is. For an agency, keep the work email and the larger-company branch, treat “what they hope to solve” as the brief itself, and add the budget range, the competing agencies and the current agency as questions of their own.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.