Client intake questionnaire

Send this before your first call so you walk in already knowing the shape of the job. Cut any question that doesn’t apply to your service.

CLIENT INTAKE QUESTIONNAIRE

About you

• Name and business name: [ ]
• Best email and phone: [ ]
• Website or social links: [ ]
• How did you hear about me? [ ]

The project

• In one sentence, what do you need? [ ]
• What problem is this solving right now? [ ]
• Have you tried to solve it before? What happened? [ ]
• What does success look like to you? [ ]

Scope and specifics

• What exactly do you expect delivered? [ ]
• Is there anything you explicitly do NOT want? [ ]
• Do you have existing materials I should use (brand, logins, content)? [ ]
• Are there examples you love? Any you hate? [ ]

Budget and timeline

• What budget range are you working with? [ ]
• Is there a deadline? Is it firm, and why? [ ]
• How do you prefer to pay (deposit + balance, milestones)? [ ]

Working together

• Who is the decision-maker and final approver? [ ]
• Who will I be in contact with day to day? [ ]
• Preferred way to communicate (email, call, message)? [ ]
• How quickly can you typically turn around feedback? [ ]

Anything else

• What haven’t I asked that I should know? [ ]

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How to use this questionnaire

Send it before the first call, not during. The answers turn a discovery call from “so, tell me about your business” into a conversation about the two things that are actually unclear — and clients who will not fill it in are telling you something useful.

Feed the answers straight into a project brief and then a quote. Run discovery calls covers the call itself, and buyers can use how to vet a freelancer to run the same process in reverse.

This template is a starting point, not legal advice.