Enquiry Intake Checklist: What to Capture From Every Request Before You Quote

BOTrento Team12 October 20269 min read

Why intake decides whether your quote lands

A vague request leads to a vague quote. If you price an event without a guest count, or a rental without dates, one of two things happens. Either you pad the price to cover the risk and look expensive, or you underquote and have to renegotiate later. Both cost you credibility, and they cost you time when the client comes back with "actually, we meant…".

Intake is also where enquiries get lost. Someone reads the email, thinks "I'll need to ask them about X", and then nobody asks. We describe the full flow from first contact to quote in our guide to a managed enquiry process. This article covers the first step of that flow: deciding whether a request is quotable.

The enquiry intake checklist, phase by phase

Go through these phases for every new request. Use whatever suits your team: tick them off in the email thread, copy them into a CRM such as Pipedrive or HubSpot, or turn them into the fields of your web form.

Phase 1: Who is asking

• Contact name and role: is this the person who decides, or someone collecting quotes for their boss?
• Company name: you need it for the quote, the invoice and any credit check.
• Best contact channel: email, phone or both, and when they're reachable.
• How they found you: referral, repeat client, website or a tender. This changes how much effort the quote deserves.

Phase 2: What they need

• Scope in their own words: copy the key sentence from their email. Don't paraphrase it yet.
• Quantities: guests, units, hours, days, users or locations.
• Must-haves vs nice-to-haves: ask directly if it isn't clear.
• Specific items or standards: brand, model, spec or certification they've named.

Phase 3: When and where

• Date or delivery window: fixed date, flexible range or "as soon as possible".
• Duration: one day, a week, ongoing.
• Location and access: venue, site address, loading access, travel distance.
• Deadline for your quote: when they need it, and when they'll decide.

Phase 4: Budget and decision

• Budget or range: even a rough ceiling helps you choose which option to lead with.
• Decision-maker and process: who signs off, and whether procurement or a purchase order is involved.
• Competing quotes: are they comparing? You don't need names, just whether a comparison is happening.

Phase 5: Commercial terms and context

• Billing entity and VAT details: these matter for cross-border work in the EU.
• Payment expectations: deposit, invoice terms, purchase order number.
• History: have you worked with them before, and is there an earlier quote to reuse?

Only collect what you actually need for the quote and the job. Under GDPR, keeping personal data to the minimum is good practice in any case. If you plan to process enquiries with an AI tool, our GDPR checklist for AI sales tools lists what to check, and for specific cases talk to your legal adviser.

Minimum to quote: the fields you can't skip

Not every field has to be filled in before you quote. The table below sets a practical minimum. If any of these are missing, you ask before you quote.

Every industry adds a few fields of its own. Event agencies need the format and the technical rider (see enquiry handling for events and production). Rental companies need exact pickup and return times and who will operate the kit (see equipment rental). Service firms need the problem the client is trying to solve, not only the service they named (see B2B services).

What to ask when the request is incomplete

A request with gaps is still a good lead. What matters is how quickly and clearly you ask about the gaps. Three rules:

1. Ask at most three questions. A long questionnaire feels like homework. Pick the gaps from the minimum table that block the quote.
2. Offer ranges or options. "A seated dinner for a small group, or a reception for a larger crowd?" is easier to answer than an open question.
3. Say what happens next. Tell them when they'll get the quote once they reply.

A template you can adapt:

Subject: Your enquiry: three quick details before we quote

Hi [Name],

Thanks for getting in touch about [short scope]. To give you an accurate quote rather than a rough guess, could you confirm:

1. [Quantity question, with ranges]
2. [Date question: fixed or flexible?]
3. [Budget or decision deadline question]

Once I have these, I'll send the quote by [day]. If it's easier to talk it through, I'm free [two time slots].

Best regards,
[Your name]

For more on reply speed and structure, read the short answer on how to reply to sales enquiries faster or the full five-step reply process with a sample email.

Turning the checklist into a daily routine

A checklist only helps if someone uses it on every request. Some ways to make that stick:

• Put the minimum fields on your web form. Make scope, quantity, date and location required, and leave budget optional.
• Mirror them in your CRM. In Pipedrive or HubSpot, add custom fields for the same items so missing data shows up at a glance.
• Give each enquiry one owner and one next step. "Waiting for guest count, chase Thursday" counts as a next step. "Pending" doesn't.
• Check open requests every morning. Look at what's new, what's waiting on the client and what's waiting on you.
• Record the decision deadline. It tells you when to follow up after the quote. See when to chase a quote and when to stop.

Many enquiries come in as a free-text email to a shared inbox, so the hard part is usually keeping up the routine on busy days. A spreadsheet or CRM records what you capture, but it won't remind you that a request has had no reply for two days.

How BOTrento handles intake during your 14-day trial

BOTrento Chief of Staff is a managed process for enquiries, quotes and follow-ups. AI does the groundwork and a person approves every step. Here's what intake would look like in your trial:

1. You connect your data. You can connect your sales mailbox over IMAP, forward mail from Gmail, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, or upload a CSV/XLSX export from your CRM or spreadsheet. The 14 days start only after the first successful upload, and you have up to 7 days to prepare. Within 24 hours on working days, a member of our team gets in touch to help you connect your mailbox.
2. Every working-day morning you see Today 1+3. This overview, in the app and by email, lists the enquiries that need you, including requests that are missing details you need before you can quote.
3. You review the draft questions. For an incomplete request, BOTrento drafts a reply asking for the missing details, in English, Czech, German or French. You edit it, approve it and send it yourself. Nothing goes out without your approval.
4. Promises are tracked. If you wrote "I'll send the quote by Friday", BOTrento reminds you about it.

A practical limit: BOTrento works from the email text and doesn't read attachments. If a client sends their brief only as a PDF, ask for the key points in the email body. You can see how a case moves through the process in the process walkthrough, and plans are listed on the pricing page. AI usage is included in each plan. The trial needs no payment card and no API key of your own. Start your 14-day free trial and run it on your own enquiries.