These are just some ideas to help you get started. Some of these may not make sense to ask; some may be ones you hadn’t considered. Use your expertise to come up with what you need. The goal is to get questionnaires submitted, so keep the number of questions to a minimum while still gathering enough info to come up with a ballpark cost that sets the proper expectations.

The way to approach this…imagine you are having a conversation with a friend who wants to get a ballpark idea for the cost of a project he is considering. What are the questions you would ask to come up with something helpful and realistic?  Use those questions…that’s as much as you need for this. From your answer, he/she will be able to determine whether it is worthwhile to have you come out to look at the project and get a quote for the job.

Example

For a roof, it is easy to do a Google search for “roof replacement cost” and learn that a new roof could be anywhere from $7k to $80k…that isn’t a helpful answer. 

But by asking your friend a handful of easy-to-answer questions, you should be able to come up with something like this: 

“Based on what you told me, it will probably be somewhere between $10k and $16k, but I’ll have to look at it to be sure.”  That’s a helpful answer and your friend can decide whether to have you come look at it for an official quote. If he does, it’s likely he can afford to do the project. 

This is all we want to do here – gather just enough information to get in the ballpark so your leads can make an informed decision about scheduling an estimate. If it’s beyond their budget, they won’t take up time on your calendar which frees you up to meet with more “good leads”.