Free template for consultants and coaches
Client intake form: know if they're a fit before you get on the call
Twelve questions to send before a discovery call: who they are, what they want to change, what they've tried, their timeline and budget, and how they'd like to be contacted. Short enough to finish in five minutes. Copy it into your form tool, print it or download it for Word.
A discovery call goes better when you already know why they booked it. Most intake forms either ask three questions and tell you nothing, or ask forty and never come back, so this one stops at twelve. The first half tells you what they want. The second half tells you whether now is the right time, and whether you're the right person. Read it before the call, and spend the call on the problem instead of the basics.
The intake form, ready to send
Before we talk: [your name or business]
Takes about five minutes, and helps me use our call on what matters to you.
About you
1. Your name: ____________
2. Your business or job title: ____________
3. Best way to reach you: WhatsApp / phone / email Number or address: ____________
4. How did you hear about me? ____________
What you want
5. What do you want to change in the next three months? ____________
6. What have you already tried? ____________
7. What would make this worth it for you? ____________
Where things stand
8. When would you like to start? This month / next month / later
9. Who else is part of the decision? Just me / a partner / my team or boss
10. Have you set a budget for this? Yes: ______ / Not yet
11. Is there anything I should know before we talk? ____________
The call
12. Two times that suit you for a 30-minute call: ____________
For me, after it comes back
A fit: yes / maybe / no Why: ____________
Call booked for: ______
Follow up on: ______
Use the answers on the call with the coaching discovery call guide
Extra questions for your kind of business
Add the three for your trade to the twelve on the form, after "What you want".
- Coaches: "What would be different in three months if this worked?"
- Coaches: "Have you worked with a coach before? What helped, and what didn't?"
- Coaches: "How many hours a week can you give this?"
- Consultants: "Who else will have a say in the decision?"
- Consultants: "Is there a date driving this, like a launch or a board meeting?"
- Consultants: "What have you already tried in-house?"
- Tuition and enrichment: "Which level and subjects?"
- Tuition and enrichment: "What were the last results, and what result would you be happy with?"
- Tuition and enrichment: "Which days and times can your child do?"
- Renovation and home services: "What's the address, and is it an HDB flat, a condo or a landed home?"
- Renovation and home services: "When do you need the work finished by?"
- Renovation and home services: "Can you send two or three photos of the space?"
A consent tick box, for Singapore
If you'll call or message about anything beyond their enquiry, add a box they tick themselves. The PDPC gives a ticked checkbox as its example of clear consent, and says consent shouldn't be hidden in general terms and conditions.
[ ] I agree to receive calls and messages from [your business] on the number above about [your services and offers]. I can ask you to stop at any time.
This isn't legal advice. The PDPA guide for sellers sets out the rules from the PDPC's own pages.
Source: PDPC, Organisations' guide to Singapore's Do Not Call (DNC) Provisions, pdpc.gov.sg, read 2 November 2026.
Five ways to get more forms finished
Every extra question costs you answers.
- Send it as soon as they book, with one line saying why you ask
- Keep it to twelve questions, and cut any you don't read
- Let them answer on WhatsApp if they'd rather not open a form
- Put the time it takes at the top
- Chase an unfinished form once, the day before the call
The answers that tell you it isn't a fit
Better to find out before the call than halfway through it.
- The change they want is something you don't do
- No timeline at all, and no reason it matters now
- Someone else decides, and won't be on the call
- They want it done this week, and it takes three months
A filled-in form, and what it told the coach
- The enquiry: a sales manager, newly promoted, found Sam through a LinkedIn post.
- Wants: to stop doing his team's deals for them within three months.
- Tried: a management book and a course his company paid for.
- Start: next month. Decision: just him. Budget: set.
- Sam marked it a fit, booked the call for Thursday and put a follow-up on the Monday after.
Keep the answers on the client's card, with the follow-up dated
Palby CRM is the CRM we make. It doesn't run your sessions. It keeps the selling going around them.
- Log discovery calls in one tap and date every follow-up
- Every WhatsApp chat lands on the client's record
- The three questions you type to every enquiry, asked by a chatbot from your own number, with the answers on the card
- Maybes gone quiet for 30 days, at the top
Questions
It's a short set of questions a new client fills in before your first call, so you know their goal, timeline and budget before you talk. This one has twelve, plus three you pick for your trade.
Who they are and how to reach them, what they want to change, what they've tried, when they want to start, who decides, whether they have a budget, and times for a call. The template asks twelve questions.
Short enough to finish in five minutes. Twelve questions is about the most people finish without being chased. Cut any question you don't read before the call.
Ask whether they've set one, not the number. It tells you if they've thought about it, without scaring anyone off before you've spoken.
As soon as they book, so the answers are back before the call. Chase an unfinished form once, the day before.
Yes. The questions work for coaches and consultants. Change question 5 to the kind of change you help with.
Yes. Copy the questions into your form tool. Keep the order: the easy questions first, the timeline and budget after.
Yes. Copy it, print it or download it, and change it to fit how you work.
Know who you're talking to before you pick up the phone
Palby CRM keeps every enquiry's answers and follow-up on their card.
30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.