How-to guideClient selection
How to qualify a lead before you quote
A proper quote can take weeks, and most never sign. Screen out the time wasters first and spend your nights pricing jobs you can actually win.
In brief
- Work out what a quote costs you before you agree to do one.
- Use a short questionnaire to get budget, land, finance and timing before any pricing.
- Check the finance is real; a pre-approval often isn't.
- Have a polite way to say no, and use it early.
Best suited to: Builders on custom or contract homes who price every enquiry in house
Quoting every enquiry feels like good service. In practice it fills your nights with estimating for people who were never going to build with you, and it pushes you into jobs you take just to keep the books full. Qualifying before you quote fixes both.
1. Know what a quote costs you
Start with the maths. Once plans go out to trades and suppliers, pricing a house properly can take three to four weeks, and a builder may sign only one or two of every ten quotes.1 An estimator who now prices for builders says the shift is away from quoting everything and hoping 10 to 20% close, towards quoting only jobs you expect to close at 75 to 95%.2
| Approach | Close rate quoted |
|---|---|
| Quote every enquiry | 10 to 20%2 |
| Typical builder signing rate | 1 or 2 in 101 |
| Quote only qualified jobs | 75 to 95%2 |
Done looks like: you know roughly how many hours a full quote takes you, and what that time is worth.
2. Put a questionnaire in front of the quote
Every enquiry should answer a few questions before anyone picks up a scale rule: budget, whether they own land, how it is being financed and when they want to start. One Queensland estimating business suggests three kinds of question. Easy ones keep people moving, qualifying ones sort the serious from the curious, and a “why does this project matter to you” question tells you about the people.3
The same source asks every new builder client one thing first: how was this customer qualified? A job taken because the builder needs the work often goes badly.3
Done looks like: no enquiry reaches estimating without a completed questionnaire.
3. Test the budget early
Price shock is easier to deal with in week one than in week ten. Jimmy Gray of Penelope Homes runs a structured pre-construction process so budget comes up early. That way he avoids a customer who thinks they can build for $800,000 when the design is heading well past that.4
Done looks like: the customer has heard a realistic price range before you start detailed pricing.
4. Check the finance is real
“We’re pre-approved” means less than it sounds. A Brisbane finance broker says many pre-approvals are system-generated and conditional, and some banks no longer offer genuine ones. Ask the customer to confirm the bank has actually assessed the loan.5
The cost of skipping this is real. On one of his first new builds, Brisbane builder Charlie Mylne had signed the contract and taken on workers when the bank pulled the customer’s loan a week before start.6
Done looks like: written confirmation that the lender has assessed the loan before you commit staff or orders.
5. Interview them as they interview you
The first meeting runs both ways. Mylne treats it as a chance to judge the customer too: how much time they give, what they value, whether anyone he knows is connected to them.6 You are about to spend a year or more working with these people, so fit counts as much as budget.
Quote the jobs you can win and want to build. Every hour spent pricing the wrong job is an hour off the right one.
Done looks like: you leave the first meeting with a clear yes, no or not yet.
6. Add a step that shows commitment
Serious buyers will step through a few hoops; tyre kickers drop off. Options include a website enquiry form, a short phone call, agreeing your process up front and charging for an early service.3 Charging for preliminary design and pricing is a filter in its own right, and it’s covered in Paid preconstruction explained.
Done looks like: the customer has done at least one thing that costs them time or money before you price.
7. Say no politely, and early
You need a way out that doesn’t burn anyone. A building company near Canberra sends a disqualification email as soon as an enquiry isn’t a fit. It says they aren’t the best builder for the job, refers another builder and leaves the door open.7
Done looks like: a saved email template and the confidence to send it the same day.
Where to next
Once you have the right customers, keep them onside through the build with Customer communication mistakes during the build. To make sure your quotes hold up once you do price, read Estimating mistakes that eat your margin.
Footnotes
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Jared, “Why 70% of Home Designs Fail: Jared on Pricing, Trust and B4UBuild.com.au”, The Good Builder Podcast (podcast), 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_JDIapW-k ↩ ↩2
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Rick, “If You Price Jobs Like THIS, You Are Bleeding Margin”, The Professional Builder (podcast), 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s-d1-Ih8aU ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Hayden, “Why Hiring Carpenters To Estimate Is A Mistake”, The Professional Builder (podcast), 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg1S0webCgY ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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“Jimmy Gray and Penelope Homes: The Rising Star Builder Building Homes (and a Life) the Right Way”, The Good Builder (website), 2026. https://thegoodbuilder.com.au/jimmy-gray-and-penelope-homes-the-rising-star-builder-building-homes-and-a-life-the-right-way/ ↩
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Barry Wilkinson, “The Truth About Building Finance With Barry Wilkinson from SW Brokerage”, The Good Builder Podcast (podcast), 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOG41_6H3Fk ↩
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Charlie Mylne, “Brisbane Builder on Ambition, Fraud & Almost Losing It All”, Better Builder Podcast (podcast), 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoDe5jEJhO8 ↩ ↩2
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Harry Buckley, “Why Accepting 10% Margins Forces You To Work For FREE”, The Professional Builder (podcast), 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnwH5GbgcDU ↩