We need a video for our website
An enquiry arrives through the website form: we need a video for our website, can you give us a price? The producer replies with questions. How long? Who is it for? Where would it be filmed? Interviews or actors? Animation? When do you need it? Is there a budget? The reply answers two of them. A call is booked for next week.
On the call the client mentions they also need cutdowns for LinkedIn, a version with subtitles, and that the CEO is only available on one day next month. The producer quotes. The client says it is more than expected, and it turns out they had half that in mind but did not want to say. Three weeks have passed.
Why enquiries arrive empty
- Clients do not know what information a production company needs.
- Website forms ask only for name, email and a message.
- Clients are reluctant to share a budget, fearing it will be spent in full.
- Important constraints, like a single available day, come out late.
- Each producer asks different questions, so nothing is consistent.
What slow briefs cost
Producer time on enquiries that never become jobs is the biggest hidden cost. Quotes built on partial briefs miss things, like cutdowns or subtitles, which later become arguments. Enquiries go cold while emails go back and forth, and clients choose whoever quoted first. And a mismatch on budget found at the end wastes everyone's time. Good producers also end up doing the least interesting part of their job, collecting facts, at the moment the client is most open to hearing ideas about the film.
How we build the brief intake
- The website form is replaced with a short guided brief, starting with what the film is for: brand film, product, testimonial, training, event, social series.
- The next questions change based on that answer. A testimonial asks how many customers and where. An event asks the date and venue.
- Each question has a short explanation of why it matters, which helps clients answer well.
- Budget is asked as a range with an explanation that it shapes the approach, not the price, and clients can skip it.
- Deliverables are asked plainly: main film length, cutdowns, formats, subtitles, languages.
- The answers become a structured brief in your job system or CRM, such as HubSpot, with a summary for the producer and any obvious gaps listed.
- A language model can draft follow-up questions for the gaps, which the producer edits and sends.
| Brief section | Feeds into |
|---|---|
| Purpose and audience | Treatment and creative approach |
| Filming days and locations | Crew and kit lines of the quote |
| Contributors | Scheduling and release forms |
| Deliverables | Deliverables matrix and edit time |
| Budget range and deadline | Scope and schedule |
An enquiry that arrives ready
The next enquiry comes through the guided brief. It says testimonial film, three customers in Birmingham and Leeds, main film around two minutes, three 30-second cutdowns for LinkedIn with subtitles, CEO available on one date, budget range chosen, needed for a conference in eight weeks.
The producer reads the summary, sees one gap about whether customers have agreed, sends a single follow-up question and quotes within the week. The quote fits the budget range, because the approach was chosen with it in mind.
Some enquiries still come by phone or email. The producer can send the same guided brief as a link, or fill it in during the call, so every job starts from the same structure regardless of how the client got in touch.
Is this how enquiries arrive?
- Most enquiries say little more than we need a video.
- Quotes take several rounds of emails and a call.
- Deliverables like cutdowns and subtitles come up after the quote.
- Budgets are revealed only after a quote is rejected.
- Each producer asks different questions.