How to Use an Intake Form to Improve Your Discovery Meeting [QUICK WIN]

What Is an Intake Form and Why Do You Need One?

An intake form is a series of questions that helps you learn more about potential clients before your discovery meeting. Used strategically, it can help you understand their goals and challenges in their own words, run more effective discovery meetings, create stronger proposals, improve your close rates and fees, and capture valuable voice-of-client research for your content and marketing.

You’ve got a discovery meeting on your calendar with a potential client. Great!

But how much do you know about them before you get on that call?

That’s where an intake form comes in.

An intake form is just a set of questions your potential clients answer when they contact you or book time on your calendar, beyond the basics of name, email and subject line. Done right, this simple tool can improve your discovery meetings, your close rates, your fees, and even your website and marketing copy!

In this Quick Win episode of the Consulting Matters podcast, I'll show you step-by-step how to create and use an intake form to maximize your productivity, discovery meeting effectiveness, strategic positioning with clients, copywriting quality and so much more.

Step 1: Determine What Questions You Should Ask on Your Intake Form

The first thing you need to figure out is what you want to know about your potential clients before and after your discovery meeting so you can craft the right questions. 

Here are the questions I include on my intake form. In the episode, I explain why I ask each one and what I'm listening for:

• What's going on in your career and/or business that made you reach out to me at this time? What challenge(s) are you struggling with? 
• What have you tried to solve your challenge(s) so far that hasn't worked for you? Why hasn't it worked? 
• What would you be able to accomplish in your business and create in your life if you found the right solution to your challenge(s)? 
• There are a lot of other business mentors/branding agencies /messaging experts out there. Why did you reach out to me in particular? Why are you interested in exploring working with me? 
• What questions do you have about me, my background, my programs or just my style that you want to make sure we address at our Discovery Meeting? 
• Select the statement that best describes you and your situation right now *
• I have the financial resources and am ready to invest in my next level brand and positioning
• I have access to the financial resources and will tap into them if I’m confident I can get an ROI
• I have minimal financial resources to invest in business and prefer to do things as cheaply as possible
• I don’t have any financial resources right now to do much with my business
• How did you hear of me?
• Can you commit that you'll show up and be on time for your call?

Step 2: Decide How You'll Collect the Information

Once you have your questions clear, decide how you're going to collect the information.

If you have an online calendar, it's super easy. Just add the questions to the meeting type you've created.

If you have a contact form on your website, add the questions there.

And if people email you directly to schedule meetings, create a Google survey and send it to them.

Step 3: Decide How You'll Use Their Answers in Your Discovery Meeting

Next, decide how you're going to use the answers.

I create a PowerPoint that mirrors the steps of my discovery meeting process and cut and paste the potential client's intake form responses into the right sections.

This way, I get to mirror their words back to them.

They can see that the time they invested in filling out the form paid off because I've helped organize and frame up their thinking. That creates instant value.

And because I already have their basic information, I can use our time together to validate what I've learned and go deeper.

Step 4: Turn Your Intake Form Into Voice-of-Client Research

Now for the real productivity maximizer.

The streamlined path to profits has two parts: attracting the right clients who are already primed and ready to invest in working with you AND maximizing the value of every lead and client opportunity.

Your intake form, especially if it's connected to your online calendar system, gives you an instant voice-of-client data source.

You can download reports and identify themes in the common problems and goals potential clients are sharing with you.

So when you're sitting there thinking, What do I talk about? go to your report, see what people are asking, and start answering those questions.

That alone can streamline your content creation.

But you don't just get the themes. You get their words.

You can ethically swipe those words for your website and marketing copy, which makes potential clients feel like you're reading their minds.

Because you are, with their permission.

The best copy that converts on your website isn't what you write, and it's not what AI writes. It's what your clients write and you mirror back to them.

You use your own voice when you're saying, This is me. This is what I do.

But when you're describing your ideal clients' problems and goals, get as close as possible to the words they actually use.

That's what makes someone think, My God, she gets me.

And this type of empathy builds trust and credibility beyond any credential you could put out there.

The Bottom Line

Your intake form might seem like a simple tool, but used strategically, it can help you get more value out of every potential client opportunity.

You can arrive at your discovery meetings better prepared, understand what potential clients really want and need, position yourself as a strategic partner versus a pair of hands, and create stronger proposals that can lead to higher close rates and fees.

And because you're capturing potential clients' problems, goals, and needs in their own words, your intake form can also become an ongoing source of ideas and language for your content and marketing.

If you're already using an intake form, look for ways you can better leverage it for your discovery meetings and your overall business development productivity.

And if you don't have an online calendar, get one. It reduces friction and resistance for interested potential clients and makes collecting this information easy.

If you want to go deeper into discovery meetings and my Partnership Setup process, or how to use a market scan to uncover and connect with your niche, check out these episodes:

• How to Land Strategic Client Engagements without Pushy Sales (Ep129) 
• How to Use a Discovery Meeting to Multiply Revenue and Impact (Ep132) 
• The Anatomy of High-IMPACT Sales Pages and Proposals (Ep85)  
• How to Conduct a Market Scan and Find Your Niche 

And if you want help strengthening your brand positioning and messaging so you can attract the right clients, land more strategic, higher-paying transformational engagements and make the money and impact you know you’re capable of, that’s what my VIP Brand Positioning & Messaging Partnership is here for.