Qualifying inbound work
"How we screen leads to filter out time-wasters."
Why this exists
We don't write proposals for companies shopping for the cheapest developers. Filtering leads early prevents us from spending days planning architectures for projects that never start.
Operational Flow
Check the channel: Assign inbound form submissions to a partner within two hours.
Verify budget early: Ask for the budget range in the first 15 minutes of the initial call.
Evaluate technical match: Confirm requirements fit our Astro, Tailwind, and Cloudflare stack.
Assess decision authority: Make sure we are talking to the person who signs contracts and pays invoices.
Document the lead: Log qualification notes in Notion before booking any follow-up calls.
What good looks like
- Walking away in under ten minutes when a lead expects a custom marketplace for $5,000.
- A prospect shares their API docs and roadmap on the first call without being asked.
- Finding a client with secured funding who wants to start next month.
What NOT to do
- Don't book a second call if the prospect refuses to state a budget range.
- Don't write a proposal for a project requiring a stack we don't use.
- Don't chase leads that ignore our follow-ups for a week.
We spent three weeks pitching an analytics startup last year. We wrote a fifty-page architecture document, sketched wireframes, and had three partners join calls. They took our ideas and built it internally with offshore contractors. It was a waste of engineering hours. Since then, we never write custom strategy before a lead is qualified and a deposit is paid.
If a lead refuses to discuss money or timelines on the first call, they aren’t ready to hire us. Let them go. Your time is better spent improving active code than chasing prospects who treat development as a commodity.