40 Questions to Ask Web Design Clients (Consultation Script)

A consultation is part interview, part sales call. Ask the right questions to ask web design clients and the client explains their problem, sees that you understand it, and asks for your price. Ask the wrong ones and you end up talking about fonts. Use these 40 questions in the order below.

Opening (2 minutes)

1. What made you reach out now?
2. What would you like to get out of this call?

Business and offer

1. Tell me about your business in two sentences.
2. Which service or product do you most want to sell more of?
3. What makes you better or different from competitors?
4. Which areas do you serve?
5. How do most customers find you today?

Goals and numbers

1. What should the website achieve in the next 6–12 months?
2. How many leads, calls or sales a month do you get from it now?
3. How many would you like?
4. What is an average customer worth?
5. What does success look like for you personally?

Customers

1. Who is your ideal customer?
2. What problem are they trying to solve when they find you?
3. What objections do you hear most?
4. What do your best reviews say?
5. Do you serve businesses, consumers or both?

Design taste

1. Which websites do you like, and what exactly do you like?
2. Which websites feel wrong for your brand?
3. Which three words should describe your website?
4. Do you have brand colors, a logo and fonts?
5. Do you want photos of your team and work, or illustrations?

Content and features

1. Which pages are must-haves?
2. Who will write the text?
3. Do you need booking, payments, a shop, a portfolio, a blog?
4. Which tools must the site connect to?
5. Do you want to edit the site yourself?
6. Do you need multiple languages?

Practical details

1. Who owns the domain and hosting today?
2. Is there a hard deadline?
3. Who approves the work?
4. How do you prefer to communicate: email, phone, messages?

Budget and next step

1. What budget range did you have in mind?
2. Have you worked with a web designer before? How did it go?
3. What would make you choose one designer over another?
4. Is there anything that would stop you from starting this month?
5. If I send a proposal by tomorrow, when can you review it?

Red flags to listen for

• “My nephew can do it, I just want to compare.” Low intent; keep it short.
• No budget at all, or a budget far below the scope.
• No decision-maker on the call and no way to reach them.
• Unrealistic deadlines with no flexibility.
• Bad experiences with every previous designer: ask what went wrong.

After the consultation

Send the proposal within 24 hours, with three options (proposal template), and follow up after two days (follow-up guide). If they say yes, send the full web design questionnaire template.