How to Decide Which Enquiries Are Worth Chasing (and Which Aren't)

08 October 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: Chase enquiries that match your ideal client on budget, fit, and urgency — and let go, quickly and politely, of the ones that don't. The fastest way to tell the difference is a simple scoring system applied the moment an enquiry lands, not a gut feeling three follow-ups in. Score it, then match your follow-up effort to the score. 🚀

Most businesses treat every enquiry the same: reply fast, follow up twice, maybe three times, and hope for the best. That feels fair, but it quietly punishes you twice over — you spend real hours chasing people who were never going to book, and you under-serve the genuinely great-fit enquiries because your attention is split evenly across everyone. 💖 The businesses with the healthiest pipelines aren't the ones who chase hardest. They're the ones who've worked out, early and honestly, who's actually worth chasing.

What most businesses get wrong

The default approach is to prioritise by recency or by whoever's been "waiting the longest," rather than by fit. That means a vague, underbudgeted, out-of-area enquiry from last Tuesday gets the same three-email follow-up sequence as a well-matched, ready-to-go enquiry from yesterday — and often gets chased harder, because it's been sitting there "unresolved" for longer. The other common mistake is the opposite extreme: ghosting anyone who doesn't reply within a day or two, which quietly drops good-fit prospects who are simply slow, busy, or waiting on their own internal decision before they're assumed to be a lost cause.

Underneath both mistakes is the same gap: no actual criteria. "Worth chasing" ends up being a feeling rather than a score, which means it changes depending on how busy you are that week, how the enquiry is worded, or who happens to answer the phone.

The usable asset: a four-point enquiry scorecard

Score every new enquiry out of 8 points (2 points per category) the moment it lands:

Budget/value fit (0–2): 2 = clearly matches or exceeds what you typically charge; 1 = unclear, needs a qualifying question; 0 = explicitly price-shopping or well below your minimum.

Service/scope fit (0–2): 2 = exactly what you do, in your service area/niche; 1 = adjacent, might need a referral out; 0 = outside what you offer entirely.

Urgency/readiness (0–2): 2 = has a timeline and is actively comparing options now; 1 = interested but no clear timeline; 0 = "just looking," no real decision pending.

Decision authority (0–2): 2 = speaking directly with the decision-maker; 1 = gathering info for someone else; 0 = no clarity on who actually decides.

Then match your effort to the total:

6–8 points: Same-day personal reply, phone call if possible, follow up at day 1, day 3, and day 7.

3–5 points: Prompt reply with one qualifying question built in, single scheduled follow-up at day 5.

0–2 points: A polite, templated reply (refer out if relevant) and no further chasing — leave the door open, don't close it.

A booking-based business with lots of no-shows: Enquiries with vague timing ("just thinking about it, no rush") scored low on urgency and had a high no-show rate once booked. Moving those to a lighter, automated follow-up sequence instead of a phone-call chase freed up hours each week for the genuinely ready enquiries — and no-show rates on the chased, high-score bookings actually improved.

A business with a wide service area fielding enquiries from well outside it: Enquiries from far-flung suburbs scored a flat zero on scope fit regardless of how enthusiastic the message was, which stopped hours being spent quoting jobs that were never going to be profitable once travel time was factored in. A short, friendly "outside our area, but here's who I'd recommend" reply kept the relationship warm for a future referral without wasting a follow-up sequence on it.

A B2B firm getting a steady trickle of tyre-kicker demo requests: Adding one qualifying question to the enquiry form — "what's prompted you to look into this now?" — meant urgency and decision-authority could be scored before the first call even happened, cutting wasted discovery calls by roughly a third.

How to actually run this day to day

Build the scorecard into whatever you already use — a CRM field, a spreadsheet column, even a note in your booking system — so scoring takes seconds, not minutes. Score at the point of first contact, not after a call, so your time investment decision happens before you've already sunk an hour into a discovery conversation. Review the pattern monthly: if a particular source (a specific ad, a directory listing, a referral partner) keeps sending low-scoring enquiries, that's worth fixing at the source rather than filtering forever at the follow-up stage.

💡 Build one qualifying question into your enquiry form itself. A simple dropdown for budget range or timeline does most of the scoring work for you before a human even reads the message — it's the single highest-leverage change in this whole system.

Mistakes to avoid

Chasing by how long an enquiry has sat unanswered rather than by how well it actually fits.
Giving every enquiry the same number of follow-ups regardless of score.
Scoring after a call rather than at first contact, which wastes the time the scorecard is meant to save.
Never reviewing where your low-scoring enquiries are actually coming from.
Being rude or dismissive to low-score enquiries — a polite no-chase reply still protects your reputation and leaves the door open.

Frequently asked questions

What if business is quiet and I need the work — should I still say no to low scores?

Honestly, no — cashflow reality matters, and a quiet month is a reasonable time to loosen your thresholds temporarily. The scorecard is there to guide effort, not to force you to turn away income you need. Just be aware that consistently taking on 0–2 point enquiries tends to cost more in time, scope creep, and stress than the revenue is worth, so treat it as a short-term call, not a permanent policy.

Should the scoring criteria be the same for every business?

No — the four categories (budget, scope, urgency, authority) are a solid starting template, but the specific thresholds should reflect your own minimum viable job size, service radius, and typical sales process.

What do I actually say to a low-scoring enquiry so it doesn't feel like a brush-off?

Keep it warm and specific: thank them, be honest about fit ("that's a bit outside what we focus on" or "outside our usual area"), and offer one alternative if you have one. A genuine, personal-sounding no-chase reply protects the relationship for a future referral far better than silence does.

How do I know if my scoring system is actually working?

Track conversion rate and average job value by score tier over a quarter. If your 6–8 point enquiries aren't converting meaningfully better than your 3–5 point ones, your criteria need adjusting, not abandoning.

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Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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