01
What kind of project is it — new build, renovation, addition, fit-out?
Type is the first routing decision: who in the studio should take the call, and whether it's work you do at all.
For architects
The project inquiry
three months early.
People write to architects at the dreaming stage — they've just closed on the lot, inherited the building, outgrown the office. It reads unhurried, so it waits in the inbox. But they wrote to two or three firms the same evening, and the one that responds becomes the one they plan with.
Long projects still start with a short race
An architectural commission is one of the longest sales in professional services — months of conversations before a fee proposal, years before completion. The inquiry that starts it, though, behaves like any other lead: it goes to several firms at once, and the firm that engages first, asks intelligent questions and sounds like it wants the work sets the tone for every conversation after.
Because these inquiries read as non-urgent, they sit. Published benchmarks put the median first response to a new inquiry at 42 hours, with 63% of companies taking longer than an hour — while sub-five-minute responders convert roughly nine times better. For a firm, the cost isn't one job; it's the project that would have carried the studio through next year.
LeadsApp answers the moment the inquiry arrives, in your studio's voice. It gathers what your first real conversation needs — project type, site, stage, budget comfort, timeline — flags RFPs and dated submissions, and never ventures a design opinion, a feasibility verdict, or a fee. Every draft waits for your approval by default.
42h
Median time for a business to answer a new inquiry at all
63%
Of companies take longer than an hour to reply to a new inquiry
9x
Higher lead-to-opportunity conversion when the reply lands inside five minutes
Published industry benchmarks — not our own data
The intake questions it actually asks
Modeled on how your studio scopes a first call — asked one or two at a time, in your wording, at the level of detail a layperson can actually answer.
02
Where is the site or building, and do you own it yet?
Jurisdiction, context and whether the clock has actually started — the answer separates dreamers from clients with a closing date.
03
What stage are you at — exploring, budgeting, or ready to engage an architect?
Sets the register of the first conversation. A feasibility chat and a fee-proposal meeting are different preparations.
04
Do you have a working budget range for the whole project?
Asked gently and early, because it's the question that decides whether the project and the studio fit each other.
05
When would you like to be breaking ground — or moved in?
Backwards from that date comes everything: design time, permitting, and whether their expectation survives contact with a calendar.
06
Is there a deadline attached — an RFP date, a permit expiry, a lease ending?
The escalation trigger. Anything with a submission date goes to a principal, not into a nurture sequence.
Example — not a real client
What this looks like in your inbox
An illustration we wrote, not a customer message. Everything in [brackets] is pulled from the business profile you fill in during setup — the AI states nothing it wasn't given.
Website contact form — Sunday, 4:38pm
My wife and I just closed on a 40-foot lot in [neighborhood] and want to build a modern single-family home, maybe 2,800 sq ft. We're first-timers at this. No architect yet, no firm budget but we're thinking somewhere around $1.2M for construction. How does working with your studio go?
Draft reply — waiting for your approval
Thank you for writing — and congratulations on the lot. This is an automated first reply from [Studio name] so you're not waiting on a Sunday; [Principal name] will read your note personally.
You're at exactly the stage where a first conversation is useful. Two questions to make that conversation concrete:
1. When would you ideally like to be breaking ground?
2. Have you had the survey or any site documents done yet, or would we be starting from the lot as it stands?
We'll come back to you [within the timeframe you've set in your profile] with how a first meeting works.
— [Studio name]
84
Hot
Why: A secured site, a stated construction budget in your project range, a defined program (2,800 sq ft single-family), and an explicit ask about engaging — early-stage, but real.
Read the reply again: it never opines on what fits on a 40-foot lot, never blesses the budget, never quotes a fee. Those are professional judgments made by an architect in a meeting — the AI's job was to get that meeting booked while the excitement is fresh.
What it will never do for an architecture studio
An inquiry inbox is not a place for professional judgment. The AI collects, routes and books — the architecture stays with the architects. Review-before-send is the default, so you read every word before it carries your studio's name.
- Never gives design opinions — not what fits the lot, not what the style should be, not "that sounds feasible".
- Never interprets zoning, codes or permitting. "Can we build this?" is a professional determination, and it goes to a human.
- Never quotes fees, fee structures or construction costs, and never blesses a stated budget as sufficient.
- Never promises a timeline for design, permitting or construction.
- Escalates instead of replying when a message contains an RFP, a dated submission, a permit expiry or an active-project issue — those go to a principal the same day.
- Never claims typologies, sectors or past work you didn't put in the studio's profile, and never contacts anyone who didn't contact you first.
The next commission is an unanswered email right now.
Point your studio's contact form at LeadsApp, or forward the inbox it already emails. The next inquiry gets a considered reply within a minute — site, stage, budget and timeline gathered — and you approve every word until you decide otherwise.
Free on 25 leads a month, no card · $149 for 250 · $299 for 1,000 · $499 unlimited
Every account also includes the free contact toolkit — search 136M+ US and Canada B2B contacts and verify any email, from the web or your own agents.
Start free
Your next client
is waiting. Reply.
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