Speed to lead is how fast a new lead hears back. Most businesses are slower than they think.
Speed to lead is the time between a lead's first contact (a form, an ad, a call) and the first real reply from the business. The usual rule is five minutes. In a Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 companies, 37% answered a web lead within an hour, 23% never answered at all, and the average first reply took 42 hours.
ElevAIte CRM, the AI and automation division of Impact Solution Services in Gettysburg, PA, builds the reply that goes out in the first minute and the follow-up that runs after it, in the name of the person who owns the lead.
Test your own speed to lead in fifteen minutes.
You do not need software to find out how fast you are. Run these five tests on your own business this week, from a phone number and an email address your staff will not recognize, and write down what happens.
- Test 1Web form · 7 PM
Fill in your own contact form after hours
Note the minute anything comes back, and what it is. An autoresponder that only says "we received your message" does not answer or book, so it does not count.
- Test 2Phone · lunch hour
Call your main line at 12:15
Does a person or an assistant pick up? If it goes to voicemail, leave a message and time the callback.
- Test 3Day 2
Say nothing and wait
Did anyone try again the next day, on any channel? Many leads are lost here, after one attempt, rather than in the first minute.
- Test 4Reply
Answer the follow-up with a question
Who replies, how fast, and does the automated sequence keep sending over the top of the conversation?
- Test 5Opt out
Reply STOP
Does every channel stop, including email? An opt-out that does not reach every channel is a compliance problem, not only a manners one.
Write down the time you sent the form, then the time of the first real reply. The gap is your number.
One reply is not follow-up. Count how many times, and on how many channels, anyone tried before the lead went quiet.
The moment a lead replies, a person should have the conversation and the automation should step back.
A real lead, minute by minute.
Transcribed from a painting contractor's CRM, with names and numbers removed. This is what fast looks like when the whole sequence is set up before the lead arrives.
What we build when the test comes back slow.
The first reply goes out inside the minute by text and email, signed by the person who owns the lead, with a link to book. That person gets an alert with the name and number, and a second alert if an hour passes with no call logged. Then comes a daily run for the first few days and a quieter tail after it, and the file is closed on purpose with a note to the owner, instead of left open forever.
Every sequence stops the moment the lead books, replies or says stop. The wording is written for each trade: see it run for an insurance agency and for a roofing contractor.
Missed call text back: speed to lead for the phone.
A missed call is a lead too. Missed call text back sends a short text within a minute of an unanswered call, so the caller hears from you before they try the next business on the list. It is the simplest piece of speed to lead, and it sits in our agency templates, ready to install.
For calls that need an answer in the moment, the AI phone answering service picks up instead.
Questions people ask
What does speed to lead mean?
The time between a lead's first contact and your first real reply. It covers web forms, ad leads, missed calls and chat, and it is measured in minutes.
What is the 5 minute rule for leads?
Reply to a new lead within five minutes, while they are still thinking about the problem that made them reach out. A system can send the first reply in under a minute, then hand the conversation to a person.
How do I respond to leads faster without hiring?
Automate the first reply and the follow-up, and alert the person who owns the lead. The system does the chasing; people do the talking.
What happens when a lead replies?
Every automated sequence for that contact pauses and the owner gets a task. From the first reply on, a person has the conversation.
Does it work with the leads I buy?
Yes, if the lead arrives with consent to contact. Lead forms, ad forms and vendor feeds can all start the same follow-up.
Founder of ElevAIte CRM in Gettysburg, PA. He designed the insurance follow-up cadence behind this page and reads the step stats on every account he runs.
Published · Updated
Find out how fast your leads hear back. Then fix it.
Start with a free market insight brief, or book a 30-minute working session and we will time your own lead flow.
The cadences quoted are built and running for a demo agency and a roofing client, with names removed. Texts send only after a business's number is registered for business texting. Nothing on this page is a promise of results.