Speed to lead: what the research says and how to measure it

What speed to lead means

Speed to lead, also called lead response time, is the time from a lead's inquiry, such as a form fill, a call or a chat, to the business's first response. It matters because a lead's interest fades, and the first business to answer often gets the conversation.

What the research found

Harvard Business Review, 2011

In The Short Life of Online Sales Leads, James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington audited 2,241 US companies. 37% responded to a lead within an hour, 24% took more than 24 hours, and 23% never responded. Among those that responded within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours.

A second analysis of 1.25 million leads at 42 companies found that firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it, meaning to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker, as firms that waited even an hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as those that waited 24 hours or more. One co-author led InsideSales.com, a sales software company.

Lead Response Management Study, 2007

A study by InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd, then at MIT, looked at more than 15,000 leads and 100,000 call attempts across six companies. It reported that the odds of contacting a lead fell 100 times when the first call came at 30 minutes instead of 5, and the odds of qualifying it fell 21 times. It is a vendor report, not a peer-reviewed paper; the original is available as a conference slide deck.

Drift lead response survey, 2017

A survey of 433 companies found that only 7% responded within five minutes and 55% did not respond within five business days.

Numbers you will see without a source

Some statistics circulate widely but could not be traced to a primary study when this guide was written:

• “78% of customers buy from the first company to respond.”
• “Lead quality drops 80% after five minutes,” often credited to Harvard Business Review. It is not in the HBR article.
• “100 times more likely,” credited to Harvard. That figure comes from the 2007 vendor study above, not from HBR.
• “The average business takes 47 hours to respond.” HBR's figure is 42 hours.

How to measure speed to lead

A single number hides where the delay is. Record each stage separately, per lead source:

• Created: when the lead submitted the form or called.
• Received: when your system got it. Integrations that check on a schedule add delay here.
• First automated touch: when the first email or text was sent, and whether it was delivered.
• First human response: when a person called, texted or wrote back.

Report the median and the slowest 10%, not the average, and split by source and by business hours versus after hours. The leads that wait longest are usually after-hours leads and leads from a source nobody watches.

How to improve it

• Send every lead source to one place, so none waits in an inbox nobody checks.
• Acknowledge every lead automatically, with an honest message about when a person will follow up.
• Route the lead to a person who can call while the automated message goes out.
• Keep following up for days, not minutes, for leads you could not reach the first time.
• Stop the automation the moment the lead replies or books, so it never talks over your team.

Where Sequence fits

Sequence handles the automated part. For website forms and webhooks, it tries to send a step that is due immediately right after the lead is received, and a scheduled check every five minutes sends any due step that attempt missed. ServiceTitan and Pipedrive events are picked up by scheduled checks, so they can take a few minutes or longer. Texts go only to leads who agreed to them, and wait for quiet hours.

The first human response is still yours. Sequence can stop the follow-up when the lead replies or books, and replies land in a shared inbox for your team. See lead follow-up, or how it works for contractors.