Speed to lead is measured from the moment the form is submitted or the call is missed, not from when somebody sees it. That distinction is the whole point: the gap is usually caused by nobody looking, rather than by anybody deciding to wait.
The effect is steep and front-loaded. Responding within a few minutes rather than half an hour changes qualification odds by an order of magnitude in the classic MIT lead-response research, because the person enquired while they were thinking about it and they are still thinking about it.
For most small businesses the problem is structural rather than a matter of effort. Enquiries arrive while the owner is with a client, and the fix is a system that responds without waiting for a human to be free, then hands over a conversation already in progress.
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Frequently asked
What is a good speed to lead time?
Under five minutes is the benchmark most sales research points to, and the curve is steep enough that the difference between five minutes and thirty is much larger than the difference between thirty minutes and two hours. If you cannot reliably hit five minutes with people, the answer is automation rather than a stricter rule.
How do I measure speed to lead?
Timestamp the enquiry arriving and the first genuine outbound response, and look at the median rather than the average. One enquiry answered three days later distorts an average badly and hides an otherwise healthy number.
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