Speed to lead

Speed to lead measures how quickly you respond when a new prospect reaches out. It is the first response time for sales inquiries specifically: web forms, calls, chats, texts and ad leads.

Why it matters

People often contact several businesses at once, and the first to respond usefully has the best chance of winning the conversation. A March 2011 Harvard Business Review article, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" by James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington, studied how quickly companies responded to online inquiries and concluded that most were not responding nearly fast enough. The research is from 2011 and looked at online leads, so treat it as directional rather than a benchmark for your business. Your own data is the better guide.

How to measure it

• Start the clock when the inquiry arrives, not when someone sees it.
• Stop it at the first meaningful response: a reply that answers or moves the inquiry forward. Track automatic "we got your message" replies separately.
• Report the median and the slowest 10% rather than the average, which a few extreme cases can distort.
• Split by channel and by business hours versus after hours, where gaps are usually largest.

How to improve it

Respond automatically with something useful: a callback from an AI voice agent, a text that asks a qualifying question, or a booking link. A missed-call text back covers calls nobody picks up. A follow-up sequence handles leads who do not reply.

How it relates to Worcia

Fast first response is the job of Concierge, Worcia's AI receptionist; persistent follow-up is the job of Cadenza, its lead follow-up system. Read Speed to lead: what the research says.