How fast are we responding to new inquiries?
Speed-to-lead is one of the highest-leverage metrics in sales. A 5-minute response can beat a 30-minute response by 100x in conversion. Here's how to measure yours.
The short answer
How fast are you responding? Measure the time between when a lead enters your CRM and when the first outbound activity (call, email, text) is logged. Under 1 hour is good. Under 5 minutes is excellent. Over 4 hours and you are likely losing deals to faster competitors.
Response time is the biggest predictor of lead conversion
A prospect fills out your form at 10:15 AM. They are interested right now. They are probably also filling out forms on two other companies' websites. The first business to call back wins the conversation. By 2 PM, that prospect has already talked to someone else and is halfway to signing.
Studies show that responding within 5 minutes makes you 21x more likely to qualify the lead than responding after 30 minutes. After 1 hour, your odds drop by 10x. After 24 hours, the lead is essentially cold.
Most business owners assume their team responds quickly. The data almost always tells a different story. Without measuring it, you are guessing, and the guess is usually optimistic.
How to measure your response time in your CRM
- 1Pull a list of leads created this month
In HubSpot, go to Contacts and filter by Create date this month. Export the list with create date/time. In Salesforce, run a Lead report filtered by Created Date this month, including the Created Date field.
- 2Find the first activity timestamp for each lead
In HubSpot, add the First activity date property column. In Salesforce, check the Activity History for each lead to find the earliest logged call or email. This is the most tedious step without automation.
- 3Calculate the gap for each lead
Subtract the lead creation timestamp from the first activity timestamp. This gives you the response time in hours for each lead. Average them for your overall response time.
- 4Segment by team member and day of week
Group the results by lead owner. Are some team members consistently faster? Also check if weekend and evening leads wait significantly longer. These patterns reveal where the process breaks down.
Total time: 30 to 45 minutes if you have to manually check activity on each lead. Some CRMs make this easier than others.
Measure response time weekly to drive accountability
Monthly measurement is too slow for a metric this important. Check weekly and share the results with your team. When people know their response time is being tracked, it improves immediately.
Or see your response time calculated automatically
Bottomline connects to your CRM and calculates average time-to-first-contact for every lead, every month. It shows the data by team member and flags leads that waited too long.
You see exactly how fast each person responds and how response speed correlates with their close rate. The data makes the case for faster follow-up better than any lecture.