Speed-to-lead

Speed-to-lead measures the time between a prospect surfacing and your first contact with them. The foundational lead-response studies (Oldroyd's work, conducted at MIT and popularized by InsideSales) established the massively repeated finding: the odds of qualifying a lead collapse with delay — calling back within five minutes rather than thirty dramatically multiplies the odds of reaching and converting.

For a local business, speed-to-lead has an embarrassing property: it's negative most of the time. The lead isn't waiting for your answer — they call, you don't pick up, and every passing minute brings them closer to the next competitor. The entire modern toolkit exists to cancel that delay: automatic text-back (first contact in under ten seconds), the voice agent (zero delay since it answers), fast callback as a last resort. The question isn't "should I respond fast?" but "how long does my lead wait today, on average?" — most businesses don't know.