Direct Answer
Speed-to-lead is the time between a lead submitting a form or call and the business making first contact. Harvard Business Review found leads contacted within 5 minutes are 21x more likely to qualify than leads contacted after 30 minutes. For most service businesses, sub-5-minute response is the single highest-ROI sales metric to track.
Voice answer (≤30 words)
“Speed to lead is the time between a lead submitting and your first response. Sub-five-minute response makes leads twenty-one times more likely to qualify.”
Automate the first response (SMS or email) within 60 seconds; let a human follow up within 5 minutes for qualification.
Track speed-to-lead inside your CRM as a core sales KPI. Most teams improve from 4 hours to under 5 minutes within 30 days of adding the automation.
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