You paid for the click, the visitor filled in your form, and now the lead is sitting in an inbox. How long it sits there has a bigger effect on whether it becomes a customer than most owners expect.
What the research says
The best-known study is “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, published in Harvard Business Review in 2011. The researchers sent a test enquiry to 2,241 US companies and timed the replies. Among the companies that replied within 30 days, the average first response took 42 hours.
A separate analysis in the same article looked at 1.25 million sales leads received by 42 companies. Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker as those that waited one more hour, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited a day or longer.
Two cautions. The study is from 2011 and looked mostly at phone follow-up by larger companies. The exact multiples will not carry over to your business. The direction has held up, though: interest fades fast, and the first business to give a useful answer usually wins.
Why leads go cold so quickly
- They are still looking. Someone who has just sent you an enquiry often has two or three other tabs open.
- The need is fresh. An hour later they are back at work or cooking dinner, and your reply competes with everything else.
- Silence reads as a no. With no confirmation, people assume the form did not work and try someone else.
How fast is fast enough?
During business hours, aim to reply within the hour, and sooner if you can. Outside business hours, send an instant confirmation and reply first thing next morning. A fast, useful reply beats a slow, perfect one.
A simple set-up for replying fast
- Send an instant confirmation. An automatic email or text that says you have their enquiry, when they will hear from you, and what happens next.
- Get the lead onto your phone. Email notifications are easy to miss. Send new leads to your phone as well.
- Decide who answers. One named person, with a back-up. “Everyone” means no one.
- Write your first reply once. A short template with your usual questions saves ten minutes per lead and keeps the answer consistent.
- Check Facebook leads daily, or connect them. Leads from Facebook instant forms sit inside Meta until you download them or connect them to your email or CRM. See lead ads vs landing pages.
- Measure it. Once a month, look at how long new leads waited for a first reply. Most owners are surprised.
Fast does not mean pushy
Speed is about answering the question they asked. It is not about calling five times in an afternoon. Answer once, clearly, say when you will follow up, and do it.
Replying faster does not cost anything extra in ad spend, which is why it is one of the cheapest ways to lower your cost per customer.
Want this done for you? Send me your website and I will reply in writing with the three biggest fixes for your ads and leads. Get a free lead review.
Sources
Written by Gregory
20 years building websites and running lead generation, mostly with my own money on the line. Based in Sydney, working with clients worldwide. How I work →