Lead response time stats: 5 minutes or less (Updated 2022)
In a world full of noise, time is becoming one of the most valuable resources at our disposal. This is particularly true for agencies, MSPs, and media companies selling to local businesses. It's time to become the Barry Allen of lead response time.
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Lead response time stats have shown that if you aren’t contacting your prospects within 5 minutes of them submitting a demo request or requesting additional information—you are running an exponential risk of losing that prospect. With the high costs of paid advertising, and the ever-increasing competition in the digital landscape, you literally can’t afford to waste another moment.
Below we’ll cover why the best practices for lead response management say that speed is so damn important and the data-backed strategies that you can implement to reduce your lead response times and improve conversions.
Table of contents
Setting the scene
Why does lead response time matter?
1. You have 5 minutes to contact leads
2. 78% of customers buy from the first responder
3. Sales conversions decrease 391% after the first minute
4. Longer than 5 minutes = an 80% decrease in lead qualification
5. Right now, 55% of companies take 5+ days to respond
[Speed to lead stats] Reducing lead response time through instant demos
Process
Results
Tools for decreasing lead response time
1. Messenger monitoring
2. Live chat tools
3. Instant contact software
4. Email automation
The strategy for decreasing lead response time
1. Align sales and marketing
2. Have a bulletproof lead qualification process
3. Use the tools available
4. Have a prospect grading process
A glimpse into the future
Conclusion
Setting the scene
Let me set the scene for you.
Your name is Taylor (or maybe not), you have two dogs, one cat, and a mother who loves you very much. It’s a pretty regular Saturday afternoon, and you’re just itching to get downtown and grab yourself some new shoes. And it gets better, you know exactly what you need—a pair of navy blue Adidas Boosts.
Now, you walk into a shoe store downtown and out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of those gorgeous (and overpriced) foot garnishes. You make your way over to the shelf and behold this shoe, surely a gift from the heavens. Now you just need to find your size, but there isn’t a staff member, echo, nor ghost in sight.
You wait a few minutes… Aaand still nothing. So, what do you do?
Let’s be brutally honest, this could be your best friend's shoe store, and you're still not going to wait all afternoon for a staff member to show up. No, you’re going to pop over to the shoe store that is right across the street and buy the very same shoes there.
This begs a question... Why should B2B online service be any different?
It shouldn’t. And that’s why best practices for lead response management dictate that speeding up your response time should be one of your primary objectives if you are an agency selling B2B.
Why does lead response time matter?
Lead response time is quickly becoming the most powerful determiner of successful contact, conversions, and even bookings and closes for agencies operating in the B2B space. The longer you take to contact a lead after they request information or a demo, the less likely you are to close that deal.
We had a lead come in, and we were really busy, so we didn’t call them back immediately. We thought we’d get back to them in the afternoon. Well, afternoon came around, and we reached out to the lady who had submitted her information. She told us that someone had already come out to look at the house and that they already signed the contract with them. We saw how much the house was sold for, and the investors that beat us to the lead made $25,000 on that deal. You can imagine how strict we are on our response times now.
Suggested Reading: The Four Fastest Ways to Burn a Lead
Here's what lead response stats and experts say about why lead response time is a critical component B2B sales.
1. Speed to lead statistics indicate: You have 5 minutes to contact leads
Does this seem nearly impossible? For many organizations using their current processes, it is. However, continuing with slow response times has severe consequences. According to some speed to lead statistics from Drift, only 7% of the surveyed companies are currently achieving an average lead response time of five minutes or less.
You want to be the first company to make first contact, and in more competitive industries, you'll be lucky to be even the third caller if you wait five minutes or more to call.
But, just how severe are those consequences?
2. 78% of customers buy from the first responder
According to a lead response time stats from a Lead Connect survey, 78% of customers buy from the company that responds to their inquiry first. That’s how severe the organizational consequences can be of taking a few extra minutes to make a cup of Joe before getting to those leads. So if you aren’t the first contact for your prospects and still make a sale, you must be working some kind of voodoo. If you’re anything like me, that’s a risk that just isn’t worth taking.
Many times, the first vendor to engage a prospect has the opportunity to shape their perspective for the entire duration of their project. By setting the bar high and shaping how they see ALL potential solutions - not just yours - you have the opportunity to build your value and truly emphasize your key differentiators. The first time they hear about a feature or a benefit, it's unique and impressive. You want that to be coming from you. The third or fourth time they hear it, it's old hat - and that makes it harder to stand out.
3. Sales conversions are 391% higher in the first minute
According to Lead Connect's speed to lead statistics, there is a 391% increase in sales conversions when inbound leads are contacted within the same minute that they submit a demo. This isn’t an increase in presentation bookings or anything like that, this is conversions. If your organization is able to make this a reality, you would join the top 1% of companies selling B2B, and enjoy the (conversion) fruits of your labor. If you've ever wondered how to respond to internet leads, the lead response time stats are clear: the key is to contact them in the very first minute.
The fact is that the ideal time to contact a potential customer is exactly when he enters his phone number into the form. At this time, he is available and thinking about the seller's services. Added to that, if the response time is slow, the prospect often finds another supplier.
Furthermore,
4. Longer than 5 minutes = an 80% decrease in lead qualification
You'll see an 80% decrease in the odds of qualifying your lead between 5-minute and 10-minute response times. I’m pretty sure that is what more math savvy people would call a very exponential decline…
Now you know that the opportunity costs are great if you aren’t the best lead-slinger in your industry. B2B is a complex space with so many variables that are outside of our control, which is why we must make every effort to control those that we can.
Suggested reading: Mark Roberge’s 5-step sales process to win more deals
5. Right now, 55% of companies take 5+ days to respond
The same speed to lead statistics in the survey indicate that 55% of companies take 5+ days to respond to leads. Worse yet, of this 55%, 12% didn’t respond at all...
Remember, unless you’re Microsoft, you probably aren’t generating the majority of your inbound leads organically. And we know that PPC advertising on various platforms is all kinds of expensive.
So how is it that anyone could let even a single one of these leads sit for an entire business week, or worse yet—slip away entirely?! It makes me wonder if 55% of the surveyed companies want to go bankrupt…
^this is the flash (the competition) running away with your money if you're one of the 55%.
P.S. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Most of this data originates from a major study that was conducted by the Harvard Business Review back in 2011. Normally, this would bring the credibility of a study into question; however, with the dramatic growth in business solution usage and the need for faster business transactions, these numbers only become more valid—and maybe even lack some degree of severity now
The moral of the story, if you want to stay competitive, you’re going to have to do way better in your lead response management.
[Lead response time stats] Reducing response time through instant demos
It all started with our company goals and direction, and one thing that kept coming up was the need to reduce our lead response time.
To test the impact that a near-instant response time had on our sales funnel, we recently implemented an “instant demo” process for our inbound prospects. We wanted to understand how to respond to internet leads in the best way possible. Let's see what that looked like.
Process
Like many companies in the B2B space, we were already utilizing a chat feature on our website to help trim some time in that funnel. This process allowed us to capitalize on more marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by initiating that first (human-ish) touchpoint sooner. But, we thought that there was more that could be done.
So—we added an "Instant Response" website plug-in by CrankWheel to our web repertoire. CrankWheel is essentially a plug-and-play demo form that comes with the promise of near-instant phone or video contact from a sales rep. These were our steps in implementation.
- Replacing existing demo forms. Our website guru Adam took the liberty of adding the plugin to most of the pages on our website for the duration of Vendasta office hours.
- Assigning a dedicated sales rep. Next, in collaboration with the sales department, we assigned one sales rep per week to be responsible for all “instant demo” requests coming through our website. This means that this rep would take all of the video or voice calls as they came in, and supplement spare time with work on existing accounts.
- Collaboration with marketing. The assigned sales rep would be in direct communication with the Demand Gen team in marketing so that accounts could be built for prospects in our sales database as calls came in.
- Watch the fireworks go off. As internet leads began to come in through our new plugin, we noticed that successful contact and booking numbers skyrocketed.
Results
Here are the results of our Instant Demo test to reduce lead response time:
In only a few months, one of the most notable results was a near-perfect contact success rate, in comparison with our overall previous average of 57%. We also witnessed a presentation booking rate of 57%—which more than doubles our overall average. Our close rate at 5% is the same as that of our organic BOFU leads, but we suspect that this number will grow over the coming months as more of these leads begin to move through our sales funnel.
Suggested Reading: Sales intelligence: The art of closing more deals
While coming in contact with any qualified potential partner through Olark or CrankWheel, I've never had a single one skip out on a presentation opportunity. These leads are hot, and ready to buy. Once you've given them that opening to second guess their motif or direction they want to drive their organization, the likelihood of partnering is drastically reduced.
CrankWheel has been working quite well for us, but it isn’t the only tool that can help you cut down your agency's lead response time.
Tools for decreasing lead response time
There are many tools available on the market to decrease your lead response time and improve your sales efficiency. Here are some of the best ones that you can add to your inbound arsenal.
1. Messenger monitoring
A simple first step for your organization that doesn’t cost a penny would be actively monitoring the Facebook and Instagram direct messaging accounts for your business profiles. This is a form of lead interaction that allows you to readily answer questions for prospects and establish a touchpoint with minimal effort!
Facebook Messenger also allows users to take it one step further and easily set up simple automated responses to frequently asked questions. This can act as a great way to stay on top of leads without having to implement any new tools. It also prevents the need for users to be sitting on their phone all day waiting for the next message to come through.
2. Live chat tools
The best time to have that first conversation with a lead is not after they’ve submitted a form and left your website. It’s while they’re still on the page that they’re interested in. This is when they are the hottest, freshest, and most interested.
A live chat tool can serve as a great way to initiate that first point of contact and begin the qualification process. What is faster than an instant messenger? Other than The Flash, not much. It is also one of the best ways to mitigate the risk of losing a prospect to a competitor, or as the result of a slow lead response time.
Despite this knowledge, in a survey conducted by Drift, only 14% of the 433 companies surveyed had live chat features enabled on their sites. This means that it is a great time to get an upper hand on your competitors and help to better drive conversions in your sales funnel.
Check out our Marketplace and see how our Live Chat tool or our Website Chatbot tool can help you accomplish your prospecting goals.
3. Instant contact software
If you're wondering how to respond to internet leads quickly, software might be the answer you're looking for. Software and plugins that let prospects on your website instantly connect with a sales or business representative will drive more conversions and bookings for your agency. These tools can ensure that you never break that 5-minute threshold indicated by best practices for lead response management with another prospect.
CrankWheel was the tool that we integrated in our case study at Vendasta. This WordPress plugin comes with CRM integration through Zapier, or directly through Salesforce so that you can easily add it to your sales funnel.
Don’t give your prospects the time to explore other options when you already have everything they need.
4. Email automation
Every agency, IT business, and media company that is selling B2B has to have email automation—no exceptions. After your prospects have done some investigation on your website, maybe chatted with someone on an instant messaging app, and submitted a demo, this should always trigger an instant email response. Email is critical in how to respond to internet leads.
Emails aren’t going to land you a prospect, but they might buy you a few minutes of loyalty before your sales reps can get in touch over the phone.
See how our B2B Marketing Automation Software can help you take your email strategy to the next level.
The strategy for decreasing lead response time
Even if you have all of the right tools, you are still going to need a bulletproof strategy if you want to slash your inbound lead response time. Here are your steps:
1. Align sales and marketing
The closer the coordination and collaboration between the sales and marketing departments within your agency, the more efficient your team is going to be at navigating the sales funnel. This can make it easier to define and understand roles, and also ensure that the transition from an internet lead to a personal connection is seamless.
There is nothing more damaging to a sales funnel than sales and marketing teams operating in silos, or even as rivals. The goal is the same, and sales success is marketing success (and vice-versa), so don’t forget that.
Here are some tactics to better align your teams:
- Shared workspaces. By putting sales and marketing right in the same room, you can open lines of communication that aren't available through messaging apps. This can also help to build a stronger bond and sense of cohesiveness between teams.
- Instant messaging. Much like with prospects, by using apps like Slack, you can create groups and communicate instantly even if you are unable to be in the same workspace as each other.
- Job shadowing. Nothing can build a better sense of appreciation for the work that others do like actually being put in their shoes. Don’t be afraid to take a day to give your team members a bit better perspective.
- Team bonding. Whether it be through team meetings (we do Master Sales Training, and Distribution Lunch & Learns at Vendasta), or after-hour “meetings”—because a beer with your team isn’t going to hurt anyone.
Suggested Reading: What’s the difference between CRM and marketing automation?
2. Have a bulletproof lead qualification process
Qualifying leads before they are passed along to a sales representative can be one of the greatest assets to your agency. Having consistent parameters set speeds up the qualification process for marketers and prevents sales reps from wasting valuable time on dead-end calls.
Time is money in this crazy industry, so the more efficiently your sales and marketing teams can qualify leads, the less time that is wasted creeping LinkedIn profiles and calling prospects that aren’t a fit.
Depending on your ideal clients, your qualification process will vary, but having detailed buyer personas in pace can help you better guide lead selection and qualification.
See how you can build your own personas here:
Related Reading: [Template] Build your own buyer persona
3. Use the tools available
As examined above, chatbots, live messaging tools, instant demos, and email automation should all be pieces of your sales puzzle if you want to take the upper hand on your competition and get those prospects while they’re still boiling hot.
Time is invaluable when doing business in the B2B space, so make sure that you don’t waste another second by not leveraging the technology at your disposal.
P.S. I can tell you right now that it doesn’t take very long to find a competitor in most business verticals, and if they answer first, you just lost a possible sale.
4. Have a prospect grading process
There is only so much time in each business day, and if your sales reps are unable to easily determine which prospects are the highest value to your organization, the result can be poorly allocated resources and lost prospects. The answer? It can be as simple as assigning a letter grade to each prospect in the qualification process (A, B, C, D, E, etc). Alternatively, there are pipeline management tools that you can implement to provide more sophisticated and automated grading info.
Regardless of your choice, the grading process allows your sales and marketing teams to focus on the highest value leads. We like to call them hot leads, but you can call them spicy leads, molten leads, tangy leads—or whatever else floats your boat.
Related Reading: The best free CRMs for B2B companies
Oh, and one last thing—remember that your sales team has to be hungry. This industry is just too competitive for anything short of killers. You can take all of the right steps on the marketing end of the funnel, but you have to make sure that you have the best of the best picking up those phones day in and day out in order to reduce your overall lead response time.
A Glimpse into the future
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation. I know, I said everyone’s favorite buzzwords…
These advancements are going to revolutionize the way that business is conducted, that is certain. For marketing agencies, IT companies, and media companies, one of the greatest changes will be in the way that sales funnels become automated. Here is where we are headed:
Jane Smith just finished a conversation on your live messenger on your website, and she decides to click on your new instant demo form so that she can get in contact with a sales representative. This triggers an instant email response to Jane notifying her that John Doe will be her agent, and will be in touch shortly. Four thousand miles away, John Doe is notified that Jane Smith is interested in learning more about his SEO products. John calls Jane 30 seconds later regarding the products and services he can offer her, and everyone lives happily ever after.
In the meantime, there is usually a little work involved in between these steps. Your agency might not have robots (yet), but you probably have some damn talented marketers—which are basically the next best thing, am I right?
Suggested Reading: 3 Vendasta automations that will improve your sales
Decrease your lead response time with Vendasta
If you are an agency, MSP, or media company that is selling B2B, the best practices for lead response management are clear: decreasing your lead response time should be one of your primary objectives, no matter what.
Just remember these steps:
- Align sales and marketing
- Have a bulletproof qualification process
- Use the tools available
- Have a prospect grading process
Vendasta can help solve your sales process challenges.