The direct answer
Follow-up takes minutes. Missed follow-up costs deals. The research is not subtle about the size of the window, and every study points the same direction: the first hours decide the outcome.
The fact: Calling a web lead within five minutes, instead of thirty, makes you far more likely to qualify it. The odds of qualifying drop 21 times over that window, and the odds of contact drop 100 times.
SOURCE: MIT Lead Response Management Study (Oldroyd), 2007 — Read the study
The fact: The average company took 42 hours to respond to a web lead. Only 37% responded within an hour, and 23% never responded at all.
SOURCE: Harvard Business Review, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" (2011 audit of 2,241 companies) — Read the article
The window you miss
Most teams are not slow on purpose. The lead comes in at 6 PM. The reply goes out the next morning. By then, the buyer has talked to whoever answered first. The fix is not more effort. It is a system that catches the lead while the interest is still hot.
The fact: InsideSales' audit found half of leads received no response at all, and the average response time was 44 hours. Only 4.7% of companies hit the five-minute window.
SOURCE: InsideSales.com Lead Response Audit, 2016 — Read the audit
The play, and the human part
The system drafts the reply within two minutes of a new lead, in your voice, and sends you the draft for approval. You stay the human in the loop. Nothing ships without you. The speed is what wins the window. The judgment is what wins the deal.
Where to start
Run the follow-up play on this week's leads. Count the responses that came in under five minutes. That number will tell you what you have been leaving on the table.