Speed To Lead: How To Follow Up With New Leads Fast
Speed to lead is how fast you reach a new inquiry. A widely cited Harvard Business Review study found firms that tried to contact web leads within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify them as firms that waited even an hour longer. To get fast: send every lead alert to your phone, acknowledge instantly, and call the same hour.
How To Do It
These steps work with the tools you already have, whatever you use.
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List Every Place Leads Land
Website form, Google Business Profile, Zillow or Angi, email, voicemail, social messages. Leads you don’t know about are the slowest ones of all.
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Send Every Alert To Your Phone
Set your form tool to notify you; HubSpot forms can email chosen people on each submission, and its phone app can push alerts. In Gmail, add a filter that labels and stars lead emails, then set Gmail on your phone to notify you for those.
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Acknowledge Instantly
Most form tools, including HubSpot, Jotform and Typeform, can send their own confirmation email. Include when you’ll call and a booking link. For leads that email you directly, a Gmail filter can send a saved template.
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Call First, Then Write
Call within the hour. If you get voicemail, leave a short message and send an email that mentions their actual question, not a generic “thanks for reaching out.”
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Track Your Response Time
Note when each lead came in and when you first reached them, right in your CRM. Look at the gaps once a week; the slow ones usually share a source or a time of day.
What To Watch Out For
- A Gmail filter’s template reply goes to the sender. Form alerts come from the form tool, not the lead, so use the form’s own confirmation email instead.
- For after-hours leads, the auto-reply should say when you’ll call, and that call should be your first one in the morning.
- An auto-reply isn’t a response. It buys you minutes, not days.
- Texting a lead in the US needs their consent under rules like the TCPA. Ask for it on the form.
How Octopus Prime Does It
Your Octopus Prime agent keeps an eye on the inboxes where leads land, logs each one, and hands you a ready-to-send reply and the details for your call.
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Connect Where Leads Arrive
At Settings › Connections, connect the email account and CRM your leads go to. The agent signs in from the Vault.
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It Checks On A Repeating Task
During business hours, a repeating task has the agent look for new inquiries and open each one.
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A Lead Card In Your Chat
It posts the name, what they asked, their number and a drafted reply in chat. You approve the reply from your phone and make the call yourself.
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Logged In Your CRM
The agent adds the contact, notes the source and the time it came in, and sets a follow-up task in case you don’t connect.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
Questions
What is a good speed to lead?
Within the hour is the line the Harvard Business Review research drew, and many teams aim for five minutes during business hours.
Can AI respond to leads instantly?
Form confirmation emails are instant. A personal reply from your Octopus Prime agent is drafted when it checks, and sending waits for your OK by default.
Can Octopus Prime call or text my leads?
No. Octopus Prime has no phone line; keep your phone system. The agent drafts the text or email and gives you what you need for the call.
Does it work with Follow Up Boss or Zillow?
It can use web apps like those through its own browser with your login, one lead at a time.
Let your agent do the steps. You approve what matters.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
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