Speed to lead is the time between an enquiry arriving and your first real contact with the buyer. It matters because buyers on IndiaMART, JustDial and ad forms usually contact several suppliers at once. A widely cited Harvard Business Review study found that firms responding within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify a lead as firms that waited longer.
What is speed to lead?
Speed to lead is the time between an enquiry arriving and your team's first real contact with the buyer: a call that connects, or a meaningful reply. Not an auto-reply, and not a blue tick. A real response.
It is one of the few sales numbers that is entirely in your control. You cannot control how many people enquire, but you can control how quickly they hear from you.
What does the research say?
The best-known study is The Short Life of Online Sales Leads, published in Harvard Business Review in March 2011 by James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington. Auditing how thousands of US companies responded to web leads, they found that firms which tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even an hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited a day or more. The average firm took about 42 hours to respond.
The study is American and more than a decade old, so treat the exact numbers as directional. But the pattern matches what Indian sellers see every day: the buyer has contacted several suppliers, and the first credible reply sets the terms of the conversation.
Why does it matter even more for Indian portal leads?
- Enquiries go to many suppliers at once. Portal buyers routinely compare several quotes before shortlisting.
- Many requirements are urgent. A machine part, a site visit, a booking for next week.
- Fresh numbers pick up. A buyer who enquired five minutes ago answers the phone. The same buyer three days later often does not.
How do you measure your speed to lead?
- Record when each lead arrived and when the first real contact happened.
- Use the median, not the average. One lead answered after a week distorts the average badly.
- Split it by source (IndiaMART, JustDial, ads) and by rep.
- Look separately at leads that arrive outside working hours.
The first measurement is often a surprise. A lead that arrives at 6:30 pm on a Saturday can easily wait until Monday afternoon for its first call.
What slows teams down?
- Leads sit in a portal or inbox until someone checks it.
- Leads land with the owner, who forwards them when free.
- Nobody is clearly responsible for a new lead.
- The rep is in the field and never sees an email alert.
- Nights, weekends and holidays have no plan at all.
How do you get your response time under five minutes?
- Capture automatically. Connect each source directly, for example with IndiaMART's Push API, so leads arrive in seconds. See our guide to connecting IndiaMART.
- Assign instantly. Every new lead gets an owner the moment it lands.
- Alert reps where they already are. A WhatsApp alert with the buyer's name, number and requirement gets seen; an email often does not.
- Acknowledge immediately. An automatic, polite message tells the buyer a call is coming, which keeps you in the running while the rep finishes a meeting.
- Have an after-hours rule. Late leads get an acknowledgement now and sit at the top of the rep's morning summary.
- Review weekly. Share the median response time per rep. What gets measured improves.
Zublox handles steps 1 to 5 out of the box: see lead capture and automation.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good speed-to-lead time?
Aim for first contact within five minutes during working hours, and never later than an hour. Leads that arrive after hours should get an instant acknowledgement and a call first thing the next morning.
Does an automatic reply count as responding?
It helps keep you in the running, but it is not a substitute for a real conversation. Use it to acknowledge the enquiry and say when you will call, then make sure a person follows up quickly.
How can a small team respond faster without hiring?
Remove the manual steps: capture leads automatically, assign them instantly, and alert the rep on WhatsApp. Most delay comes from leads waiting to be noticed, not from reps being too busy to call.