Answer

How fast should I follow up with a new lead?

Short answer

Under 60 seconds. Contact rate drops roughly 10x between 1 minute and 5 minutes, and qualification rate drops about 21x by hour one - speed-to-lead is the single biggest controllable variable in sales.

  • Minute 1: ~391% higher odds of qualification vs. hour 1
  • Missed-call-text-back recovers 20-35% of missed calls into booked conversations
  • Email + SMS + voicemail-drop combined beats any single channel

More detail

The MIT/Lead Response Management research has been replicated repeatedly: reaching out within 60 seconds yields dramatically higher contact and qualification rates than waiting even five minutes. After an hour, most leads are effectively cold.

The cheapest way to get there is automation - an AI voice or chat agent that answers every inbound lead in seconds, qualifies, books a calendar slot, and only routes to a human when it should.

#Sales Automation#AI CRM

Related answers

What is an AI CRM and how is it different from a normal CRM?
An AI CRM is a customer relationship platform where AI agents read, write, score, and act on records in real time - turning the database from a filing cabinet into an autonomous follow-up engine.
AI voice agent vs. human receptionist - which should I use?
Use AI for first-touch on every inbound lead and after-hours coverage; keep humans for high-stakes conversations and warm handoffs. The combination outperforms either alone on both cost and conversion.
What is a CRM reactivation campaign?
A reactivation campaign is a multi-channel sequence sent to dormant leads or past customers already in your database - usually the highest-ROI campaign you can run because acquisition cost is zero.

Services that solve this

If you'd rather skip the DIY route, these are the services we install for it.

CRM & Workflow Automation
Every lead followed up. Every deal moved. Every time.
AI Chat & Voice Agents
A senior closer answering every lead, day or night
Growth Strategy
The plan that makes every other dollar work harder
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