Introduction: Understanding Lead Response Time

Lead response time stands out as a crucial determinant of success for B2B sales. It's not just about acknowledging an inquiry; it's about doing so promptly and effectively. Lead response time refers to the duration between a lead's initial interaction with your business—whether through filling out a form, sending an email, or making a phone call—and your team's response to that interaction.

Studies consistently show that prompt responses significantly increase the likelihood of converting leads into customers. For example, research by InsideSales.com found that the odds of qualifying a lead drop by a staggering 400% if you wait more than five minutes to respond, compared to responding within five minutes. Before we dive into ways of improving lead response times, let’s look at how to effectively measure lead response time (popularly known as Speed to Lead) in your HubSpot CRM.

Measuring Lead Response Time in HubSpot

Based on how you measure lead response time for your business, you can either use the out-of-the-box analytics offered by HubSpot to measure and track your speed to lead or you can set it up yourself.

HubSpot instance includes a default property called ‘Lead Response Time’ for each contact. This property is the measure of time between Owner Assigned for a contact and first engagement. So if a lead signed up for a demo on your website on Wednesday, the contact’s owner was assigned on Thursday, and the Contact Owner reached out on Friday, the lead response time would roughly be 1 day. 

While this is a generally accepted way of looking at Lead Response Time, some businesses prefer to calculate Lead Response Time starting from when the contact was created. There is no way to edit the calculation property in HubSpot. So, if your business prefers to calculate Speed to Lead based on the contact’ create date, you should create a custom property and setup some workflows to do so.

Coastal Consulting wrote a great guide on how to setup a custom lead response time metric on your HubSpot CRM here.

Possible Causes for Low Lead Response Time

Several factors can contribute to low lead response times within an organization:

1. Leadership Priorities: If lead response time is not a priority for senior management, it may not receive the necessary attention and resources. It's essential to educate leadership on the importance of timely responses and how it directly impacts sales performance and customer satisfaction.

   
   
   

2. Lead Distribution Issues: Inefficient lead distribution processes can result in delays in response times. For example, if leads are not properly routed to the appropriate sales reps or if there is a lack of clarity regarding lead ownership, it can lead to missed opportunities.
   
   
   

3. Missed Opportunities: Sales reps may miss leads due to various reasons, such as a high volume of notifications, ineffective CRM utilization, or a lack of training. It's crucial to address these issues through ongoing training, CRM optimization, and regular performance monitoring.

Strategies for Improving Lead Response Time

To improve lead response time, consider implementing the following strategies:

1. Dashboard Utilization: Create a dedicated dashboard within HubSpot CRM to track key metrics related to lead response time, such as average response time, lead follow-up rates, and conversion rates. By visualizing this data, you can identify trends, track progress, and hold your team accountable for timely responses.

2. Use Sidekick's New Lead Workflow: Sidekick offers a range of features designed to streamline lead response processes and ensure no leads fall through the cracks. The new lead workflow in Sidekick sends a slack message to the Contact Owner as soon as a new lead signups up. The slack message also has action buttons that allows the Contact Owner to quickly take the next steps for the lead from Slack. Here’s an overview of how the new lead assignment workflow on Sidekic works.

3. Use Sidekick’s Weekly Lead Recap: Ensuring your sales teams don’t miss out on any qualified lead is essential. With Sidekick, you can build a workflow that will send your Contact Owners a weekly message with a list of leads created in the past one week. You can customize the message to include contact properties most relevant to your business. Here’s some more details about Sidekick’s weekly recap workflows.

Conclusion

Improving lead response time is essential for driving sales performance and delivering exceptional customer experiences. By measuring response times, identifying underlying causes of delays, and implementing targeted strategies for improvement, businesses can optimize their lead management processes and stay ahead of the competition. Tools like Sidekick which offer an advance hubspot slack integration workflow builder, businesses can really streamline their sales processes and reduce unnecessary overheads on their sales teams.