Reach every inbound lead within five minutes

What it does

An inbound lead is someone who chose you today. Tomorrow they may be talking to someone else. In a Harvard Business Review study of inbound leads, companies that responded within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that waited longer (2011). An alert on your phone with their name, what they asked and their number lets you answer in minutes, not when you next check your inbox.

What you need

• Your website forms and booking tool
• Slack or text alerts on your phone
• Zapier or n8n

How it works

1. 1

   List every way in

   Forms, booking links, chat, and requests from your pricing page. Each one needs its own alert.

2. 2

   Send each one to your phone

   Form or booking, then Zapier or n8n, then a Slack direct message or a text, with notifications on.

   The alert: swap in your form’s fields

   New lead: [NAME], [TITLE] at [COMPANY]
   Came from: [FORM OR PAGE], [SOURCE]
   They said: "[WHAT THEY WROTE]"
   Phone: [NUMBER]  Email: [EMAIL]
   [LINK TO THE CRM RECORD]

3. 3

   Decide who answers, and how fast

   One named person for each part of the working day. Set yourself a target, like five minutes in working hours, and write it down.

4. 4

   Call first if they gave a number

   “Hi, it’s [NAME] from [COMPANY]. You just asked about [WHAT THEY ASKED]. Is now a good time?” No answer: a short text and an email with two times to talk.

5. 5

   Measure it every week

   Log the minutes from form to first real touch for every lead, and put the median in your weekly report.

What good looks like

Every inbound lead hears from a person within minutes in working hours, and the log proves it.

Mistakes to skip

• Alerts to a shared inbox.
• Counting an auto-reply as an answer. It’s fine to send one, but a person still answers.
• Answering fast with only a booking link.