Answer a new lead within the hour, and within minutes when you can, as long as it falls inside your sending hours. Most companies are far slower: in a 2024 test of 1,000 B2B software websites, 365 replied to a demo request, and the average reply took more than a day (RevenueHero, 2024).
This guide covers what recent tests show about how fast companies answer, where the famous "21 times" and "7 times" figures come from and why they are old, what buyers say about fast replies, and how to set up a first text that goes out the same hour. It is part of our guide to SMS for sales and customer follow-up. Every number links to its source and year.
How fast should you respond to a new lead?
Within the hour, during the hours you are allowed and willing to text. Speed to lead is the time between a person asking about your product (a form, a demo request, a quote request) and your first real reply. A short, personal text in that first hour puts you ahead of most of the market, based on the tests below.
The honest version of the advice has two parts:
- The bar is low. Recent secret-shop tests show many companies take a day or more, and many never answer at all.
- The exact payoff of each minute is unknown. The studies that put a number on it are from 2007 and 2011, measured phone calls, and have no recent replacement with a published method.
How slowly do companies answer new leads today?
Slowly, and often not at all. Two tests from 2024 measured it directly by posing as buyers.
B2B software demo requests. The scheduling company RevenueHero filled in demo request forms on 1,000 B2B software websites and timed each reply, counting automated replies. It got 365 replies in total. The average reply took 1 day, 5 hours and 17 minutes (RevenueHero, 2024).
| How long the reply took | Companies (of 1,000) |
|---|---|
| Instantly | 172 |
| Within an hour | 31 |
| Within a day | 109 |
| Within a week | 41 |
| More than a week | 12 |
| No reply | 635 |
Companies that automated at least their first reply averaged 17 hours and 20 minutes; companies that replied by hand averaged 2 days, 3 hours and 11 minutes. RevenueHero sells meeting scheduling and lead routing, did not publish the test dates, and notes that some companies may have screened out its test lead, so treat these as one vendor's test.
Real estate inquiries. In more than 100 secret shops of over 25 US brokerages, made through website forms on weekday business hours, nearly half of online property inquiries went unanswered. Among the replies, the average wait was 8 hours and 17 minutes and the median was 39 minutes (Mike DelPrete, 2024). Our real estate texting guide covers that market in detail.
Service teams show the same gap. In J.D. Power's 2024 study of 2,982 insurance claimants, 84% said their insurer makes digital communication easy, while just 39% said their insurer always responds in a timely fashion to emails and text messages (J.D. Power, 2024).
Where do the "21 times" and "7 times" figures come from?
From two older studies of phone calls. They are still the most quoted numbers on speed to lead, and many pages present them as current.
| Study | What it measured | Headline finding | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| InsideSales.com and MIT Lead Response Management Study, 2007 | Over 15,000 web leads and over 100,000 call attempts at six companies, over three years | Calling within 5 minutes against 30 minutes: odds of contacting the lead 100 times higher, odds of qualifying it 21 times higher | Phone calls only; co-written by a sales software company; not peer reviewed; did not look at closed sales |
| Harvard Business Review, 2011 | 1.25 million leads at 42 US companies (29 B2C, 13 B2B), plus an audit of 2,241 companies | Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were "nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead" as those that tried an hour later; the audited companies took 42 hours on average | Mostly phone calls; data from before 2011; qualifying a lead is a step before a sale |
Both studies point the same way: early attempts reached and qualified more leads. Neither measured texting, and both describe buyers and tools from more than a decade ago.
We looked for a study published from 2023 to 2026 that measures how reply speed changes meetings booked or sales, with a published method, and found none. Newer vendor reports that claim such a link either sit behind a form or don't describe how they were measured. So the case for speed today rests on two plainer facts: most companies are slow, and the first business to give a useful answer is often the one the buyer talks to.
Do buyers care how fast you answer?
They say so, in several kinds of buying.
- Software buyers. In Gartner Digital Markets' survey of over 3,400 software buyers worldwide, 60% regretted a purchase, and 49% said it would ease their regret if vendors would "immediately respond to requests" (Gartner Digital Markets, 2023). That survey is about service after the sale, and Gartner Digital Markets runs software review sites, so read it as a signal about expectations.
- Home buyers and sellers. In Zillow's 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, 47% of buyers and 59% of sellers hired the first agent they spoke with (Zillow, 2025). The release does not give the sample size.
- Insurance customers. In the J.D. Power study above, customers who had to use more than one channel for the same question rated their experience more than 100 points lower on a 1,000-point scale.
Why send the first reply as a text?
A text reaches the phone people carry all day, and it can go out without waiting for someone to be free to call. 91% of US adults own a smartphone (Pew Research Center, 2025), and 80.0% lived in homes with only wireless phones in late 2025 (CDC National Health Interview Survey, 2026).
A first text also suits the job. It confirms you got the request, names a person, and asks one easy question the lead can answer between meetings. A call can follow once they reply. This only works for leads who agreed to texts: the form they filled in should say you will text them about their request, with how to opt out. Our opt-in language examples show the wording, and is cold texting legal? covers people who never agreed.
How do you set up a first text that goes out the same hour?
Set it up once, then let every new lead flow into it.
- Ask for text consent on the form. An unticked checkbox or a clear line next to the phone field, saying you will text about their request, with "Reply STOP to opt out." Record the page, date and wording.
- Get new leads into one list quickly. Export or paste new form fills into your texting tool as they arrive, with the columns you will use: first name, product, company, the reason they asked.
- Start the sequence with a text step and no wait. The first text goes out as soon as the lead joins, inside your sending hours.
- Set sending days and hours. Leads who ask at 11 p.m. get the first text when the window opens the next morning. That beats the 1-day average above and keeps you inside the hour limits.
- Give replies an owner. A fast first text that gets a slow human answer loses most of its value. Decide who answers replies, and in what time, before you launch.
- Follow up if they don't reply. Add a wait, a check for a reply, and one or two more texts. Our guide to how many follow-up texts to send covers the cadence.
What should the first text say?
Your name, your business, the thing they asked about, and one easy question. Each template below fits in one segment (160 characters) with the fields filled in, before the opt-out line is added. Swap "Sam" and "Northwind" for your name and business.
Demo or pricing request
Hi First name, it's Sam from Northwind. Thanks for asking about Product. Is a quick call this afternoon good, or would text be easier?
Quote request (home services, agencies)
Hi First name, Sam at Northwind here. Got your request for Service. Can I ask two quick questions by text to price it?
Lead that came in overnight, sent when your sending hours open
Morning First name, it's Sam from Northwind. Saw your note about Product last night. What would be most useful to cover first?
If they reply but can't talk yet
No problem. Here's my calendar for whenever suits: Booking link
Use links on your own domain. CTIA, the US wireless industry association, asks senders to use a link shortener "dedicated to the exclusive use of the Message Sender" (CTIA, 2023). More wording, including follow-ups, is in our follow-up text templates.
What about leads that arrive at night or on weekends?
Hold the first text until your sending hours open. Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. in the recipient's local time (47 CFR 64.1200(c)), and some states are stricter:
| Where the lead is | Allowed hours (lead's local time) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States (federal) | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. | 47 CFR 64.1200(c) |
| Florida | 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at most three in 24 hours on one subject | Fla. Stat. 501.616 |
| Oklahoma | 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at most three in 24 hours on one subject | HB 3168 (2022) |
| Maryland | 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at most three in 24 hours on one subject | Md. Code, Com. Law 14-4502 |
Whether the state hour limits reach texts and B2B sales is a question for a lawyer, and we have not checked every state. This is a summary of public rules and is not legal advice. A window of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays in your leads' time zone covers all of the above, and a lead who asked on Saturday hears from you first thing Monday.
Where does Textually fit?
Textually runs the first text and the follow-ups as one sequence for teams in the US and Canada. You add leads by CSV import or paste, and Push to campaign can add new rows to a live campaign automatically, so each lead gets the first Text step inside your campaign's sending days and hours. Steps are Text, Wait (in days, with a business-days option) and Condition, with any column as a field. Textually registers your number for 10DLC in the US and verifies toll-free numbers for Canada, checks phone types, and keeps each lead on the same number. A text sends only with a consent record or a campaign-wide confirmation, every text carries the opt-out line until the lead replies, and a reply ends that lead's sequence and lands in one shared inbox with the full history and suggested replies. See why text and pricing, or apply for access.
Questions
What is speed to lead?
The time between a person asking about your product or service, through a form, a call or a message, and your first real reply. Shorter is better: recent tests show many companies take more than a day, and many never reply.
Is it true that answering in 5 minutes makes you 21 times more likely to qualify a lead?
That figure comes from a 2007 study of phone calls to web leads at six companies, co-written by a sales software company. It has not been repeated with a published method since. A 2011 Harvard Business Review study found leads contacted within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to be qualified.
How fast do most companies respond to leads?
Slowly. In a 2024 test of 1,000 B2B software websites, 365 answered a demo request and the average reply took 1 day, 5 hours and 17 minutes. In 2024 secret shops of US brokerages, nearly half of online property inquiries got no reply.
Should the first reply be a text or a call?
A text works well as the first touch for leads who agreed to texts: it confirms the request, names a person and asks one question. Offer a call in that text, and call when they reply or ask for one.
Can I text a lead the moment they fill in a form?
Yes, if the form asked for consent to texts and it is within your sending hours. Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. local time, and some states use 8 p.m. Leads who arrive outside those hours should get the first text when the window opens.
Does an automated first text count as a response?
It counts as a first touch, and in the 2024 demo-request test, companies that automated their first reply answered much sooner on average. Make it personal, with their name and what they asked about, and have a person answer as soon as they reply.
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