Speed-to-Contact
The elapsed time between lead delivery and the first outbound contact attempt — the dominant variable in web-lead conversion.
Full Definition
Speed-to-contact is the time between lead delivery and the first outbound dial to the consumer. The landmark Harvard Business Review / MIT study (Oldroyd, McElheran, Elkington) showed odds of qualifying a lead drop ~6× within the first hour and ~21× within 24 hours. In practice, on exclusive real-time insurance web leads, calling within 60 seconds yields 60–80% contact rate; 5–10 minutes drops to 40–55%; 30+ minutes drops to 25–35%. Speed-to-contact is primarily an operational variable (webhook intake, auto-dial on arrival, agent staffing against lead flow) rather than a skill variable, which makes it one of the highest-ROI optimizations an agency can pursue. Live transfers eliminate speed-to-contact concerns entirely because the consumer is already on the phone.
Example
An agency changes its dialer to auto-dial leads within 30 seconds of webhook intake instead of queuing them for the next available agent (avg 6 minutes). Contact rate on exclusive ACA leads rises from 48% to 71%, yielding ~$90K/year additional commission on the same lead spend.
Related Terms
- Contact Rate — The percentage of leads an agent successfully reaches by phone — the first-stage conversion metric in any outbound program.
- Real-Time Delivery — Lead delivery within seconds of form submission — the operational foundation for winning speed-to-contact.
- Live Transfer — A phone-based lead format where a screened, interested prospect is warm-transferred from an intake agent directly to the buying agent in real time.
- Webhook — An HTTP callback where one system notifies another of an event by POSTing data to a pre-registered URL.