Speed to lead: the revenue already sitting in the leads you have
77 quote requests went unanswered for a summer. Following them up months later still won an accounting firm 3 new clients. Here is the business case for answering every lead in minutes, and how we build it for estate agents.
77 leads nobody answered
An accounting firm we work with has a quote calculator on its website. Over the summer, the notification emails for new requests had silently stopped. Nobody noticed: 77 people asked for a price, and nobody called them back.
When the firm found out, they contacted every one of them, months late. Three became new clients. Many requests were simply too old. That is the point: if leads that cold still convert, the leads answered in minutes are worth far more.
The business case
Most companies spend their effort on getting more leads, while the leads they already have wait. At the accounting firm, the normal routine was a call back within two working days. At an estate agency, a valuation request that comes in at nine in the evening often waits until the next afternoon.
Do the calculation with your own numbers: leads per month × the extra share you would win by answering at once × what a client is worth to you. For most firms, one or two extra clients a month pays for the whole system many times over. The running cost is small: each automatic text costs about 50 öre.
How we build it for estate agents
For an estate agency, we designed a flow where nothing waits for a person:
- An instant text. During the day: “When suits you for us to call?” In the evening: “Thanks for your enquiry. An agent will call you tomorrow. What time suits you?” The answer is saved on the lead in Vitec.
- Two flows. General leads alert the person who assigns leads, in Teams. Personal leads get a first text signed by their own agent.
- One link per lead. The agent opens a login-protected page with the customer’s details, the Vitec history and four buttons: call now, reschedule, no answer (which sends “I tried to call you. When suits you?”) and contacted. Everything is logged in Vitec.
Measured, not guessed
The flow starts at one office as a pilot, so the agency can compare how many leads become meetings and listings against before. If the number moves, it rolls out to every office. If it doesn’t, the agency has spent a fraction of what a new ad campaign costs.
Safe by design
The agency owns its Vitec API account, data is stored in the EU, the AI model doesn’t train on customer data and agents sign in with their Microsoft account. Speed should never cost you control over customer data.
Questions and answers
What is speed to lead?
Answering every new lead within minutes instead of hours or days, usually with an automatic first message that books a time to talk, so the lead doesn’t cool off or call a competitor.
How much revenue can speed to lead bring in?
It depends on your volume and client value. One accounting firm won 3 new clients just by contacting 77 old, forgotten quote requests. Multiply your leads per month by the extra share you win and by the value of a client.
Does it work with Vitec?
Yes. The flow reads and writes leads through the Vitec API, adds the customer’s preferred time and logs every action, so agents keep the full history in Vitec.