Speed to lead in real estate: how fast is fast enough?

What the research actually says

Two studies are quoted more than any others on lead response. Both are worth reading properly, because the numbers often get stretched in the retelling.

Harvard Business Review, 2011: "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads"

James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington wrote this article for the March 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review. The authors audited 2,241 US companies by sending web leads and timing the response. Here is what they reported:

• 37% responded within an hour.
• 16% responded within one to 24 hours.
• 24% took more than 24 hours.
• 23% never responded at all.
• For companies that responded within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours.

The authors also looked at a separate data set of 1.25 million sales leads from 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies. Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that tried even an hour later. They were more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or longer.

The InsideSales.com/MIT Lead Response Management Study

This earlier study was presented in October 2007 by Dave Elkington of InsideSales.com and Dr James Oldroyd, then at MIT's Sloan School of Management. It examined three years of data across six companies, covering over fifteen thousand leads and over one hundred thousand call attempts. The headline findings:

• The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times.
• The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.
• From 5 minutes to 10 minutes, the odds of contact decrease by 5 times, and the odds of qualifying decrease 4 times.
• The odds of contacting a lead decrease by over 10 times in the first hour. The odds of qualifying a lead decrease by over 6 times in the first hour.

How to read these numbers

Be honest about the limits. Neither study looked at Australian property. The HBR audit was of US companies in 2011. The MIT study was a conference presentation from a sales software company and its academic partner, using data from six companies. "Qualified" meant different things in different businesses.

So don't promise a vendor that a five-minute reply makes a sale 21 times more likely. The fair takeaway is simpler. Across very different businesses, the chance of a real conversation falls quickly once a lead is left waiting. Property buyers are enquiring on several homes at once, so there's little reason to think they are more patient.

Why "Is this still available?" deserves a real answer

Many portal enquiries are one line long. "Is this still available?" "Can I get the price?" It's tempting to rank these as low quality and get to them later.

That's a mistake. A one-line enquiry is often a buyer on their phone, between other things, testing which agents reply. A short message doesn't mean low intent. It means low effort to send.

Give a real answer, fast:

• Answer the question they asked. "Yes, it's still available. The next open is Saturday at 11."
• Add one thing they didn't ask for. The floor plan, the price guide (where your state's rules allow you to give it), or the contract.
• Ask one easy question. "Are you buying to live in or to invest?" One question is easy to answer. Five feels like a form.

Avoid replies that say nothing, like "Thanks for your enquiry, an agent will be in touch." That tells the buyer you aren't quick, which is the exact thing they were testing. For price guide rules in Victoria, see our guide to the property price statement.

A practical call-back routine for a busy agent

You can't drop an appraisal to call a buyer in five minutes. You can set up a routine so every enquiry gets a fast, useful reply and a call within the hour.

Step 1: an instant reply with the listing tour

Set up an automatic reply for every portal and website enquiry. It should go out within a minute, by text and email where you have consent, and include:

• The listing address and the next open time
• A link to the listing tour or virtual tour, the floor plan and the contract
• Your name and mobile, so they know a person is behind it
• One line saying when you'll call: "I'll give you a call within the hour."

Some agencies use tools that handle this step. Tap Vortex is one option: portal enquiries get an instant reply with the buyer's own tour link, and inside the tour buyers can ask for the contract, price updates or similar homes. Our guide to virtual tours covers the wider choices.

Step 2: a call within the hour

Block short call windows into your day. For example, on the hour between appointments. Clear every new enquiry in each window. If you're at an auction or a listing presentation, a colleague or assistant covers it.

Step 3: what to say

Keep the first call short, friendly and about them.

"Hi Alex, it's Jordan from the agency. You asked about 14 Smith Street a little earlier. I sent you the tour and the floor plan. Have you had a chance to look? ... What caught your eye about it?"

Then find out three things: timing, finance, and whether they have a home to sell. Record them straight into your buyer database. Finish with a clear next step, such as booking them into the open or a private inspection.

Step 4: if they don't answer

Leave a short voicemail and send a text with one useful fact. Try again later that day, then the next day. The MIT study found a point where extra dials stopped helping, so vary the channel instead of calling again and again.

The same routine works for the buyers you meet in person. See our guide to open home follow-up.

Nights, weekends and open-home Saturdays

Buyers browse when they have time. That's often at night, on weekends, and on Saturday mornings while you're running back-to-back opens. Those are exactly the hours when a call within the hour is hardest.

Plan for them instead of hoping:

• Let the instant reply do the first job. A useful reply with the tour, floor plan and next open time keeps the buyer moving even when no one can call.
• Say when you'll call, and keep it. "I'm at opens until 1pm and will call you this afternoon" is fine. Silence isn't.
• Clear the overnight list first thing. Make the first half hour of each morning the call-back window for anything that came in after hours.
• Share the load on Saturdays. An assistant or junior agent can make first calls while the listing agent runs the open.

Measuring speed to lead per agent: the principal's view

What gets measured gets managed. Most principals have no idea how fast their team really replies. The HBR audit is a reminder that many businesses believe they're quick when they aren't.

The four numbers to track

Track these per agent and per week. Use the median, not the average, so one slow enquiry on a public holiday doesn't distort the picture.

Test it yourself

Do what the HBR authors did. Have someone outside the team enquire on a few of your own listings, at different times, and record what happens. It's the quickest way to see the buyer's experience as it really is.

Make it fair

• Agree the standard with the team first. Explain the research and its limits.
• Set up cover for auctions, appraisals and days off.
• Share results openly each week, and praise improvement as well as the fastest agent.

Then connect speed to outcomes. Track how many enquiries become inspections, and how many inspections become offers. Report the trend to vendors in your weekly vendor report. If you want to see where else buyers slip away, try our "where do your buyers go cold?" check, or read our guide to portal enquiry follow-up.