Why speed to lead matters
Speed to Lead is the average time it takes your company to respond after a prospect raises their hand. In B2B, that’s usually a demo request, consultation request, or other high-intent form fill.
Research shows that:
- 78% of B2B buyers purchase from the first vendor to respond (Gartner).
- Lead conversion drops by as much as 80% if response time moves from 5 minutes to 30 minutes (InsideSales).
If you’re not measuring this metric inside HubSpot, you don’t know where deals are being lost.
Step 1: create a “first connection date” property
You need two timestamps to measure Speed to Lead:
- First Conversion Date (when the lead raised their hand, HubSpot creates this automatically).
- First Connection Date (when sales actually made contact, you need to create this).
How to create First Connection Date:
- In HubSpot, go to Settings > Properties > Create Property.
- Set the following:
- Object Type: Contact
- Group: Conversion Information
- Label: First Connection Date
- Field Type: Date picker
- Save.
Step 2: build a workflow to populate first connection date
Decide what counts as a “first connection” for your sales process.
Common triggers:
- First Connected Call logged in HubSpot
- First Sales Email Sent
- First Meeting Booked
How to set it up:
- Navigate to Automation > Workflows > Create Workflow.
- Choose Contact-based workflow and enroll contacts when one of the above activities occurs.
- Add an action: Set property value → First Connection Date = Date of activity.
- Add branches if you have multiple qualifying triggers.
Step 3: create the speed to lead calculation
Now you’ll calculate the time between First Conversion Date and First Connection Date.
- Go to Settings > Properties > Create Property.
- Set the following:
- Object Type: Contact
- Group: Conversion Information
- Label: Speed to Lead
- Field Type: Calculation
- Calculation Type: Time Between
- Start Date: First Conversion Date
- End Date: First Connection Date
- Save.
Step 4: build a speed to lead report
To track and visualize:
- Go to Reports > Reports > Create Custom Report.
- Choose Single Object > Contacts.
- Add the Speed to Lead property.
- Set visualization type to Summary and switch to Average.
- Save the report to your Sales Activities Dashboard.
Now your team can see the average Speed to Lead and monitor improvements over time.
Step 5: use automation to decrease speed to lead
Once you can measure it, use automation to reduce it:
- Instant alerts: Use HubSpot workflows to notify the assigned rep via Slack, email, or mobile push when a new lead submits a form.
- Lead routing: Configure HubSpot to assign leads by round robin or based on rules (territory, industry, etc.). This removes manual bottlenecks.
- Sales integrations: Tools like Kixie allow auto-dialing or SMS the second a form is submitted, with activity logged directly in HubSpot
- Sequences: Pre-built HubSpot Sequences ensure reps have templated, immediate outreach without losing time writing from scratch.
Speed matters a ton
Modern buyers don’t show up at your door looking for a tour.
By the time someone fills out a form, they’ve already done their homework. They’ve read your content, checked your pricing page, scanned your reviews, and maybe even sat through a competitor’s demo.
They’re not here to be educated; they’re here to make a confident decision, fast.
Every minute of delay is an open invitation for your competitor to step in and win the deal you paid to create.
Think about it: your marketing team has already invested budget into awareness campaigns, content, SEO, and nurturing.
Your SDR team might have worked months to get the account into play.
And then the whole effort hinges on whether someone responds in five minutes or thirty.
Leaders who treat speed to lead as non-negotiable build cultures where responsiveness equals respect. They know it’s not about micromanaging reps but about building systems where the right person gets the right lead instantly, and the expectation is clear: we move fast, because buyers move fast.
For reference, InsideSales found that the odds of qualifying a lead drop 80% after the first five minutes.
Other studies echo this; a response within the “golden five minutes” can make you up to 8x more likely to convert.
That’s massive!
So the question for leadership isn’t “should we measure speed to lead?” - it’s “are we willing to let competitors siphon off the demand we already earned?”
Need help with HubSpot or Salesforce?
RevBlack works with high-growth teams to fix leaks in their revenue systems, integrate platforms, and turn MarTech into pipeline.
If you want airtight routing, faster response times, and a sales process that doesn’t bleed revenue, contact us today.
