Speed to lead calculator

It splits your leads into the ones answered fast and the ones answered later, applies your own close rate to each group, and compares today with your goal. The gap, times your average job, is the money at stake.

jobs won = leads × (share answered fast × fast close rate + share answered later × later close rate)
extra jobs = jobs won at your goal − jobs won today
at stake = extra jobs × average job (a month; × 12 for a year)
cost of one later answer = (fast close rate − later close rate) × average job

The calculator starts with these example numbers. They show the math; they are not industry averages.

Answering 80% of leads fast instead of 40% wins 7.2 more jobs a month: $3,240 a month, or $38,880 a year, from the same leads you already pay for. Each lead answered late instead of fast costs $67.50 on these numbers.

Pull the last 90 days of leads and, for each one, note when it came in, when someone first answered it, and whether it turned into a job. Split them at your line for "fast" and work out the close rate of each group.

1. Leads a month: every new call, web form, booking and message from someone who is not a customer yet.
2. Answered fast: the share where a person (not an auto-reply) answered within your line, for example 5 minutes.
3. Close rates: won jobs divided by leads, for the fast group and the later group separately.
4. Average job: what a won lead is worth on its first job. Leave out repeat work to stay on the careful side.

If your current software does not record when a lead was first answered, start a simple log this week. Even a month of records gives you a real gap to work with.

Homeowners often contact more than one company, and the first one to answer gets the first chance to book. A lead that waits an hour may already have booked someone else.

The hard part is rarely one slow person. It is a shared inbox where several people see the same lead and each assumes someone else has it. Our guides on speed to lead and running a shared office inbox cover how to fix both.

In Birdy, every lead on the board shows how long ago it came in, and Reports shows your speed to lead and how many leads were picked up within an hour.