Building a Sales Growth Engine · Companion Tool · Chapter 10 · Automation
Speed-to-Response Calculator
MIT research cited in Chapter 10 (Dr. James Oldroyd; 15,000 leads, 100,000 call attempts): contacting a lead within five minutes makes you 100x more likely to connect and 21x more likely to qualify it. Here is what your current response time costs.
Forms, calls, chats — anything a human should answer
Adjustable assumption — 40% is a conservative default for multi-hour delays
Estimated gross margin at risk per year
The picture
The fix (Chapter 10)
Instant acknowledgment on every form with a what-happens-next note, an immediate rep alert, and a human call within one business hour — under five minutes for high-intent leads during business hours. Then test it weekly with a dummy submission. This is the highest-ROI automation in the system.Model: leads answered slowly go cold at the rate you set above; cold leads close at zero; the rest close at your normal rate. This is a scenario calculator — change the cold-rate assumption to stress-test it. The research citation is endnote 36 in the book.
From Building a Sales Growth Engine by David Searns and Victoria Kenward. The full toolkit and workbook are free at growthenginebook.com. Want help building your engine? Talk to the team behind it:
