Lead leak calculator: what slow follow-up is costing you

Three numbers you already have. The calculator shows how much of your monthly lead budget is being worked at the odds the research gives slow replies, and how many leads a month that is. It does not promise a conversion lift; it shows you the size of the pile you are betting on late.

Leads per month Every inquiry you pay for or generate Cost per lead, $ Ad spend divided by leads, or your vendor's price Share first contacted after an hour, % If unmeasured, use the share arriving outside business hours

$8,000

Monthly lead spend

$4,400

Spend on leads that waited more than an hour for a first reply

110

Leads a month worked at slow-reply odds

$52,800

Per year, on late-answered leads

This is not lost revenue. Some late-answered leads still convert. It is the share of your budget being worked at odds the research puts at several times worse than a five-minute reply: the odds of qualifying a lead fall 21 times between a 5-minute and a 30-minute response, and more than 6 times across the first hour, in the Lead Response Management study. Runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.

How does the lead leak calculator work?

It multiplies three numbers. Leads per month times cost per lead gives your monthly lead spend. That spend times the share of leads first contacted more than an hour after they arrived gives the amount being worked at slow-reply odds. Multiply by twelve for the yearly figure. The arithmetic is deliberately simple so you can check it on paper.

The third input is the one most businesses cannot fill in from memory, and it is the one that matters. To measure it, take a month of leads from your CRM or inbox, note when each arrived and when someone first texted or called it, and count the share that waited more than an hour. If you cannot get those timestamps, the share of leads that arrive outside business hours is a fair proxy, because those leads almost always wait until the next morning.

What should you do with the number?

Compare it with what a fix costs. If the slow-reply pile is $4,400 a month and after-hours coverage of any kind, a rotation, an assistant, or an automated first reply, costs less than the improvement you would need on that pile to break even, the fix pays for itself. The speed to lead guide walks through the research on what faster replies do to contact and qualification odds, and how to set a benchmark. If you want us to look at your actual timestamps and tell you where the leak is, that is what the free call is for.

Why measure the share after an hour, not the average reply time?

Because averages hide the problem. A team that answers most leads in three minutes and leaves the Saturday ones until Monday has a decent average and a bad leak. The share of leads that crossed the one-hour line tells you how big the pile is. The one-hour line is used because the Lead Response Management study reports the odds of contacting and qualifying a lead falling more than 10 times and more than 6 times across the first hour, so an hour is where a lead stops being fresh by any reading of the data.

FAQ

Calculator questions

Is the result the revenue I am losing?+

No. It is the share of your lead spend being worked at slow-reply odds. Some of those leads still convert. The number tells you how much budget is exposed to the problem, which is what you weigh against the cost of fixing it.

What if I do not know the share contacted after an hour?+

Pull one month of leads from your CRM with the arrival time and the first outbound text or call time, and count the share over an hour. If you cannot, use the share of your leads that arrive outside business hours. Those leads nearly always wait until the next morning, so it is a conservative proxy.

Why one hour and not five minutes?+

Five minutes is the benchmark to aim for. One hour is the line past which the research shows the odds of contact and qualification have fallen by a large multiple, so it separates leads that were worked while fresh from leads that were not. Using it keeps the calculator conservative.

Does the calculator store or send my numbers?+

No. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or anyone else, and there is no email gate.

What does LeadSixty do about the leak?+

We build and run a system that texts every new lead within 60 seconds at any hour, asks your qualifying questions, books the appointment and follows up for 30 days. Whether that beats a rotation or an assistant for your numbers is exactly what the free Where AI Fits call works out, using your timestamps rather than the example ones here.

Want us to run it on your real timestamps?

Book a free 30-minute Where AI Fits call. We pull your median reply time by source and by hour, show you the actual leak, and tell you honestly whether AI would fix it or a rotation would do.

Book a Where AI Fits call