Ran the numbers on a few agency and contractor clients recently: 78% of inbound leads go cold within the first 5 minutes if nobody responds. Not because the lead wasn't serious — because they moved on to the next result on Google.

Most small service businesses (agencies, real estate, contractors) don't have a receptionist sitting by the phone at 9pm on a Tuesday. But their competitors' ads are still running, and leads don't wait.

The fix isn't 'hire more people' — it's answering instantly, every time, with something smart enough to actually qualify the person before a human gets involved. Ask about budget, timeline, location. Filter out tire-kickers. Book the real ones straight onto the calendar.

That's the whole thesis behind what I'm building with CallQualify. Happy to share more on the setup if anyone's dealing with slow lead response times.