Speed to lead

Measure it properly

• Start at record creation, not at assignment. Assignment delay is one of the two places the time actually goes.
• Count genuine contact, not logged activity. An unanswered call is an attempt, not contact.
• Report the median and the tail. An average hides the leads that waited three days, and those are the ones that cost you.
• Segment by source and hour. Leakage concentrates out of hours and inside specific sources.

What it is not

It is not a productivity metric for individual reps. In most companies the delay is structural — no automatic assignment, no created task, no out-of-hours rule — and treating it as a discipline problem produces resentment while the leak continues.

The two intervals worth separating

Total speed to lead hides two different problems. Creation to assignment is a systems problem — routing rules, integrations, availability handling. Assignment to contact is a capacity and workload problem. Reporting them separately tells you which one to fix, and the first is almost always cheaper.

Size the cost with the lead response leakage calculator and fix it with the lead routing playbook.