Last reviewed October 28, 2026 · By the ConexaHub team
What the research says
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| Calling within 5 minutes instead of 30 made contact about 100 times more likely and qualifying the lead about 21 times more likely. | Lead Response Management Study, Dr. James Oldroyd (MIT) with InsideSales.com, 2007 |
| Of 2,241 US companies audited, 37% responded to a web lead within an hour, and 23% never responded. | Harvard Business Review, 2011 |
| Among companies that responded within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours. | Harvard Business Review, 2011 |
| Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited one hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or more. | Harvard Business Review, 2011 |
A fair caveat: these studies cover web leads across industries, not insurance specifically, and they are more than a decade old. We use them for the direction they show, which every study since has repeated: the first minutes matter most, and most businesses are slow.
Why it matters even more for insurance leads
- Shared leads. When a lead vendor sells the same request to several agents, the first real conversation usually gets the appointment. Second place often gets voicemail.
- The moment of intent is short. People ask for a quote when something triggers it: a renewal notice, a birthday, a new car, a letter about their Medicare plan. A day later the trigger has faded.
- Seasonal peaks. During AEP (October 15 to December 7), Medicare agents get the most leads in exactly the weeks they have the least time. See our AEP follow-up playbook.
- You pay per lead. A paid lead that never gets a conversation is the most expensive lead you buy.
How to measure your own speed to lead (15 minutes)
- List every lead source: website form, Facebook or Instagram lead form, each lead vendor, your phone line.
- Submit a test lead through each one, using your own cell number and a name you'll recognize. Write down the exact time.
- Record what happens: time of the first call, time of the first text, who reached out, and whether they offered a specific appointment time.
- Repeat at the hard times: a weekday at 7:30 p.m. and a Saturday morning. That's where most agencies leak.
- Check the last 30 days in your CRM: for each new lead, compare the time it was created with the time of the first outbound call. Look at the median, not the best case.
If your median is over five minutes, or the evening and weekend tests got nothing until the next business day, that's the gap to close first. It's usually cheaper than buying more leads.
A follow-up cadence that respects the calling rules
The first attempt matters most, but most leads aren't reached on the first try. Here's an example cadence. Adjust it to your consent records, your carrier's rules and your state's rules.
| When | Action |
|---|---|
| Minute 0 | Call and text at the same time. The text says who you are and offers two times. |
| Minutes 2–5 | If there's no answer, call once more. A second call right away often gets picked up. |
| Hour 1 | A short text: “Still want that quote? I can do 4:00 today or 10:00 tomorrow.” |
| Day 1, afternoon | Call. |
| Day 2 | Call and text. |
| Day 4 | Call. |
| Day 7 | Text. |
| Day 14 | Last text, then move them to a slower nurture. |
The rules that shape the cadence
- Calling hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the lead's local time under federal rules (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)). Some states set a narrower window, so use the stricter one.
- Texts count as calls under the TCPA, so quiet hours apply to them too. A lead that comes in at 10:40 p.m. gets queued for the first minute of the next calling window, not a late-night text.
- Consent for automated and AI voices: the FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices are “artificial” voices under the TCPA (FCC 24-17), so these calls need prior express consent, and telemarketing calls to cell phones need prior express written consent (47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2)).
- Stop means stop: anyone who opts out, by text or on a call, comes off every sequence immediately.
General information, not legal advice. Confirm your process with your carrier, FMO or counsel.
Doing it with people vs. with an AI assistant
| Your team or a calling service | An AI assistant | |
|---|---|---|
| First response | As fast as whoever is free | Seconds, inside your calling window |
| Evenings and weekends | Needs staffing | Same as weekdays |
| Follows the cadence every time | Depends on the day | Yes |
| Answers coverage questions | Licensed staff can | No: it books the licensed agent |
| Builds the relationship | Yes | No: that's your appointment |
The two work best together: the assistant gets the first conversation and the booking, and your licensed team takes the appointment.
Where ConexaHub fits
We set up and run an AI assistant that calls and texts every new lead in seconds, follows up on a cadence like the one above, books the appointment on your calendar, and confirms and reminds until they show. It's done for you, live in about 7 days, month to month, in English and Spanish. See how it works for insurance agents, or book a demo and hear it call your phone.
Sources
- Dr. James Oldroyd (MIT) with InsideSales.com, Lead Response Management Study, 2007.
- James B. Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran & David Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011.
- 47 CFR 64.1200, TCPA consent and calling-hour rules.
- FCC, Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17, February 2024.