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The Lead - Speed to Lead in 2026

I was recently handed the reins on planning our annual golf trip for 16 guys, a heavy and important responsibility. This event happens in August, but the logistics require planning now.

So this weekend I reached out to a couple companies who help book accommodations as well as tee times for groups like ours. I gave basic details like where we wanted to play, when, how many people etc.

The first company got back to me the next day (a Saturday). The guy is actually local to the place we're thinking about going, and had put together a quick quote to give me a baseline on cost as well as some course recommendations from his own experience.

The second company got back to me today (four days from my initial inquiry). Less detailed information, more of a canned response. I actually checked my spam folder a couple times over the weekend, wondering if I even got a confirmation email that my inquiry had been received.

It got me thinking a little bit about how our expectations are shifting as consumers when it comes to response times. I'll share a little bit of my commentary, and then some highlights from my own searching using Chat GPT.

We've all known for awhile that we live in an instant gratification world. With access to so much information today, it can be annoying when we hit the wall of actually having to inquire with a real person to get an answer to a question.

In my own case here, I had done basic research that told me about our potential destination and some of the well reputed courses in the area that would be worth playing. But I got to a point where I wanted to know pricing without having to call 10 different individual courses and lodging options. I also would value input from an expert on where people actually wanted to play.

So despite my ability to do my own research, I now needed someone else's input. I filled out forms, and had to wait...

How many companies out there advertise that they'll get back to you in 24 hours? Feels like it's most. My question would be is that still good enough? Are people content to wait that long still? Is that still reality in 2026?

My hypotheses is that because people can use the LLMs to get more information and answers than ever, they're actually not content to wait 24 hours. They may not be happy to wait 12 hours in reality.

I believe there are two things at play. The first is that when I type a question into Chat, I get a thorough response almost immediately. Quality aside, there is no waiting.

The second is that since this is true, most people have already done fairly thorough research and are high intent buyers. In the context of property management, I may have already researched what I should consider when it comes to renting or selling my property. I may have already researched what my property could rent for.

On top of that, I've likely already researched who the best property management companies are in my market. The information I'm looking for when I reach out to a company, may actually be very little. I'm not saying I've made up my mind, but I'm closer to that than not.

Hopefully you're tracking with me so far, and this resonates. So I went to Chat to get it's input. I'm not going to copy paste the whole response, just give a few highlights.

• Humans are judged against machine speed- Not only the LLMs, but think of how many softwares you use feature a chat tool where you can get instant responses to your questions, 24 hours a day. It doesn't matter that your service isn't a software, we're being conditioned by our experiences everywhere.

• Speed is now interpreted as professionalism- simply put, your slow response tells a story. You're disorganized, understaffed, you don't prioritize new clients. Friction is being introduced from the jump.

• Expectations for basic vs. complex info has changed- basic info needs to be readily available, like your pricing, features, etc. I want that stuff quick. For more complex things, I'm ok to wait but what I get needs to be quality. It has to go beyond the basic otherwise you've wasted my time.

So what does this mean for you? I remember when I first came into the industry in 2018, the folks at LeadSimple had done a study where they called a bunch of property management companies to see how quickly they were able to connect with a person. The results were pretty poor (if someone has this study, send it my way).

Anyways, I'd bet things have gotten better but not by much. What YOU think is a reasonable amount of time for you or your team to get back to a prospect, actually matters very little. As I'm fond of saying, it's not about you.

What actually matters is what your prospect expects. If you think it's unreasonable, that's fine but adjust your growth goals accordingly.

The truth is, speed to lead is a silent killer. You get a lead, call them back 12-24 hours later, and don't get a response. You assume it was a bad lead. But what happened in that time? Did three of your competitors get back to them? Had they already made a decision before you even reached out? You probably won't find out.

Here's the moral of the story - first you absolutely need to be tracking and intentional about how quickly you get back to a new lead. If you're not tracking, you will make assumptions and usually bad ones.

The second is that it doesn't matter that you aren't selling a software or a product on Amazon. Your consumer's world has changed their way of thinking. Think about your own buying habits, interactions, expectations. If this isn't something you've been attentive to lately, it's time to take a closer look.

Not that it needed to be said, but the guy who took 4 days to respond won't be getting my business. In that time I emailed back and forth with the first company several times, and even spoke with them on the phone at length. Speed matters more than ever.

By the way - here's the exact prompt I gave Chat GPT on this if you want to see the full response:

"How have LLMs changed people's expectations around response times when they reach out to a service provider requesting more info"