The First Company to Respond Wins 78% of the Time. Not the Cheapest. Not the Most Established.
Richard Mud
Lead Connect's 2024 research into buyer behaviour found that 78% of clients go with the first business that responds to their enquiry. In insurance, where comparison shopping is standard, this is the single most important operational metric most brokerages are ignoring.
Insurance MDs spend enormous amounts of time and money on brand, relationships and price positioning. Very little of that effort matters if a competitor is simply faster to respond.
The research is direct: 78% of buyers go with the first company that responds to their enquiry. Not the cheapest option. Not the most established name. The one that answered first.
Why speed matters more in insurance than almost any other sector
Insurance buyers are, almost by definition, in a moment of transition or need when they make an enquiry. They have just bought a car, received a renewal notice, had a claim rejected or been quoted a price that seems wrong. They are motivated at the exact moment they call. That motivation decays quickly.
Velocify's research, confirmed by VanillaSoft data in 2025, found that contacting a prospect within one minute of their enquiry results in 391% higher conversion rates compared to contacts made later. The figure is extraordinary but consistent across multiple studies: the first minute is where most of the opportunity exists.
The 42-hour problem
Despite this data being widely discussed in sales literature, the average insurance brokerage still takes 42 hours to respond to an initial enquiry. This is not negligence — it is a structural problem. Advisors are handling existing clients, writing policies and managing renewals. New inbound enquiries get queued.
By the time an advisor calls back 42 hours later, 78% of those prospects have already made a decision. They are calling to decline, not to buy.
What a one-minute response looks like operationally
For most brokerages, the gap between a 42-hour response time and a 30-second response time is not filled by hiring more people. The economics don't work — the cost per lead acquired does not support a dedicated response team at most firm sizes. The gap is filled by an AI system that answers every inbound call in under three seconds, qualifies the caller immediately, and books them into an advisor's calendar before they have time to call a competitor.
Speed is no longer a differentiator. It is a prerequisite. The brokerages that understand this earliest will accumulate the clients the rest of the market is losing.
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