Most contractors are not slow on purpose. They're slow by design — the design of the phone tree, the desk hours, the rep who closes deals during the day and answers leads at night.
Sixty seconds is the cliff. Past one minute, the conversion rate halves. Past five, it halves again. The math is brutal and it doesn't care about your reasons.
The fix isn't more people. It's a faster lane. SMS the moment the form lands. AI callback inside a minute. Human follow-up scheduled inside an hour. The lead enters one of three doorways and they're all open.
This is the cheapest improvement in our system, and the one most operators are still embarrassed about.