Speed to Lead: Why AI Wins the Call Before Your Team Even Wakes Up

Rachel Thorne: This is Dialed In with Derek Simmons and Rachel Thorne. Let's talk compliance. Derek Simmons: Welcome back to Dialed In. I'm here with Derek Simmons, and today we're getting into something good. Rachel Thorne: Yeah, I'm excited about this one. We're basically blowing up the number one reason people are scared to deploy AI calling. Derek Simmons: Right. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Derek Simmons: The customers will hate it fear. Spoiler, they didn't. Some actually called back asking for the AI by name. Rachel Thorne: Which, I mean, come on, that's wild, right? Derek Simmons: That's wild. We've also got the speed to lead math, and it is brutal. 52% of leads coming in after hours, and most businesses are still sitting on a 42-hour response time. Rachel Thorne: Forty-two hours? Derek Simmons: Yeah. Rachel Thorne: And then we've got three real case studies, including one that pulled 200K from leads five to ten years old, zero extra ad spend. Derek Simmons: Okay, let's get into it. We want to hear from you! Submit questions via the web form in the description or give us a call at 747-946-7602 and leave your question. Don't be shy, our AI assistant makes it super easy! Okay, so here's the thing everyone worries about before they pull the trigger on AI calling. My customers are going to hate it. It'll feel cold, robotic, totally off-brand. Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Derek Simmons: And honestly, that fear couldn't be more wrong. Speaker 4: I get why people go there, though. Like you picture some clunky phone tree and your client just hammering zero to reach a human. Derek Simmons: Right, right. But the data is pretty clear on this. Gartner found that 73% of consumers... had already interacted with AI when contacting a business. They're used to it. What they actually care about is did someone respond fast? Did they have answers? Speaker 4: Speed and relevance. That's it. Derek Simmons: That's it. And then there's Preserved Gold, high-net-worth clients, precious metals. Not exactly a demographic you'd expect to be cool with AI. Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, that's about as skeptical a customer base as you can get. Derek Simmons: Going in, the team was nervous. They figured pushback, complaints, the whole thing. Speaker 4: So what happened? Derek Simmons: 12% contact rate lift in two months. And here's the part that gets me, Derek Simmons. Clients started calling back asking for Mary by name. Speaker 4: Wait, Mary is the AI? Derek Simmons: Mary is the AI, and they're calling back asking for her. Speaker 4: Okay, that flips the whole script on what customers actually want. actually want. Derek Simmons: It does because they didn't care it was AI. They cared that Mary picked up fast, knew the account, and wasn't fumbling around. Speaker 4: So the fear is AI versus human, but the real question is something else entirely, isn't it? Derek Simmons: Yeah, and that question is about to get very interesting. So that reframe, AI versus human, is really speed versus no speed, and the numbers here are kind of brutal, meaning Speaker 4: Yeah, so let's talk about where leads actually go when nobody's watching. HubSpot data shows 52% of inbound leads come in outside standard business hours, after 6 p.m., weekends, you name it. Derek Simmons: if your team clocks out, you're handing roughly half your pipeline to whoever picks up first. Speaker 4: Exactly. And the MIT lead response study? 15,000 leads found that if you contact a prospect within five minutes, you're 21 times more likely to qualify them versus waiting 30 minutes. Derek Simmons: 21 times? That's not like a small edge. Speaker 4: It's not a rounding error. And here's the part that gets me, Rachel Thorne. After 30 minutes, a lot of prospects don't even remember which company they contacted. They submitted Derek Simmons: Wait, really? Speaker 4: Derek Simmons: They just forget? Speaker 4: three forms; they moved on. You're competing with whoever responded while you were at lunch. Derek Simmons: Okay, so what's the actual average response time for most businesses? Speaker 4: Forty two to forty seven hours. Derek Simmons: That's wild, right? Like two days? Speaker 4: Two days. And AI responds in under 30 seconds. That gap is literally where deals go to die. Derek Simmons: I mean, the math on that is almost unfair. Speaker 4: Blazeo ran the numbers on this too. Companies using AI are 60% more likely to hit the 15-minute response standard 62.5% versus 39% for manual-only teams. Derek Simmons: So it's not even close. Speaker 4: Not even close. And we're going to see what that looks like in practice, because there are companies that ran this exact experiment, and the results are hard to argue with. Derek Simmons: Yeah, the case files on this one are pretty telling. So flip it from data to proof; three real companies-real numbers. Rachel Thorne: Starting with Wilshire Financial, quarter-million dollar minimum investment threshold. You'd think their clients are patient, right? Derek Simmons: Nope, same pattern, high-net-worth leads don't wait any more than anyone else. They deployed AI, and their contact rate climbed because the calls were actually going out. Rachel Thorne: Then there's ReflexMD. Derek Simmons: Mm-hmm. Rachel Thorne: They started smart, actually. They didn't try to replace everything overnight. They used AI on aged leads first. Derek Simmons: The bone pile Rachel Thorne: The bone pile, yeah, leads everyone had written off; and they saved fifteen thousand dollars a month in labor just from that. Derek Simmons: Fifteen grand a month... Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Derek Simmons: and then, once their contact rates improved on those old leads, they expanded to new leads and renewals. Rachel Thorne: Which is the smart way to do it-prove it on the stuff nobody's touching, then scale. Derek Simmons: And then Bosley. Okay, this one's the one that gets me. Rachel Thorne: Yeah? Derek Simmons: They went back into leads that were five to ten years old, Speaker 4: Wow. Derek Simmons: pulled over $200,000 in revenue out of their database, zero additional ad spend. Rachel Thorne: That money was just sitting there. Derek Simmons: Just sitting there. Same leads, same offer. More conversations. Rachel Thorne: That's actually the thread across all three of these: Wilshire, ReflexMD, Bosley. None of them got a new product or a bigger ad budget. They just got more contact. Derek Simmons: Same leads, same offer, more conversations equals more closes. That's the whole thing. Rachel Thorne: So the question for anyone listening isn't really human versus AI at this point. Derek Simmons: No, the question is what's sitting in your database right now that nobody's calling? So here's what I keep hearing from sales leaders. Should I use AI or keep my reps on the phones? And honestly, that's the wrong question. Speaker 4: Completely wrong frame. The question is, what is your current average response time and what is that costing you per lead? Derek Simmons: Because if it's anywhere near that 42 to 47-hour average we talked about, you already know the answer. Speaker 4: The math isn't complicated. 78% of customers buy from the first company that responds. Not the best company, not the cheapest, the fastest. Derek Simmons: That number should be on every sales manager's wall. Speaker 4: And here's the real structural problem. Derek Simmons: Yeah, Speaker 4: Your reps spending time dialing cold lists aren't closing deals. They're doing calendar management and phone tag. Derek Simmons: Right. AI handles the first touch, qualifies interest, books the meeting, and then your rep walks in to close. That's the split. Speaker 4: It's not AI replacing humans. It's AI doing the part humans are worst at, which is being available at 2 a.m. when a lead fills out a form. Derek Simmons: Nobody wants to do that shift. Speaker 4: Nobody. So before you evaluate any platform, do one thing first. Pull your actual average response time from your CRM. Just look at the number. Derek Simmons: Because once you see it, you can't unsee it. Speaker 4: Nope. It tends to be motivating. Derek Simmons: And speaking of what's coming next, Rachel Thorne and I are going to get into pretexting, both as a compliance tool and a conversion strategy. It's a bigger deal than most people realize. Speaker 4: Yeah, that one's worth sticking around for. A lot of teams are leaving that lever completely untouched. Derek Simmons: Okay, so, the big takeaway today: Speed wins. Not AI versus humans, just speed. Rachel Thorne: Right, and that Preserved Gold story still gets me. Clients asking for "Mary" by name. Derek Simmons: By name! So, pull your average response time from your CRM. That number will tell you everything. Rachel Thorne: Seriously, and hey, if this one hit, subscribe, share it with your team, and check out two x dot AI. Derek Simmons: Next episode, we're getting into pretexting. You won't want to miss it. Thanks for being here.