The average response time is two hours. The lost deals waited two days.

Response-time averages flatter almost every sales operation. The deals that get away sit in the tail, and the tail is a design problem, not an effort problem.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The average response time is two hours. The lost deals waited two days.

A reported average response time of two hours sounds like a business in control of its enquiries. It usually isn’t. Averages describe the middle of a distribution, and enquiries are not lost in the middle. They are lost in the tail: the enquiry that arrived at 4:40pm on a Friday, the one that landed while the estimator was on site, the one that came in during the week the campaign was running and everybody was busy. If half of enquiries are answered in twenty minutes and one in ten waits…

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