The first five minutes: lead response time and auto-assignment

A buyer who fills a form on a property portal usually sends the same enquiry to three or four builders. The one who calls first, with a clear answer, gets the site visit. The others get “we've already finalised, thanks”. Response time is the cheapest advantage a sales team can have, and the easiest to lose.

Most teams do not lose these leads because anyone is careless. The portal emails one person, who forwards it to a group, where somebody says “I'll take it” and then gets pulled into a visit. There is simply no single place where a new lead shows up with someone clearly on the hook for it.

Why does lead response time matter so much for builders?

Because an enquiry is warmest in the minutes after it is sent. The buyer has just been looking at your project, the brochure is fresh in their mind and the phone is still in their hand. Call then and the conversation is about when they can come and see the flat. Call the next day and they have already spoken to someone else, so you spend the call explaining why your project is better instead of fixing a visit.

How does TRET assign a new lead within seconds?

In TRET, a new lead from a portal, an ad, your website, a channel partner or a missed call lands in one de-duplicated list where it is assigned and its response clock starts. If the phone number is already in TRET, you do not get a second copy for two people to chase. Every new lead is assigned the moment it arrives, and you choose how:

• Round robin: leads go to the people in your pool, one after another, so the load is fair.
• Rules: send leads by source or project to a particular person, for example every Aurum Heights lead to the person who knows that site best, and let round robin handle the rest.
• Manual: whoever adds the lead keeps it.

The new owner gets a notification on their phone straight away, with the lead's name, source, project and number. Each person chooses where notifications reach them: the Android app, the browser, email, or any mix.

What counts as a first response, and when does the clock stop?

Set a response target, 15 minutes by default. Every new lead shows how long is left, and once the target passes it is marked as breached, in red. Leads can be filtered to show just the breached ones.

The clock stops at the first real touch: a call, a WhatsApp, a meeting, a note, a stage move, a completed follow-up or a site visit check-in. Typing a lead's name into a spreadsheet does not count. A lead that was seen but never contacted keeps waiting until someone actually reaches out.

How do you see who answers leads and who doesn't?

Reports show average first response time for each salesperson and each source, and how many leads breached the target. A chart shows how many leads were answered in under 15 minutes, within the hour, within four hours, the same day, later, or never.

The sources table puts response time and breaches next to each source's conversion to booking, and the team leaderboard shows them for every salesperson alongside calls and bookings. Pick the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or any range you like. Sales heads and owners see the whole team; executives see only their own numbers. There is more on each view in the reports a sales head actually reads.

How do you cut lead response time in your sales office?

1. 1Bring every source into one list. Connect the portals, ads, website and WhatsApp you already use, so no enquiry waits in one person's inbox. Older leads in Excel can be imported, and they are assigned by the same rules as a fresh portal lead.
2. 2Choose how leads are assigned. Round robin keeps the load fair across the pool. Add rules where one person knows a project or a source best, and let round robin handle everything else.
3. 3Keep the 15-minute target to begin with. Everyone can see the clock, and breached leads turn red. Leave the default in place until the team is meeting it most days.
4. 4Make the first touch a real one. Call first and offer a site visit time. If the buyer does not pick up, send a WhatsApp from the lead so it is logged, then set the next follow-up before moving on.
5. 5Look at the breached filter every day. It is a short list of leads still waiting. Once a week, open the response chart and the per-person averages, and talk to the people behind the numbers.

What about missed calls and channel partner leads?

When a call to your virtual number from Exotel, Knowlarity or MyOperator is missed, TRET creates a lead with the source Missed call, assigns it by your usual rules and puts a call-back follow-up on the right person's list, due in 15 minutes. The first call to that lead also stops its response clock. Read how missed calls become leads that get called back.

Channel partners register clients through their own link. When the client is new, the lead goes to your sales team by the same assignment rules, so a partner's client gets the same quick first call as a portal enquiry. See how channel partner links, first registration and commissions work.

Where should you start?

Turn on round robin, keep the 15-minute target, and look at the breached filter at the end of the first week. Most teams find a handful of leads nobody touched at all. Those are the ones this fixes.

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