Inbound Conversion Trends: RevOps Best Practices for More Wins

How Fast is Your Team Responding to Inbound Leads?

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When a prospect fills out a demo request, they’re signaling strong intent. But how quickly are sales teams responding? A study by RevenueHero revealed that 63.5% of companies never responded to demo requests. Among those that did, the average response time was 29 hours - more than a full business day.

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Considering that more than half of buyers choose the first vendor to respond, these stats should start the alarm bells. In this digital event, marketing operations (MOPs) experts from Lyra Health, Invoice Cloud, Cloudflare, and RevenueHero discuss why lead response times lag and share strategies to optimize inbound conversions.

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The Cost of Slow Response Times

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RevenueHero submitted demo requests to 1,000 B2B SaaS companies to analyze response times:

• Only 36.5% of companies responded
• The average response time was 29 hours - too long in a competitive environment

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Harjot Singh, Senior Director of Marketing Ops & Analytics at Lyra Health, noted that some companies filter leads upfront to avoid overwhelming sales teams. However, automation should ensure that even disqualified leads receive a response rather than being ignored completely.

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“Even if they aren’t a fit, a polite disqualification response is better than silence.” – Harjot Singh, Lyra Health

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📌 Related Resource: Check out How Hippo Video Reduced Its Lead Response Time by 50% to see how other companies tackled slow lead response times.

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Automating Qualification Without Losing the Human Touch

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Many companies hesitate to automate lead qualification, fearing that speed will compromise quality. Jessica Kao, a seasoned marketing ops leader, emphasized that while AI and automation can filter out non-ICP leads, they should also enhance the buyer experience, not just speed up the process.

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“It’s not just about speed—it’s about responding intelligently. AI should help filter and route leads, not create a robotic experience.” – Jessica Kao, Cloudflare

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One approach is to prioritize high-fit leads for immediate human follow-up while nurturing lower-priority ones through automated email sequences.

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📌 Related Resource: Learn more about Lead Routing and How It Ramps Up Your Pipeline Outcomes.

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Rethinking BDR and Sales Compensation Models

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BDR teams are often compensated based on meetings booked, not deals closed. This misalignment leads reps to gatekeep access to Account Executives (AEs) to hit their own metrics. Brooke Bartos, Director of Marketing Ops & Analytics at Invoice Cloud, shared how her team revamped compensation models to reward engaging full buying groups rather than just booking meetings.

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“If your BDRs are incentivized just to set meetings, of course they won’t let leads go straight to the AE. Compensation models need to align with revenue impact, not vanity metrics.” – Brooke Bartos, Invoice Cloud

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Some companies are also experimenting with incentives tied to pipeline progression, ensuring that meetings lead to real revenue impact.

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📌 Related Resource: Explore the benefits of Round Robin Scheduling and How It Helps Sales Teams.

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Should You Let High-Intent Leads Book Directly With Sales?

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Many high Annual Contract Value (ACV) SaaS companies hesitate to allow direct meeting bookings, preferring manual follow-up. Chara Venkataraghavan, Co-Founder of RevenueHero, argued that if a lead matches your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and has high intent, why introduce friction?

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“Some sales teams resist direct booking because they’re worried about unqualified meetings. But when everything aligns, why not make it easy for buyers?” – Chara Venkataraghavan, RevenueHero

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Watch the full video to hear the panel discussed how companies should test direct booking flows for top-tier prospects while keeping manual review for lower-fit leads.

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📌 Related Resource: Learn how to Convert Leads from Email to Schedule a Meeting.

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Next Steps to Optimize Your Inbound Conversion Process

1. Measure your team’s lead response time – If it’s not under an hour, you’re likely losing deals.
2. Automate lead qualification, but with a human fallback – AI should enhance, not replace, buyer interactions.
3. Align incentives across BDRs, AEs, and RevOps – Compensate based on revenue impact, not just meetings booked.
4. Test direct booking for high-intent leads – Reduce friction where possible while keeping control over lower-fit leads.
5. Ensure that every lead gets a response – Whether it’s a meeting invitation or a polite disqualification, no lead should be ignored.

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📌 Related Resource: Get actionable insights from 3 Proven Tactics to Boost Your Lead-to-Opportunity Conversion Rate.

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Final Thoughts

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Optimizing inbound conversions isn’t just about speed - it’s about efficiency, alignment, and creating a seamless buyer experience. Companies that fail to respond quickly or rely on outdated lead routing methods are leaving revenue on the table. By leveraging automation, refining qualification criteria, and aligning incentives, RevOps teams can help their sales counterparts reduce friction, increase conversion rates, and ultimately drive more revenue. The key is to strike the right balance between speed and quality, ensuring that high-intent leads receive immediate attention while maintaining a thoughtful, human-centric approach.

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Looking for more insights? Join the RevOps Co-op community to continue the conversation and access more best practices from revenue operations leaders!

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