Speed to lead is the time between a new enquiry arriving and the first real reply. The fix is a routine that checks for new enquiries often and puts a reply in front of you ready to approve. Lead Responder does this every hour on weekdays: it drafts the reply, offers 3 open slots and logs the lead, and you approve each send.
Why the first reply decides the deal
A person who sends an enquiry is often asking several businesses at once. The reply that arrives first, and answers the question, tends to get the next step. Late replies land after the person has moved on.
Most small teams know this. The gap is not intent but time. Enquiries arrive while you are with a customer, on a site visit or in a meeting. Replying properly means reading the message, checking your diary and writing something specific.
A fixed routine closes that gap. It does not need to send anything by itself. It needs to have a good draft waiting for you.
This post makes no claim about how many more deals you will win. It describes how the work is split between the agent and you, so you can judge it against your own enquiries.
What an agent prepares for each new enquiry
Every hour from 08:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, Lead Responder checks your inbox. For each new enquiry it prepares:
- A reply draft in the enquiry's own thread, answering the question and offering 3 open slots
- A CRM contact, a deal in the first stage and a note carrying the email thread, or a row in a Google Sheet
- A list of enquiries it skipped, because you already replied or a draft exists
Because the note carries the thread, the same enquiry is never handled twice. The agent skips any thread that already has a draft or your reply. If the CRM lookup fails, it skips that enquiry and tells you. A new thread from the same person counts as a new enquiry. When a lead goes quiet, it follows up at most twice in the same thread.
Open slots from Google Calendar, CRM note and Slack alert
The 3 slots in each draft come from your Google Calendar, so the person can pick a time without a back-and-forth. When the lead picks one, the agent books the meeting only if you allowed that at setup; otherwise it tells you which time they picked.
Composio Search, which looks up the sender's company, is a core app for this agent and needs no sign-in. Optional apps add more:
| Optional app | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Apollo | Company size, industry and funding for each enquiry |
| Calendly | Your booking page link in every draft |
| Slack | A Slack line for every reply |
Apollo uses a paid credit per company, at most 5 per run. If you do not connect it, there are no paid lookups.
Where your approval sits
The agent writes drafts and CRM records by itself. Sending is different: every reply and follow-up waits for your OK, and it books a meeting only if you allowed that at setup.
Dialogo AI
See this in action. Your real tools, your real workflows.
Free to try: set up 1 agent and run 3 free rehearsals, then pay when you go live.
- A scheduled run records the lead and leaves the reply as a draft in the enquiry's thread.
- It then asks to send that draft, and Dialogo holds the send for your approval.
- You read the reply and approve or decline the send.
Nothing reaches the person until you approve, unless you turn approvals off. If a reply is wrong, decline it, and it stays a draft in the thread. A request you do not answer in time also leaves the draft in place.
Setup: your inbox, your calendar and a CRM
Setup takes about 12 minutes. You need:
- Gmail, Outlook or Zoho Mail, so the agent can read enquiries and leave drafts.
- HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive or a Google Sheet, for the lead records.
- Google Calendar, for the open slots.
- Composio Search, which needs no sign-in and connects by itself.
Then add Apollo, Calendly or Slack if you want them, and confirm the setup answers: a quick read-only look at your apps proposes them where it can, and you fill in or edit the rest, including whether it may book meetings. The free rehearsal takes your newest enquiry through the whole job and shows the reply with 3 open slots, the record it would write and when it would follow up. It sends, creates and books nothing, so you can judge the quality first.
See our page on AI sales automation for the wider picture.
What a good draft looks like
A fast reply only helps if it reads like a person wrote it. A good draft does four things:
- It answers the question the person actually asked, not a generic greeting.
- It offers a small choice of times, here 3 open slots, so replying takes one line.
- It stays in the enquiry's own thread, so the conversation is in one place.
- It is short enough to read on a phone.
Read each reply before you approve it. If you notice the same fix often, such as a sentence about pricing that you always add, put that in your setup answers so the next drafts include it.
A weekday routine that fits around your work
You do not need to watch the inbox. A realistic day looks like this:
- Approve each reply that is right when Dialogo asks.
- Decline the ones that need a call instead, and phone the person yourself.
- Once in the morning and once after lunch, look for drafts whose approval you missed, and send them from your inbox.
The CRM already holds the contact, the deal and the thread note, so nothing needs re-entering. If you connect Slack, a line for each reply tells you when to look.
Questions people ask
How fast will I get a draft?
The agent runs every hour from 08:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, so a draft is prepared within the hour of an enquiry arriving during those times. You then approve the send.
Will it reply twice to the same person?
No. It skips a thread that already has a draft or your reply, and a thread whose id is already in one of its Lead Responder records in your CRM or sheet. A new thread from the same person is a new enquiry.
Does it send emails without me?
No. Every reply and follow-up waits for your OK in Dialogo, unless you turn approvals off. It books a meeting only if you allowed it at setup.
Does it use paid credits?
Only if you connect Apollo, and then at most 5 company lookups per run.
Try it on your own data
Run the rehearsal on your newest enquiry and read the reply it would send.
Nothing is sent without your approval. You set up 1 agent and get 3 free rehearsals, and you pay only when you go live.