B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
42 hours
42 hours -- average lead first response time for companies (lead response audit) (2026)
An audit of 2,241 companies found that the average first-response time to a lead is 42 hours.
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Lighthouse Research Team
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
42 hours
Unit
Duration Hours
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Sample Size
2,241
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
MIT/InsideSales.com
Primary
Tier B
https://www.datamagnet.co/post/buyer-intent-data-buyers-guide-2026/ ↗
Source Article
The 2026 Buyer Intent Data Buyer's Guide
Disclosure: Datamagnet publishes this article. Vendor and product capabilities described below are based on public documentation, retrieved August 13, 2026.
The 2026 Buyer Intent Data Buyer's Guide: How to Choose the Right Vendor
Most of your buyers make up their minds before a rep ever says hello. …
Original Research
MIT/InsideSales.com
· Original study ↗
Methodology
MIT/InsideSales.com Lead Response Management research audit of 2,241 companies
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
companies (lead response audit): 42 hours average lead first response time. Source: MIT/InsideSales.com (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-first-response-time-42-hours
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-first-response-time-42-hours" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>42 hours</strong> -- average lead first response time for companies (lead response audit)<br><small>Source: MIT/InsideSales.com (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-first-response-time-42-hours" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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