Answer Fast to Get More From Your Marketing
You pay for every enquiry your marketing brings in. Answer each one promptly, by a person, a hire or a machine, and that spend earns more.
By James Schramko · Updated October 2026
Every enquiry has a price. The ads, the content, the time spent on the website, the referral you worked for. Divide last month's marketing cost by the number of enquiries it brought in. That is what each one cost you.
Now look at what happened to them. Plenty of businesses leave some enquiries with no answer at all. The form goes nowhere. The voicemail is full. The email sits unread for a week. Each one of those is marketing money you spent and threw away.
Answering promptly is the cheapest way to get more from the marketing you already pay for. It costs nothing extra in ads.
What an Enquiry Is
Someone who has already decided to buy clicks the cart and buys. An enquiry comes a step before that. The person has a question they need answered before they decide. Often they are asking two or three businesses the same question at once.
An early, clear answer improves your odds. It doesn't promise the sale. But the business that answers late, or never, has dropped out before price, service or the website come into it.
It Doesn't Have to Be You
The answer has to be prompt and right. Who gives it is up to you. There are three ways to do it, and most businesses use a mix.
You answer. That works while the volume is small, if the enquiry reaches you as a notification and you reply before anything else.
You hire someone to answer. A person on the team, or a service, owns the first reply. They need the answers in front of them and a target time.
A machine answers. On my site, an AI front desk answers questions at any hour. When it can't answer, the visitor presses a button and the question comes to me with the full chat. Most people get their answer straight away. The rest get me.
Have the Answers Ready
Whoever answers, fast answers come from not having to look anything up. Prices, what is included, how soon you can start, what you need to go ahead.
When I was working with Mercedes-Benz, I asked every enquiry the same six questions. The last one was "Is there anything else that's important for us to discuss for this decision?" Nobody had to think about what to ask, so nobody waited.
Most founders can't answer fast because the answer lives in three places. A price list somewhere, a calendar someone else holds, and a scope talk they feel they need first. Put the answer on one page. Your prices or price range, what is included and your next available start. The three questions you need answered to go ahead, and how the client pays.
That page is what a hire reads from and what an AI front desk is built on.
Then build it out into an FAQ on your website. Each time someone asks a question the page doesn't cover, add the answer. Over time, most people find their answer before they need to ask.
The Enquiries You Already Paid For
Before you spend more on leads or another campaign, count what you already have. Look at the enquiries in your inbox, your forms and your missed calls from the last ninety days. You have already paid for every one. The only cost of collecting them now is answering.
Never Miss the Call
A missed call doesn't have to be lost. I once rang a business that didn't pick up. Straight away a text arrived: "Sorry, we couldn't answer the phone. What's your question?" I answered it, and I was still talking to them. Without something like that, a missed call shows up as nothing in your pipeline, and the buyer rings the next business on the list.
Put something on the overflow. A missed-call text is the simplest. An AI phone assistant can answer, say it is an AI, and take the details. A person can do the same job. Owners who set this up tend to say the same thing. The stress goes and the missed calls stop.
Whatever you use, the standard is simple. Every call is answered. Every enquiry gets a reply quickly, during the hours you told the market you are open. A voicemail that says "we'll call you back" tells the buyer you weren't ready for them.
Give the First Reply an Owner
Speed fails when it waits for someone to notice. Name who owns the first reply, whether that is you, a hire or a machine with a person behind it. Set a target time and check it. The first reply becomes a job with a clock on it. It stops depending on who remembers.
In most trades and services, the bar is so low that answering at all is an edge. Clear the bar on purpose.
Self-Diagnostic
What did each enquiry cost you last month? Marketing spend divided by enquiries.
How long did your last ten enquiries wait for a reply? If you don't know, that is the first finding.
How many enquiries from the last ninety days never got a reply at all? Multiply that by what each one cost.
Could someone other than you answer the next enquiry in full, price included? If not, you are the delay.
What does a buyer hear when your phone isn't answered? Call your own number after hours and listen.
What To Do This Week
Work out what an enquiry costs you. Write the one-page answer sheet. Decide who owns the first reply, and set a target time. Go back through ninety days of unanswered enquiries and answer every one with a short message and the next step. Then time the next ten enquiries and keep the number where you can see it.
Quick Reference
- Every enquiry cost you marketing money. An unanswered one is that money gone.
- Answering promptly is the cheapest way to get more from the marketing you already pay for.
- An enquiry is a question asked before a decision, often of several businesses at once. An early, clear answer improves your odds.
- The answer doesn't have to come from you. You, a hire or a machine can give it.
- Put the answers on one page, then build it into an FAQ. Whoever answers reads from it, and many buyers answer their own question.
- Every call answered. One named owner of the first reply, with a clock on it.
Working out what your enquiries cost and who answers them is one of the quickest fixes I make with founders inside Mentor.