According to the FranFunnel Franchise Lead Response Time Study, Q1 2025 — which analyzed 500+ brands across 14 franchise categories — 35% of franchise brands never responded to an inquiry at all, and only 26% responded within 5 minutes. The average email response time was 8.8 hours. That means the majority of franchise brands are losing deals before a conversation ever starts.
The 5-minute threshold matters because research consistently shows that response rates drop sharply after the first few minutes. A candidate who fills out a form is at peak intent the moment they hit submit — every minute of silence after that is a competitor gaining ground. Yet 73% of brands in the study never used SMS, the channel with the highest open and response rates, defaulting instead to email at an average lag of nearly nine hours.
The gap between best practice and average practice is stark. Industry best practice is a response under 5 minutes. Most brands aren't close. The brands that are winning franchise development leads aren't necessarily spending more on marketing — they're responding faster to the leads they already have. A single franchise signing is worth $250,000 or more in fees and royalties. Every lead that goes cold because no one followed up in time isn't a missed conversation — it's a $250K decision that went somewhere else.
The full data behind these numbers, including category-by-category breakdowns, is covered in depth at speed-to-lead research.