Leads are cheap. Attention is not. The moment a lead is captured is the single most fragile handoff in your revenue engine. Get it right and you convert more, faster. Get it wrong and that lead cools, drifts, and disappears into the noise. This post gives a technical, operational playbook for what to do immediately after capture, how to structure follow‑ups, what to measure, and how to avoid the common failure modes that turn automation into chaos. Quick thesis Respond fast.