Contractor Sales & Quote Performance Benchmarks
How contractor quotes actually convert: decided-conversion vs all-quote conversion, and the speed-to-close gap that predicts a win long before the customer signs. Sales performance is an operating metric, and the pipeline lies unless you measure it.
Key Finding
Winning quotes close in 2 days. Losing quotes linger 29.
Speed is the strongest leading indicator in contractor sales. Quotes that convert do so fast, a median of 2 days. Quotes that are eventually lost sit for a median of 29 days, and nearly half linger past 30 days before anyone marks them dead. If a quote hasn't closed within about a week, its odds of ever converting drop sharply.
And the pipeline flatters you: median conversion looks like 73.9% on decided quotes, but across all quotes issued, ~62% of quoting effort produces zero revenue.
Sales Performance Benchmark Distribution
Aggregate percentile distributions from 2,200+ contractor engagements and hundreds of thousands of quotes. Anonymized and aggregated. Machine-readable data: contractor.json.
| Metric | Bottom Quartile | Median | Top Quartile | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quote Conversion (decided quotes) | not separately published | 73.9% | 92%+ (top decile) | Won vs lost, excludes still-pending (n=794) |
| Quote Conversion (all quotes) | < 28% (P25) | ~38% | 48%+ (P75) | 62% of quoting effort produces zero revenue (n=794) |
| Days to Convert (winners) | median 2 days | 2 days | same day | Fast decisions win; percentile spread not published (n=794) |
| Days to Loss (losers) | > 165 days (bottom decile) | 29 days | closed fast | Half of lost quotes linger 30+ days (n=794) |
| Follow-Up Discipline | no defined window | ad hoc | 48-hr follow-up + hard lost-window | The single highest-impact fix |
What the data tells us
The 2-day vs 29-day speed gap
Converted quotes close in a median of 2 days; lost quotes linger for a median of 29. That gap is a free forecasting tool, the age of an open quote tells you its odds better than the customer's words do. A quote past a week is closer to dead than alive.
62% of quoting effort earns nothing
Decided-conversion of 73.9% sounds strong, but on all quotes issued the average is ~38%. The difference is quotes that never get a decision. Every one of those consumed estimator time and produced no revenue, the biggest hidden cost in a contractor sales process.
Pending quotes hide the real number
Quotes that sit in 'sent' limbo inflate the outstanding-pipeline figure owners rely on. Most of that pipeline is already lost; it just hasn't been marked. Closing the loop on every quote within a set window is what surfaces the true conversion rate.
Follow-up beats volume
Because winners close fast and losers rot, sending more quotes rarely helps. A disciplined 48-hour follow-up and a hard rule to mark quotes lost after a defined window concentrates effort where it still counts and clears the fog from the pipeline.
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good quote conversion rate for a contractor?
On decided quotes (won vs lost, excluding still-pending), the median contractor converts 73.9% and the top decile clears 92%. But that number flatters the process: across all quotes issued, including those that sit pending forever, the average conversion rate is about 38%. In other words, roughly 62% of total quoting effort produces zero revenue. Both numbers matter: decided-conversion measures how well you close the deals that get a decision, all-quote conversion measures how much quoting work is wasted.
How fast should a contractor's quotes convert?
Speed is the single strongest leading indicator. Quotes that convert do so in a median of 2 days. Quotes that are eventually lost linger for a median of 29 days before being marked lost, and nearly half sit over 30 days. The practical rule: if a quote hasn't been accepted within about a week, its probability of ever converting drops sharply. Following up fast, and cutting dead quotes from your pipeline, is worth more than sending more quotes.
Why do so many contractor quotes never get a decision?
A large share of quotes sit in 'sent/pending' limbo, never won, never formally lost. These quiet non-decisions distort the pipeline: owners see a big outstanding-quote number and assume revenue is coming, when most of it is already dead. Top performers close the loop on every quote within a defined window, so pending quotes don't mask a conversion problem.
What's the fastest way to lift contractor sales performance?
Speed of follow-up and pipeline hygiene, not quote volume. Because winning quotes close in ~2 days and losers linger for weeks, the highest-impact move is a 48-hour follow-up on every quote and a hard rule to mark quotes lost after a set window. That single change surfaces the real conversion rate, frees estimator time from chasing dead deals, and concentrates effort on the quotes that still have a pulse.
From clients
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