Contractor Sales & Quote Performance Benchmarks
Compare company-level decided and all-issued conversion on a common cutoff. A pending quote is not automatically lost, and a quote count is not estimating effort. Published won/lost timing summaries describe known outcomes; they do not provide a probability model for the quotes still open.
Interpretation reviewed . Source observation periods are separate.
Key Finding
Published medians: winning quotes close in 2 days. Losing quotes linger 29.
The retained published median is 2 days for won quotes and 29 for lost quotes, with roughly half of recorded losses past 30 days. This compares groups selected by their eventual outcome. It does not establish a strongest leading indicator or the probability that a particular pending quote will win after a week. Review open quotes with their actual buyer and status evidence.
The company decided-quote median is 73.9%; the all-issued median is 38.1%. The roughly 62% not-won complement includes pending quotes. It is not a measured loss of estimating time or revenue.
Sales Performance Benchmark Distribution
The broader research universe covers 2,200+ contractors, not Level client engagements. Conversion distributions use 794 eligible companies; timing references have a separate unpublished eligible basis. Practitioner follow-up options are not measured quartiles. Aggregate data and definitions: contractor.json.
| Metric | Lower / reference | Median / process reference | Upper / reference | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quote Conversion (decided quotes) | not separately published | 73.9% | 83.2% | Company-rate median, excludes still-pending; each company has at least 20 decided quotes (n=794) |
| Quote Conversion (all quotes) | < 28% (P25) | 38.1% (~38%) | 47.7% (P75; rounded 48% reference) | ~62% is a not-won quote-count complement, not effort or permanent lost revenue (n=794 companies) |
| Days to Convert (winners) | quartile not published; median 2 days | 2 days | not published; same-day scenario only | Timing percentiles not published; n=794 belongs to conversion, not a verified timing sample |
| Days to Loss (losers) | legacy > 165 days; decile basis not independently verified | 29 days | not published; closed-fast scenario only | Earlier reported 30+ day timing reference; n=794 is the conversion-company sample, not a verified timing denominator |
| Follow-Up Discipline | no defined window | ad hoc | illustrative 48-hr follow-up; evidence-based status review | Practitioner process option, not observed quartiles or a ranked causal fix |
Audit the quote population before changing the process
Export native quote IDs, issued dates, revisions, status histories, decision dates and quoted values. Select a common observation cutoff and distinguish pending quotes from recorded losses. Deduplicate revisions and calculate each company's won/all-issued and won/decided rates separately. Join estimating hours if you need effort; join final invoices if you need realized revenue. Preserve unresolved records and do not mark them lost to make the dashboard cleaner.
What the data tells us
The 2-day vs 29-day speed gap
Published medians of 2 and 29 days describe quotes grouped by known outcomes. Without the histories of still-open quotes and a validated method, that gap does not measure pending-quote win odds. Check the recorded buyer decision rather than declaring a quote dead by age.
~62% not won is a count complement, not effort
The company medians are 73.9% decided and 38.1% all issued (about 38%). The ~62% not-won complement includes unresolved statuses. To measure estimating effort, record hours; to model opportunity value, record quote dollars and buyer evidence. Neither can be recovered from quote counts alone.
Pending quotes hide the real number
A sent status can be correct, stale or missing a buyer decision. Reconcile status histories and the cutoff before interpreting conversion. Mark won or lost only when the evidence supports it; a cleaner-looking rate is not a reason to relabel an open quote.
Test follow-up against the buyer decision process
An illustrative 48-hour follow-up is a process choice to test, not a measured superior cadence. Separate customer response from internal status maintenance. Keep original histories and compare similar work, prices and buyer conditions before attributing a conversion change to follow-up.
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good quote conversion rate for a contractor?
Across 794 eligible companies, the company decided-quote win-rate median is 73.9%, P75 is 83.2% and P90 is 90.0%. Decided means won divided by won plus lost; each company has at least 20 decided quotes. The separate all-issued-quote median is 38.1% (about 38%), with pending quotes included. Its roughly 62% complement is a quote-count share not won at the observation cutoff, not estimating effort, quote dollars or permanent lost revenue. A median company rate is not a pooled share of all quotes.
How fast should a contractor's quotes convert?
The retained published cycle medians are 2 days for quotes eventually won and 29 days for quotes marked lost; the earlier summary also reports roughly half of lost quotes beyond 30 days. Timing-eligible histories and their public row-level calculation are not supplied here. Those outcome-known histories do not estimate the chance that an open quote will win after a week. Check buyer intent, decision date and status evidence rather than applying a universal age cutoff.
Why do so many contractor quotes never get a decision?
A pending status can mean an unresolved buyer decision, an unrecorded outcome or an incorrect status. It is not evidence that the quote is dead. Reconcile issued, won, lost and pending records on the same cutoff; preserve buyer correspondence and original status dates. Review value and estimating time separately if you want a revenue forecast or an effort measure.
What's the fastest way to lift contractor sales performance?
The data do not rank interventions. A 48-hour follow-up can be an illustrative practitioner policy to test against the customer's decision process, not a measured highest-impact fix. Keep the quote pending unless evidence supports won or lost; do not change statuses merely to improve the denominator. Track comparable quote cohorts, recorded follow-up, pricing, buyer decisions and elapsed time before attributing conversion changes to follow-up.
Operating review
Questions before trusting a margin report
The margin, cash, and operating questions we check first when reviewing your numbers.
Does the job margin include the labor you actually incurred?
Entered hourly rates and payroll cost can use different periods and burden definitions.
Are supplier returns and later bills in the same job population?
A dashboard can describe costs available today without including every adjustment relevant to the requested cutoff.
Which overhead belongs in the decision?
A direct-cost margin and a fully loaded profitability view answer different management questions.
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$500+/mo
Bookkeeping
The clean data layer: monthly books, reconciliations, and organized financials AI can work with.
$1,500-$5,000/mo
Scale
The full AI operating layer: custom agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
What's your real quote conversion rate?
We will reconcile quote histories and compare decided versus all-issued conversion with the 794-company research sample, keeping timing and pipeline limits visible.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.