In the charter bus industry, we’ve built a bad habit: we measure the wrong things and then wonder why sales behavior doesn’t match what we want.

The worst offender? Close rate — the percentage of quotes that turn into bookings.

On the surface it looks smart. But in reality, close rate rewards order takers, punishes hunters, and hides your true demand. It encourages salespeople to chase only “sure things” and work business outside your quoting system until it’s already half sold—meaning you lose visibility into how much demand is really coming through the door.

The Problem with “Close Rate”

When your team knows they’re judged on close rate, they start gaming the number. Here’s how it happens in every operation:

• They only enter quotes that are nearly booked. Instead of logging every inquiry, they wait until a customer says “probably yes,” so your system looks artificially efficient—but you lose data on the business you didn’t win.

• They focus on repeat work. Returning clients book faster and inflate the metric. Reps who chase new group business look worse on paper, even though they’re driving growth.

• They hide early-stage activity. You can’t forecast accurately when the quote funnel only shows the easy stuff.

The result: your sales data is clean, your close rate looks great… and you have no idea how much opportunity you’re actually missing or the actual demand that exists on any given day.

Relying on close rate can throw off your forecast, inflate your funnel, and hide the real story about what’s happening in your business.

Across industries, close rates vary wildly (software ~22%, biotech ~15%), which tells us the number itself is meaningless without context. In charter, a lower close rate often means your team is working more business—and that’s a good thing.

What to Track Instead

Output Metrics: What Really Matters

Forget close rate. Ask instead: How much revenue did this salesperson bring in—and at what margin? That’s the only number that tells you if a rep is producing healthy business. A $100,000 month at 98% of suggested price beats a $150,000 month discounted to the bone.

Revenue at full or near-full price shows real sales skill, not just volume.

Input Metrics: What Drives the Machine

You can’t control outcomes, but you can control inputs. Here’s what you should be watching inside your charter system:

• Quotes created (by created date): Measures sales activity, not sanitized entries after “soft yes.”

• Open Quotes by salesperson, filtered by departure date ranges (e.g., deals departing in the next 3 weeks), to review if the team is actually working the deals where available inventory could support it. Start with the most valuable and work down from there.

When you track activity and outcomes, you get a full picture of performance—and the team learns that you value effort and transparency, not just wins.

How This Fixes Sales Behavior

When you shift your focus:

• Your team learns that success = booked business at healthy margins.

• They stop hiding deals until “safe to enter” and start filling the funnel honestly.

• You reward reps who create new business, not just recycle old customers.

• You restore visibility into demand—so scheduling, pricing, fleet acquisition, and marketing all get smarter.

You’re teaching your team to be salespeople, not order processors.

Bonus: Tie Bonuses to Value, Not Volume

Tracking is good, but in a healthy sales team environment, incentivizing the RIGHT behaviors is critical to getting the performance and output from your team:

Base bonus on total revenue booked (excluding corporate-won accounts—meaning real, individually earned business) against suggested price.

Pay bonuses in the margins between 95%–100% of suggested price.

Give the rep discretion to discount inside the bonus range without manager approval, but if they do so, that discount directly impacts or eliminates their bonus. In this case they will FEEL the impact of discounting.

This structure drives behavior where the rep sells value rather than racing to discount just to hit volume. If you simply paid on “total sales volume,” you risk paying for deals that are low margin, commoditized, and might undermine the business.

The Bottom Line

Close rate is a trap. It encourages shadow quoting, distorted data, and a false sense of success.

Healthy charter operations measure revenue, margin, and meaningful activity—the things that actually drive growth.

When your metrics, and compensation, reward transparency, consistency, and value-based selling, you stop managing numbers and start managing behavior—the kind that builds profitable and sustainable dispatch sheets.