Is knock-to-close the same as close rate?

No, and conflating them is common. Close rate is against conversations; knock-to-close is against every door.

What is a normal knock-to-close ratio?

It depends on trade, area, season and hours to the point where a single figure would be misleading. Measure your own where you work.

Which should I quote to a manager?

Both, labelled. Quoting one as the other is how reps end up accused of inflating numbers they simply mislabelled.

The knock-to-close ratio

Knock-to-close is total doors divided by sales. It answers a planning question: roughly how many doors you need to work for one sale in your area, at your current hours. It is the wrong number for judging a pitch, because it moves whenever your timing or area changes and it cannot tell you which of those moved.

What it is genuinely good for

Planning a day and setting expectations. If you know roughly how many doors sit behind one sale where you work, you can work backwards to a daily target that is arithmetic rather than optimism.

Why it cannot diagnose anything

It blends two independent things. A worsening ratio might mean the pitch slipped or it might mean you started knocking at four instead of six, and the number is identical either way.

Reps quoting a knock-to-close ratio as though it were a close rate are usually quoting a much lower number and flattering themselves in the process, since the two are not comparable.

Use both

Knock-to-close for planning the day, close rate against contacts for judging the pitch. They are answering different questions and neither substitutes for the other.

Common questions

Is knock-to-close the same as close rate?: No, and conflating them is common. Close rate is against conversations; knock-to-close is against every door.
What is a normal knock-to-close ratio?: It depends on trade, area, season and hours to the point where a single figure would be misleading. Measure your own where you work.
Which should I quote to a manager?: Both, labelled. Quoting one as the other is how reps end up accused of inflating numbers they simply mislabelled.

More on your numbers

Contact rate, close rate and knock math — and telling a pitch problem from a timing problem.

All of your numbers