𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗞𝗣𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝗕𝗲 𝗟𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂 I remember the moment clearly. Closing ratios were weak. 10 to 15 percent at several properties. A few are hitting 25 to 30. The math was simple. Improve closes per lead, and leases go up. So we pushed hard. Training. Role-playing. Live tours. Call reviews. Direct feedback. Then a few properties suddenly “broke out.” 35 percent. 40 percent. Even 50 percent closing ratios. That didn’t feel like skill. It felt off. So I dug into the data. The improvement wasn’t better selling. It was better math. Leads were being re-coded as “non-prospects.” Once the denominator shrinks, the ratio looks heroic. Some real prospects were misclassified. Not out of malice. Out of incentives. That’s the lesson. Every KPI gets optimized. Often in ways you didn’t design. Sometimes in ways you didn’t imagine. This is the same pattern behind corporate accounting blowups. Change definitions. Shift categories. Make the number look right. Same behavior. Smaller scale. Closing ratio still matters. I still track it. But I also track the levers around it. Who can reclassify leads. How often they do. Traffic volume versus leases. Conversion across multiple metrics, not one. If you run a business, ask this: If someone wanted to game this metric, how would they do it? If you can’t answer that, most likely someone already has. Good metrics shape behavior. Bad ones shape excuses. The goal isn’t fewer KPIs. It’s fewer blind spots.