What are the key sales KPIs for the Elevator and Escalator Service industry in 2027?
The sales KPIs that matter most in elevator and escalator service are the size and growth of the portfolio of units under maintenance, service sales growth split between maintenance, repair and pricing, modernization orders and backlog, new-equipment orders and backlog, the margin on each of those lines, and how much of the business is tied to long service relationships. A new elevator is sold once, but it then needs maintenance for decades, so the service portfolio is what sales teams are really building. This page uses only figures read in third-quarter 2026 releases and reports. Otis says it maintains approximately 2.5 million customer units, the industry's largest service portfolio, and reported Service operating profit margin of 24.2% and modernization orders up 10% at constant currency. KONE reported an order book of EUR 9,804.6 million, up 12.5%. Schindler said new-installation orders grew close to 16% in the quarter.
No company read here publishes rep quota attainment, win rate, sales-cycle length or portfolio retention for this quarter, so none is given. Each company reports in its own currency (Otis in U.S. dollars, KONE in euros, Schindler in Swiss francs) and defines terms differently, so compare each KPI over time within one company, not across companies. This is business content about sales metrics, not financial advice.
Units under maintenance: the service portfolio
In elevator service, the portfolio is the asset. Every unit under a maintenance contract produces revenue year after year, so the count of units, and whether it is growing, is the first KPI a service sales leader watches. Companies publish it in different ways, and not every quarter.
- Otis, service portfolio (company statement, Oct. 28, 2026)Maintains approximately 2.5 million customer units worldwide, which it calls the industry's largest Service portfolio.
- KONE and TKE, illustrative combined group (company statement)Approximately 3.2 million units under maintenance on an illustrative basis for the last financial year, with approximately EUR 20.5 billion in annual sales, of which approximately 65% in Service and Modernization.
- Schindler, maintenance units, Q3 2026 (CEO statement on the earnings call)Maintenance units continued to grow, led by Asia, with the Americas portfolio now stabilizing.
The three statements are not the same measure. Otis gives a current count, KONE gives a combined figure for a deal that has not closed, and Schindler describes direction only. A sales team should track its own units under maintenance, new contracts won, and contracts lost, because public figures do not break these out.
Service sales growth: maintenance, repair and price
Service sales growth is the headline recurring-revenue KPI. The more useful view splits it into maintenance, repair and modernization, because each is sold differently.
- Otis, Service net sales, Q3 2026 (company-reported, U.S. dollars)$2,616 million versus $2,433 million, up 8%, with organic sales up 7%.
- Otis, Service mix, Q3 2026 (company-reported)Organic maintenance and repair sales increased 4% and organic modernization sales increased 20%.
- KONE, Service sales, Q3 2026 (company-reported, euros)EUR 1,328.3 million versus EUR 1,241.8 million; comparable-rate growth of 5.9%.
- KONE, Service sales drivers, January-September 2026 (company statement)Service sales grew by 6.3% at comparable exchange rates, driven by service base growth (including inorganic), repairs, pricing and value-added services.
- Schindler, service, Q3 2026 (earnings call)Service order growth at mid to high single digits; service business growth described as mid single digit to high single digit.
Notice what drives the number. KONE names four drivers: a bigger service base, repairs, pricing and value-added services. A sales plan that only counts new maintenance contracts misses three of them.
Service margin
Margin shows whether growth is paying for itself. In Otis's segment reporting, Service earns a far higher margin than New Equipment, but the margin can still move when labor and investment costs change.
- Otis, Service segment operating profit margin, Q3 2026 (company-reported)24.2%, compared with 25.5% a year earlier; it improved by 100 bps sequentially.
- Otis, Service margin, nine months 2026 (company-reported)23.5%, compared with 25.0% for the same period of 2025.
- Otis, what moved Service profit (company statement)Higher volume, favorable pricing and other employment related cost reductions were partially offset by higher labor cost including ongoing strategic initiatives and productivity, and unfavorable mix.
The lesson for a sales leader is that a service quarter can grow in sales while margin slips, so growth should be reported together with margin, not apart from it.
New installations versus modernization
Elevator companies sell three things: new equipment, modernization of aging units and service. Each has a different buyer, a different cycle and a different margin, so the mix matters as much as the total.
- Otis, New Equipment, Q3 2026 (company-reported, U.S. dollars)Net sales $1,298 million versus $1,257 million, up 3%; segment operating profit margin 3.2% versus 4.7%.
- Otis, modernization, Q3 2026 (company-reported)Modernization orders up 10% at constant currency, backlog up 20% at actual and constant currency; organic modernization sales up 20%.
- KONE, sales by business, Q3 2026 (company-reported, euros)New Building Solutions EUR 1,030.3 million (comparable change of -0.9%) and Modernization EUR 547.4 million versus EUR 500.0 million (comparable growth of 8.1%).
- Schindler, Q3 2026 (earnings call)New-installation orders grew close to 16%, close to 20% excluding China; modernization grew 13% and revenue growth was 16.5%; new-installation revenue was flat.
Three companies, one pattern in sales: modernization sales are growing faster than new-equipment sales in each report. Orders are less uniform, because Schindler said new-installation orders grew faster than modernization orders. KONE's CEO said modernization once again served as the key driver of order growth. That reading is mine, drawn from their own statements.
Orders and backlog
Orders and backlog are the forward-looking KPIs. They show what has been sold but not yet delivered, which is what a sales team controls. Definitions differ: KONE says its orders received consist predominantly of New Building Solutions and Modernization orders, and that service contracts are not included, so service sales growth does not show up there.
- KONE, orders received, Q3 2026 (company-reported, euros)EUR 2,292.9 million versus EUR 2,139.5 million, up 7.2%; 5.5% at comparable exchange rates.
- KONE, order book, September 30, 2026 (company-reported)EUR 9,804.6 million versus EUR 8,717.7 million, up 12.5%; 8.6% at comparable rates.
- Otis, New Equipment orders and backlog, Q3 2026 (company-reported)Orders up 1% at constant currency, with low teens growth in the Americas and a low teens decline in China; backlog up 4% at actual and constant currency.
- Schindler, order backlog, Q3 2026 (CFO statement on the earnings call, Swiss francs, local currencies)Order backlog grew 4.5% year on year in local currencies.
- Schindler, nine months 2026 (company-reported, Swiss francs)Order intake CHF 8 735 million, up 5.2% in local currencies; Q3 order intake grew 10.3% in local currencies.
A backlog in the billions is a useful number for planning, but it only becomes revenue as units are delivered. The check for a sales team is how much of the backlog is already priced, scheduled and not at risk of delay.
Pricing and competition
Price per unit is a sales KPI in its own right. The reports say pricing is not moving the same way in each line of business.
- KONE, pricing environment, Q3 2026 (company statement)Intense competition continued to impact the New Building Solutions pricing environment in China, while elsewhere pricing was more stable; in Service and Modernization the pricing environment was more favorable.
- Otis, pricing, Q3 2026 (company statement)Service segment profit was helped by favorable pricing; CEO Judy Marks cited investments in field capability and AI-enabled pricing as supporting double digit modernization growth and high single digit repair growth.
For a service sales team this is a reason to track price realization by contract and by line, since a bigger service base and better pricing both raise revenue, and they take different skills to win.
Margin by line and in total
The total margin of an elevator company mixes high-margin service with lower-margin new equipment, so the mix of the order book changes what a sale is worth.
- Otis, adjusted operating profit margin, Q3 2026 (company-reported)16.0% versus 17.1% a year earlier; New Equipment segment margin 3.2% versus 4.7%.
- KONE, adjusted EBIT margin, Q3 2026 (company-reported)12.7% versus 12.3% of sales; margin expansion supported by a favorable business mix and fixed-cost leverage, according to the CEO.
- KONE, 2026 outlook (company-reported)Sales growth of 4-6% at comparable exchange rates and an adjusted EBIT margin of 12.5-12.9%.
- Schindler, nine months 2026 (company-reported)EBIT margin 13.5% and adjusted EBIT margin 13.8%; 2026 guidance revised to about 13.5% from about 13%.
China and the new-equipment cycle
New-equipment KPIs are sensitive to one market. All three reports point to the same regional story.
- Otis, China, Q3 2026 (company-reported)New Equipment net sales had a greater than 20% decline in China; orders had a low teens decline.
- KONE, China, Q3 2026 (company-reported)New Building Solutions sales declined 0.9% at comparable rates due to lower deliveries in the Greater China Area.
- Schindler, China, Q3 2026 (earnings call)New-installation revenue was flat as a steep decline in China, in the high 20s, was offset by good growth elsewhere.
The practical KPI is new-equipment orders and revenue with China shown separately. Schindler's own comment that orders grew close to 16%, and close to 20% excluding China, shows how much the total can change.
Consolidation: KONE and TK Elevator
TK Elevator (TKE) is privately held, so this page uses only what KONE has disclosed about the planned combination. The deal matters for sales KPIs because it would combine two large service portfolios.
- KONE and TKE, terms (company statement, announced April 29, 2026)KONE would acquire TKE for EUR 5 billion in cash and a maximum of 270 million newly issued KONE class B shares, with approximately EUR 9.2 billion of TKE net debt refinanced.
- KONE and TKE, synergies and timing (company statement)Approximately EUR 700 million in annual run-rate pre-tax cost synergies by the end of year three after completion; completion anticipated earliest in the second quarter of 2027.
No TKE sales KPIs are quoted here because none were read from a TKE source. Teams selling against any of these companies should expect integration and portfolio decisions to affect service contracts, but that is my judgment, not a company statement.
What is not published
A scorecard to start with
Read together, the reports point to a compact scorecard. This structure is my judgment, built on the KPIs the companies themselves report.
- Portfolio. Units under maintenance, new contracts won and contracts lost.
- Service growth. Maintenance, repair and pricing, tracked separately.
- Service margin. Reported next to growth, not apart from it.
- Modernization. Orders, backlog and conversion of aging units.
- New equipment. Orders and backlog, with the weakest region shown separately.
- Backlog. What is priced and scheduled, and what is at risk of delay.
- Price. Price realization by line of business.
- Mix. Share of service and modernization in the order book.
Questions people ask
What are the most important sales KPIs in elevator and escalator service?
Units under maintenance, service sales growth, service margin, modernization orders and backlog, new-equipment orders and backlog, and price. Companies publish growth and margin well and portfolio counts only occasionally.
How big is the largest elevator service portfolio?
Otis says it maintains approximately 2.5 million customer units worldwide and calls it the industry's largest Service portfolio. KONE said the combined KONE and TKE group would have approximately 3.2 million units under maintenance on an illustrative basis.
Why is modernization a growing sales KPI?
Otis reported modernization orders up 10% at constant currency and organic modernization sales up 20% in Q3 2026. KONE named Modernization its key driver of order growth, and Schindler said modernization orders grew 13%.
What margin does elevator service earn?
Otis reported a Service segment operating profit margin of 24.2% for Q3 2026, against 25.5% a year earlier. That is one company's definition in U.S. dollars, so it is not comparable with other companies.
Do elevator companies publish quota attainment or win rate?
Not in the releases and reports read for this page. They are tracked internally, so measure them on your own data rather than looking for an industry benchmark.
Can these figures be compared across Otis, KONE and Schindler?
Not directly. Otis reports in U.S. dollars, KONE in euros and Schindler in Swiss francs, and each defines orders, backlog and adjusted profit differently. Compare each KPI over time within one company.
Sources
- Otis: third-quarter 2026 results, October 28, 2026 (SEC 8-K exhibit) · Service and New Equipment sales, margins, orders, backlog, portfolio units
- KONE: interim report January-September 2026, October 28, 2026 · Orders, order book, sales by business, margin, outlook, TKE combination
- KONE: Q3 2026 interim report (PDF) · Sales by business table, definitions, combination terms
- Schindler: Profitable growth gaining momentum, October 22, 2026 (EQS ad hoc release, via Finanzwire) · Order intake, revenue, EBIT margin, guidance
- Schindler: Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Investing.com) · Service, new-installation and modernization growth, backlog statements
- Photo: Front view of an illuminated outdoor escalator, Shinjuku Station, Tokyo.jpg by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Hero photo
Figures were read from the linked company releases, a KONE interim report and one earnings call transcript on November 7, 2026. They are company-reported for the periods stated, in each company's own currency. Where no figure was published, the page says so instead of estimating. Hero photo: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This page is about sales metrics and is not financial advice.
Top photo: Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons