Expect to hire several reps for every good one you keep. A rep on r/RoofingSales put it at one good rep in every eight hired, and an owner there went through nearly 60 applications and interviewed 8 people to hire 3. One owner’s only successful hires were friends of his current employees, and another’s partner had luck with door knockers from solar and security companies. For a target, an owner on r/Roofing wrote in 2026 that a solid rep self-generates $500,000 in roofing a year, and 31% of his own reps reach that.
In his first week, put each new rep on the people he already knows. A Tulsa sales manager wrote in a Facebook roofing group in September 2026 that on one such day, his new reps booked 2 inspections from their own networks and knocked the homes around those for 2 more. On pay, a commenter on r/RoofingSales suggested a higher rate on deals a rep finds himself, with company leads only for reps who bring in their own.
This comes from 124 posts and comments by roofing owners and reps, plus the federal and state rules a rep sells under. I’ve never hired a roofing rep, and Zentora sells the marketing that brings in company leads, so weigh what I say with that in mind.
Straight commission can leave a new rep 60 days without a check
An owner on r/RoofingSales who said he and a partner sold $9 million the year before wrote in 2025 that he pays above market for reps who bring in their own business, yet his hungry hires all “ended up falling back on company provided leads.” He never said what he pays, and several replies doubted it. The top-voted reply blamed straight commission plus all-day knocking, which leaves the rep carrying all the risk.
A recruiter on the same forum, who says he knocked doors and later owned a company, listed the job as applicants see it: 100% commission, often no pay for 60 days, no health insurance, your own ladder and vehicle, and rejection at the door. He sells recruiting, so allow for that. The rep who put the odds at one in eight said he had about $30,000 saved to live on until commissions came in.
Doing the legwork for a rep doesn’t always fix it. A first-year owner wrote on r/RoofingSales in late 2025 and early 2026 that he had drawn territories, scouted roofs, canvassed neighborhoods himself and screened out renters with software, and his salesman still wouldn’t knock. One reply: “I knock once a week with my guys. Show them how easy it is.” Is Door Knocking Still Worth It for Roofing Companies? covers whether knocking still pays.
One plan pays more for deals the rep finds and rations company leads
In the $9 million owner’s thread, a commenter whose role isn’t stated laid out a plan: lower the base commission rate, raise the rate on contracts the rep generates himself, pay as soon as the contract is signed, and give company leads only to reps who are actively bringing in their own. Treat it as a plan to test, since nothing in the comment shows it working.
For a small shop without enough inbound leads to keep a first rep busy, a reply on r/RoofingSales in 2026 suggested a small base plus 25 to 30% of profit, since commission-only reps who self-generate are rare at that size.
In 2024 an owner there warned a newer owner planning to pay about $500 a roof that a rep he spent three to six months training would leave for four to five times the money. Reps who sold well give other reasons for leaving. One says he filed wage or misclassification claims against two of the three roofers he’d sold over $1 million a year for, costing him over $100,000. Another says he slowed down after selling about $600,000 in four months, because shaky operations meant his jobs might not get built. Pay plans in full are in How to Pay Roofing Sales Reps: 10/50/50, Profit Splits and Draws.
Owners have found good reps among employees’ friends and other door-to-door sellers
An owner who had tried online job posts and his own friends and family wrote on r/RoofingSales in 2024 that his only successful hires were friends of current employees. In 2025 another owner wrote that his partner had luck with security and solar door knockers, letting them try roofing part time until the first commission check, and a second commenter called their new ex-solar salesman great. The IRS’s 30% credit for home solar “is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025,” though I found no count of how many solar reps have moved into roofing since.
Hires from unrelated jobs have worked too. An owner wrote in 2024 that a 16-year-old pizza delivery driver he hired to canvass part time through high school was about to reach $100,000 in his first full-time year selling. The recruiter says a rep who sold almost $7 million in 2024 came from a moving company, and that resumes didn’t predict success.
Put a new rep on his own network in week one
The Tulsa sales manager said new reps keep telling him they aren’t ready to call their network until they learn the trade, and by then those people have had their roofs done by a stranger. On the day his reps worked their own networks, a trainee in his first week came away with his first contract. The one-in-eight rep advised hiring one rep at a time and keeping each at your side for his first month.
Calls to people a rep knows also fall under the federal do-not-call exception for “any family member, friend, or acquaintance” of the caller. Cold calls to strangers have to honor the national registry, even just to book an inspection, with fines up to $53,088 per violation. I haven’t read state telemarketing laws, so check yours.
At one DFW roofer, four of five one-star reviews were about a canvasser
In September 2026 I read a DFW-area roofer’s one-star Google reviews. Four of the five, from four different reviewers between 2019 and 2025, describe a canvasser at the door. Two say an insurance claim was opened off a signature collected there, and two say the rep walked past a no-soliciting sign. The owner answered the latest one and said they would retrain. Read your own one-stars for the same pattern before you add reps.
An owner wrote on YouTube in 2025 that when he started as a rep, “They gave you temporary cards and some shirts and said go get after it,” and that his crews now pick up claims other contractors’ reps mishandled.
What a rep says at the door can break state insurance law
Each state sets its own rules here. I read Texas and Florida law and the federal cancellation rule, so treat the list below as examples of what to look up, and have a lawyer in your state read a new rep’s script before his first door:
- In Texas, a rep can’t cover the deductible. Business and Commerce Code 27.02 bars a seller paid from insurance proceeds from paying, waiving, absorbing or declining to collect the deductible without the insurer’s consent, or offsetting it with a rebate or credit. A violation is a Class B misdemeanor, and a contract of $1,000 or more needs a notice in at least 12-point bold saying the insured has to pay it.
- In Texas, a rep can’t act as the homeowner’s adjuster. Insurance Code 4102.163 says a contractor “may not act as a public adjuster or advertise to adjust claims” on a property it is or may be working on, even with a public adjuster license or a power of attorney. Ask your lawyer where a rep’s words cross that line, and put the answer in his training.
- Anywhere in the US, the homeowner can cancel for three business days. Under the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule, a buyer who signs for $25 or more at home can cancel until midnight of the third business day. The seller has to tell him so out loud at signing and print the notice in at least 10-point bold by the signature line, and Texas law gives the same three days. Ask your lawyer whether any of the rule’s exemptions fit your contracts.
- In Florida, a paid canvasser’s pitch counts as yours. Statute 489.147 makes a paid nonemployee’s soliciting the contractor’s own act and bars offering a homeowner anything of value tied to a roof claim, a deductible waiver included, with fines up to $10,000 per violation. I haven’t checked whether a court has blocked any of it.
Maryland licenses home improvement salespeople after an exam, and I haven’t checked most other states, Texas included, so look up your state or province and ask each city about soliciting permits before anyone knocks.
Canvassers who only book inspections may be owed overtime
The Department of Labor’s outside sales exemption from minimum wage and overtime has no salary test, and it covers employees whose main job is selling away from the employer’s place of business. It excludes promotion work “incidental to sales made, or to be made, by someone else,” along with phone sales that do more than back up visits in person. My reading, to check with an employment lawyer, is that a W-2 canvasser who only books inspections for a closer, or an in-office cold caller, is likely owed minimum wage and overtime. Whether a rep can be paid as a 1099 contractor is a separate test, covered in Roofing Contracts and 1099 Rules: What a New Owner Needs in Writing.
A recruiting consultant charged one owner $7,000 and delivered no rep
An owner wrote on r/RoofingSales in January 2025 that a sales recruiting consultant charged his company $7,000 for consulting that came to nothing, and that they’d trusted him because of his social media presence. In May he added that the consultant had locked them into a contract at thousands of dollars a month and backed off only when they threatened legal action, without ever delivering a rep. It’s one side of a dispute. Before you pay anyone for reps or rep training, ask:
- How long does the contract run?
- Do I pay by the month or by the hire?
- What counts as delivering a rep: someone who starts, or someone who signs his first contract?
- What does it cost to leave early?
Weigh a recruiter’s star candidates the same way. When one pitched an owner a commercial rep who reportedly sold about $8 million a year from self-generated leads and wanted a $150,000 base, the owner asked on r/RoofingSales why someone that capable would work for anyone else.
The recruiter from earlier, who was promoting a free masterclass, says one sponsored Indeed post drew over 800 applicants for about $300. His screen costs nothing to copy: a group call that sells every applicant on reasons not to take the job, then one-on-one interviews with whoever is still interested.
Count each rep’s own deals apart from the company leads he closes
Whatever split you pay, track two numbers for every rep: what he sells on deals he found himself and what he sells on company leads. Hand out company leads by the first number, as the commenter’s plan does, and hold it up against the $500,000 bar. Write the split down before your next interview, so you can tell a recruit how long his first check takes and what a self-generated deal pays.
If you want to see where your company already shows up on Google before you send reps out to knock, run the free Google Maps heatmap. Pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.