The short version
Summary checklist
- Check you can feed the seat. One rule of thumb is 6+ techs, 2 install crews, 1,000 agreements before a full-time replacement seller pays.
- Write the seat down: lead mix, average ticket, appointments a day, territory and who books the calendar.
- Pick a pay plan you can explain on one page, and model it in the commission calculator.
- Hire for selling ability. You can teach the equipment. Closing at the kitchen table is much harder to teach.
- Ask for the record before you judge the person: close rate by lead source, average ticket, cancels and pay records.
- Run your own role-play and ride-along before you make an offer.
- Agree 90-day targets before day one, check in weekly, and pay commission on time.
Are you ready for a comfort advisor?
A comfort advisor runs in-home appointments to sell system replacements. The seat works when there are enough replacement opportunities to keep one person busy. Charlie Greer’s rule of thumb in Contracting Business is about 6+ techs, 2 install crews, 1,000 agreements. Below that, the owner or a lead tech usually runs the replacement calls.
Our own test is simpler: hire one when replacement leads are going unrun, or when you’re still running them yourself at night. How many replacement leads went unrun last month, or got run days late? If good leads are waiting, the seat may already be paying for itself in jobs you’re missing. The empty territory calculator puts a weekly number on that.
ServiceTitan’s CSR scorecard targets 2 sales leads booked per comfort advisor. It’s a goal with no time period attached, but it’s a useful check on lead flow. If you can’t keep a seller busy most weekdays, plan a split role (seller plus maintenance agreements, say), or wait a little longer.
Signs it’s time
Define the seat
Write the seat down before you write the ad. Strong candidates will ask about all of this, and clear answers help you stand out.
| Item | What to decide | Why a strong candidate asks |
|---|---|---|
| Lead mix | Share of tech leads, marketed leads and self-gen | Close rates swing hard by lead source |
| Average ticket | Your real number from the last 12 months, by system type | It sets what a rep earns per close |
| Appointments per day | How many, who books them, how far apart | Drive time eats close rate and pay |
| Options and financing | Good/better/best on every call? Which lenders? | A rep used to options won’t sell one system |
| Who prices | Price book, or the rep builds price to a margin | Decides whether you pay on sale or on GP |
What a great comfort advisor does
A great comfort advisor listens first, asking about the home, the comfort problems and the budget before opening a brochure. Then they present options with financing, and keep your technician’s credibility intact in front of the homeowner. We judge advisors on close rate by lead source, average ticket and gross profit, not volume alone. Those numbers tell you whether the seat is making you money.
Lead mix changes everything
ServiceTitan’s close-rate targets for comfort advisors: 75-85% on technician-generated leads, 65-80% on self-generated leads, 25-35% on marketing leads and 65%+ overall. These are goals, not averages. The point is the spread: a rep fed warm tech leads will post a close rate that may not hold up on your marketed leads.
Formulas differ too. Siro’s recordings put the national in-home close rate at 26.9%, counting a visit as a close when it moved toward a sale. Pro Remodeler’s verdict on close-rate definitions: No standard. Ticket varies just as much: ServiceTitan’s target replacement ticket is $7,700+, but use your own number.
Design the pay plan
The best advisors want three things from a pay plan: one they can calculate themselves, commission paid on time, and enough good leads to earn. Most plans take one of three shapes:
- Percent of sale. Simple and common. ServiceTitan’s target is 9% of sales. Add a rule for discounted jobs.
- Percent of gross profit. Discounts come partly out of the rep’s pocket. EGIA describes one plan: a training wage for 90 days, then 15% / 12% / 15% of GP. The rep has to trust your job costing.
- Commission only, or a draw against commission. Common in postings. One commission-only posting in Middle Georgia advertised $120,000-$200,000 in first-year potential. That’s advertised pay, not proof of earnings.
For a wider reference, BLS puts the median wage for sales reps at HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors at $78,170, with the 10th percentile at $43,460 and the 90th at $138,300. BLS covers W-2 employees only. Housecall Pro, citing ZipRecruiter, puts HVAC sales rep pay at $59,500-$110,000. More on the comfort advisor salary page and in HVAC commission structures.
What attracts good advisors
A competitive percent of sale or GP, a base or draw for the first months, and SPIFFs on the products you want sold. What drives them away: complicated clawbacks, commission paid months after install, caps on earnings, and rules that change after they start. Late or short commission checks lose good reps faster than anything else.
- Protect margin. Pay the full rate only at book price, so the rep does best when you do.
- Settle cancels up front. Write down whether commission is clawed back when a job cancels. Under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule, a homeowner has 3 business days to cancel most in-home sales.
- Give a first advisor a cushion. We usually recommend a base or a draw for the first 60 to 90 days, then commission. A new rep with no cushion tends to discount to close, and you end up with underpriced jobs.
Sourcing: where comfort advisors come from
Promote a technician, or hire a seller?
Many great comfort advisors started as techs. The difference is temperament. A tech who sells well is curious about people, comfortable talking about money, and doesn’t mind hearing no. A tech who mainly knows the equipment tends to explain the system instead of helping the homeowner decide. Our view: promote a tech who is already turning service calls into sales. Otherwise, hire a proven seller and let your techs keep feeding them good leads. More in promote a technician or hire a comfort advisor.
Sellers from other in-home trades
Strong advisors also come from windows, bath, roofing, water treatment and solar. They already run a kitchen-table presentation and handle financing; the equipment can be taught. Solar closers are worth a call: the federal homeowner solar credit doesn’t cover systems placed in service after 31 Dec 2025, and Wood Mackenzie forecasts residential installs to shrink 21% in 2026.
Referrals
Your techs and reps know who sells well in your market, so make the referral bonus worth their while. McWilliams & Son, profiled on the ServiceTitan blog, pays $1,000 + $2,000 a year for a referral who gets hired and stays.
The best advisors already have jobs
Owners often tell us there’s no point looking, because the good advisors are all employed. They are, and that’s exactly where the best hires come from. Top advisors aren’t scrolling job boards. They move when someone shows them a better opportunity: better leads, a fairer pay plan, a company that treats them well. That’s why we headhunt instead of posting ads, and check each rep’s close-rate history, pay history and references before you meet them. See how it works.
If you can, hire in spring or fall, so a new advisor learns your process before the summer and winter rush.
The job ad
A good comfort advisor reads your ad the way a homeowner reads a proposal. Give them the facts they’ll check anyway:
- Lead source and volume, in plain words: “mostly tech-generated leads, no cold calling.”
- Average ticket and the brands you sell.
- The pay plan, a realistic first-year range with its assumptions, and any base or draw.
- Territory, vehicle, hours and what the first 90 days look like.
Keep it honest. A range with its assumptions (“$X a year at two appointments a day and a 40% close rate”) earns more trust than “no ceiling”. Our comfort advisor job description is a copy-ready starting point.
Screen on proof, not personality
Good salespeople interview well. It’s part of the job. So ask for the record first, and judge fit after:
- Close rate, by lead source. Tech leads, marketed leads, self-gen. A blended number hides too much.
- Average ticket and options. What did they sell, and how often did the homeowner pick the top option?
- Volume. Annual sales, and how many issued leads they ran a week.
- Cancels. A high close rate with a high cancel rate usually points to pressure.
- Pay history. Commission statements or W-2s. If someone sold $1.2M and earned $110K, the paperwork should agree.
Pay records are the check owners skip most, and the one that tells you whether the rest is true. It’s also the part Level does for you: before you meet a rep, we verify their close-rate history and pay history and check their references. You still run the interview and make the call.
Closers talk in specifics
Ask about last month. A real closer tells you how many leads they ran, how many they sold, the average ticket, and the one that got away. Someone who mainly interviews well talks in adjectives: “I’m a people person.” Listen for how they handle “we want to think about it”, whether they bring up financing unprompted, and whether they talk about the homeowner’s problem or their own pitch.
Questions for any close rate
Red flags
- A close rate with no lead source, or a marketed-lead number far above ServiceTitan’s 25-35% target.
- Sales figures that don’t match their pay.
- Several short stays, each with a story that blames the company.
- A high cancel rate they brush off. Jobs that cancel cost you twice: the lead and the install slot.
Interview, role-play and ride-along
Once someone clears the numbers, watch them sell. These steps are yours to run, because they test fit with your process as much as skill.
A structured interview
Ask every candidate the same core questions: walk me through your last lost sale. What did you do on the rehash? How do you present options?
Role-play your hardest call
Play a homeowner with an old system, two other quotes and a spouse who isn’t home. Does the candidate ask questions before presenting, show options, hold price and ask for the order? Twenty minutes tells you more than an hour of interview.
A ride-along
Bring your finalist on a real appointment as an observer. See how they talk to a homeowner and what they ask on the drive back.
The offer and the first 90 days
Put the offer in writing: the pay plan, how and when commission is paid, the cancel and chargeback rule, territory, vehicle and ramp support. Tell the candidate how pay changes through ramp before they resign from their current job.
| Window | What happens | On track looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1-14 | Learns the products, price book and CRM. Rides along on real appointments with you or your best closer. | Knows the product line. Can run your presentation. |
| Days 15-45 | Runs own appointments, starting with warmer tech leads. You review every appointment together, sold or not. | Closing tech leads. Clean paperwork. Few cancels. |
| Days 46-90 | Full calendar, including marketed leads. | Close rate by lead source, ticket and cancels tracking toward the targets you agreed. |
Agree the targets for each stage before the first day, and check in weekly. If there’s a training wage, make the date it ends clear on day one.
Why new advisors leave early
Fewer leads than promised, commission paid late or short, no real training, and rules that change after the start. All fixable: show the real lead numbers while hiring, pay on time every time, and invest the first two weeks in training. Reps rarely leave a company where they’re earning well, and an advisor who earns well is making you money too.
Expect a dip
Metrics to manage
| Metric | How to calculate it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Close rate by lead source | Jobs signed ÷ leads run, split by tech, marketed and self-gen | The fair way to compare reps |
| Average ticket | Sold revenue ÷ jobs sold | Shows whether options get presented |
| Net sales per lead | Sales after cancels ÷ leads run | Close rate, ticket and cancels in one number |
| Cancel rate | Cancelled jobs ÷ jobs signed | Early warning for pressure selling |
| GP per day | Gross profit sold ÷ days worked | Keeps price and margin honest |
| Leads run per day | Appointments run ÷ working days | Tells you whether the calendar or the rep is the constraint |
Siro’s data shows how much the person matters: top reps run +7.4% to +11.3% above their own company’s median close rate. Same company, very different results.
Common mistakes
- Promoting your top tech without testing the selling. You can lose a great tech and gain an average seller.
- Hiring whoever interviews best. Ask for the record first.
- Starving the seat. A new seller with a handful of appointments a week can’t learn or earn. Keep the calendar full during ramp.
- Hiring after the rush starts. A rep hired in July learns on your busiest, most expensive leads.
- Treating turnover as bad luck. B2B sales teams average 35% a year turnover. Check in at day 30, 60 and 90, and keep a bench.
- Guessing on licensing. EPA Section 608 certification: Refrigerant handlers only. A seller who never touches refrigerant appears not to need it (our reading). Check your state and city rules for home improvement salespeople too.