How to hire roofing sales reps

Are you ready to add a rep?

Most roofing sales teams are small. JobNimbus’s Peak Performance report says most run with 4 or fewer reps, and its advice is to add a dedicated sales manager once you reach 5-10 reps. If you’re the owner and still the main closer, the first hire is a big step: you’re handing over inspections you would have won. Done well, it’s also how you win more of them.

You’re ready when inspections are waiting, when you’re turning work down in a busy week, or when your own close rate is slipping because you’re running too many appointments. Hold off if you can’t feed a new rep enough inspections to learn on. A rep with a thin schedule in month one learns slowly and tends to leave early.

Expect competition for good people. In Roofing Contractor’s 2025 State of the Industry survey, 38% of residential roofers listed the lack of qualified workers among their top challenges.

Retail or storm: define the seat

“Roofing sales rep” covers two different jobs. Decide which one you’re hiring for, because the skills, the pay plan and the candidate pool are all different. There’s more in retail vs storm roofing sales.

Both are skilled jobs, and they’re different hires. A storm rep who has never sold retail can struggle when a homeowner pushes back on price, and a retail rep can get lost in an insurance claim. Know which one you need before the search starts.

Then write the rest down: territory, inspections a week you can feed, who books them, who runs production, and who handles supplements. A storm rep who chases their own supplements is a different hire from one who hands the file to an office.

Estimator or sales rep?

In a sample of Contractor’s Cloud customers, the split between Sales Representative, Project Manager and Estimator titles was 80% / 7% / 3%. In most roofing companies an estimator inspects, prices and asks for the sale, which makes it a sales job. Some companies use the title because it puts homeowners more at ease. A few companies have true estimators who only measure and price. So the first question we ask on an estimator search is: does this person close, or only price? The answer changes who you look for and how you pay them. See estimator vs sales rep.

Design the pay plan

Strong reps want a plan they can calculate themselves, commission paid on time, and enough good inspections to earn. JobNimbus reports 10% of gross as the most common plan, with a share of profit the main alternative. The three shapes you’ll see:

• Percent of contract or gross. Simple and easy to check. AccuLynx describes common ranges of 7-12% of contract, or 30-50% of profit. Jessica Stahl of Ignite Results advises a cap on total sales commission: Under 12% of gross.
• 10/50/50. A slice off the top for overhead, then job costs, then the profit left split evenly with the rep. On insurance jobs it averages 10-20% of the job, according to Adam Bensman, quoted by Hook Agency. Because the rep is paid on profit, it rewards protecting margin and filing good supplements. A separate Hook Agency article says the split works for storm work and not for retail.
• Base plus commission, or a draw. Steadier for a new rep, and it buys commitment to your process during ramp. See draw against commission.

BLS puts the median wage for sales reps at roofing, siding and other exterior contractors at $69,990, with $37,700 at the 10th percentile and $136,100 at the 90th. It covers W-2 employees only, so commission-only 1099 reps are missing. The roofing commission page and the roofing sales rep salary page go deeper, and you can model your plan in the commission calculator.

W-2 or 1099

This one is for you and your accountant. For context, 93% of roofing sales leaders in Leap’s 2024 survey said they had moved reps from 1099 to W-2. Whatever you choose, say it in the ad. Experienced reps filter on it.

When commission gets paid

Decide whether commission is earned at signing, at install or at collection, and what happens on jobs that cancel or never get paid. Paying on collection keeps an insurance rep tied to the file until the last check clears. The trade-off is cash flow: a rep who waits months for a check starts listening to other offers.

Put it in the offer letter. Plans that push good reps away share a few traits: complicated clawbacks, slow payouts, caps on earnings, and rules that change after the start.

Sourcing: where proven reps come from

Roofers lean on job postings: 55% of residential roofers recruit through them, according to Roofing Contractor. Postings bring volume. They rarely bring a rep who is closing well somewhere else, because that person isn’t looking.

That doesn’t put the best reps out of reach. They’re employed, and that’s exactly where the best hires come from. They move when someone shows them a better opportunity: better leads, faster pay, a production team that makes them look good. That’s why Level headhunts rather than posting ads. Good places to look:

• Reps at other roofers in your market. They already know your shingles, your adjusters and your neighborhoods.
• Adjacent in-home sales. Siding, windows, gutter and solar closers already run a kitchen-table presentation. You teach the roof; the selling transfers.
• Storm reps between storms. Good insurance reps travel. Some want to settle somewhere with steady retail work.
• Your own canvassers. A canvasser whose appointments close is a candidate to promote.
• Referrals from your crews, your reps and your suppliers.

In the same Leap survey, many successful sales leaders said they aim to hire 1-3 reps a month, which tells you how much churn the trade plans for. Building a bench before the season beats hiring in a hurry after hail. In Hail Alley, the season runs March to August.

Canvassers

If your storm model runs on door knocking, you’re hiring canvassers too. Pay is often per appointment and per sale: one roofing posting advertised $50 per appointment + $150 per sale. BLS counts few door-to-door workers on payrolls, with a median wage of $41,380, which fits with most being paid as contractors. Plan for churn. RepCard’s illustration of door-to-door turnover: Hire 20, keep 8.

The job ad

Write the ad so a rep can explain the job to their spouse in two sentences. Include:

• Retail, insurance, or both, and the rough split.
• Who generates leads, and how many inspections a week a new rep can expect.
• The pay plan in one sentence with a worked example, and when commission pays.
• W-2 or 1099, vehicle and equipment expectations, and the territory.
• Who handles supplements, production and collections.

Skip the sky’s-the-limit earnings pitch; strong reps have seen it too often. A realistic range with its assumptions gets read, and it attracts reps who plan to stay. Start from our roofing sales rep job description. If you post on Indeed, budget for it: sponsored jobs are now pay-per-click, with budgets of $5-$499 a day. The trade-offs are in recruiter vs Indeed.

Screen on proof, not stories

Roofing reps tell good stories, and plenty of them are true. The paperwork tells you which. Ask for:

1. Close rate, and out of what: inspections run or contracts presented, split by retail and insurance, company leads vs self-gen, and over what period.
2. Average job, and the mix of repairs, replacements and full exteriors.
3. Insurance results: how many of their claims got approved, and what they typically added through supplements.
4. Cancels and collections: jobs that never got built, or never got paid.
5. Pay history: commission statements or tax forms whose totals match the volume they claim.

Level checks close-rate history, pay history and references before you meet a rep. That’s what tells you whether the storm story was real. The interview is still yours.

Red flags

• A close rate with no lead source or time period attached.
• Volume that doesn’t match the commission statements.
• Four companies in two years, with a story for each that blames the company.
• Cancels or uncollected jobs they brush off. A rep whose jobs never get built costs you twice: the lead and the production time.
• Any talk of “covering” a homeowner’s deductible.

Interview, role-play and ride-along

Questions that show real experience

Closers talk in specifics: inspections run last month, jobs signed, and the one that got away. Listen for detail:

• Walk me through your last inspection, from the door to the signature.
• What did you add on your last supplement, and how did you document it?
• How do you sell a retail roof to a homeowner holding two other quotes?
• What do you do when the adjuster doesn’t see the damage you see?

Run your own ride-along

Go on an inspection with your finalist. Watch the ladder safety, the photos, how they explain damage without overselling it, and how they present price. If they’ll be canvassing, knock a street together for an hour.

Role-play the kitchen table

Play the homeowner who says, “I’ll wait for the insurance check before I sign anything.” A rep who answers that calmly has done this before. For retail, play the homeowner who wants the cheapest shingle and see whether the rep can sell the system without knocking the competitor.

The offer and the first 90 days

Put the offer in writing: the commission formula, when it pays, chargebacks on cancels and uncollected jobs, who keeps the leads if the rep leaves, and the territory.

Agree the targets for each stage before day one, and check in weekly. Storm reps can ramp fast in a hot market and stall when the storm work dries up, so plan the off-season before you hire: retail leads, repair work, or a draw that bridges the slow months.

Why reps leave in their first season

Fewer inspections than promised, commission paid late or short, no training on the products or claims, and rules that change after the start. Show the real lead numbers while hiring, pay on time every time, and invest in the first two weeks. Reps rarely leave a company where they’re earning well.

If you hire through Level and the rep is let go for performance within 60 days of their first day, we find you one replacement at no extra cost.

Metrics to manage

Compare reps on the same lead source. A rep running fresh storm leads and a rep working cold retail leads shouldn’t be judged on one close rate.

Common mistakes

• Hiring a storm rep for a retail business, or the other way round.
• Paying on signed instead of collected on insurance jobs, then chasing commission back.
• Letting reps run supplements with no review. It’s your license and your reputation.
• Hiring after the hail hits. By then the good reps are booked.
• No plan for winter. Reps leave when the calendar empties.
• Taking volume claims on trust. Ask for the paperwork.
• Skipping the state rules on solicitation and claims.
• Lowering the bar to keep up with churn. B2B sales teams average 35% a year turnover, and in-home teams churn too. Hire continuously, but hire to the same standard.