r/RoofingSales

Has anyone ever had a terrible first six months of the year and then absolutely crushed the last six?

2026 is my second year in roofing sales. Last year I sold 30 roofs. We had some big storms in 2025, and looking back I know I could’ve sold a lot more. I was still learning the business and wanted to make sure every homeowner was taken care of the right way.

This year has been different. The hail has been weak, I’ve lost a lot of deals, and it’s been discouraging. I’m trying to shift my mindset away from results and toward consistency. Control the effort, let the results follow.

I have to make these next six months count.
Before roofing, I spent years in the electronic security and fire protection industry, where integrity and doing things the right way were everything. I’ve brought those same values into roofing. I won’t pressure homeowners into filing claims they don’t need, manufacture damage, cut corners just to make a sale. I’d rather build a reputation than make a quick commission.

It’s also been a difficult year personally. I’ve had to set boundaries with unhealthy family relationships(mom, sister and aunt) that were affecting my mental health and my performance. My biological father abandoned me before I was born, ironically he’s a highly successful Allstate sales agent. These are deep personal issues I’m having to overcome and I know we all have a story, I want to come out on top and successful. Not trying to have a pity party but want to share my personal struggling I’m overcoming.

At the same time, I’ve poured myself into serving my community. I founded a nonprofit that serves local schools, at-risk youth, and foster children. It’s been amazing to see that grow while I’m still trying to figure out how to become a top producer in roofing. I have a friend who’s an attorney that saw the work my grassroots organization was doing and took care of all the cost in forming the nonprofit. It’s been absolutely incredible. I’ve been committed and obedient to this service work no matter the struggles I was experiencing.

My faith in Jesus is what keeps me grounded. I believe my job is to serve people well, work hard, and leave the outcome to God.

For those of you who’ve been in roofing a while, have you ever had a rough first half of the year and then finished strong? What changed? More doors? Better follow-up? Better sales process? Mindset? Better market?

I’d appreciate any advice from people who’ve been there.

I’m single with no kids. I want to get married and have kids one day My why for getting into roofing is to be able to provide for my future family.

Title

Mine currently is “We just have nothing to compare it to since you’re the first here.”

I’m having trouble getting over this. Lots of times, it’s purely only this.

I’m curious how other roofing contractors handle this.
I get contacted fairly often by homeowners who had a metal roof installed by another company. They want me to review photos, evaluate the workmanship, point out deficiencies, and essentially provide a free expert opinion based on my experience with metal roofing.
Personally, I’m not in the habit of giving away that kind of expertise for free. Beyond the value of my time, I also don’t want to become involved in disputes between homeowners and other contractors or create unnecessary bad blood within the industry.
How do you handle these requests? Do you politely decline, offer a paid inspection, or provide some level of feedback? I’m interested in hearing how other professionals approach this situation.

tl;dr: when do you stop signing new contracts and tell people you’re full?

Alright here’s an ethical question I have for you guys, gals, and non binary pals.

I’ve been in roofing and roofing sales and roofing ownership for a combined 16 years. I mostly deal with roofing, but also sub out siding, decks, blah blah blah, anything with storm damage I’ll do it.

I even contract interior work, but I scream and cry about it the whole way.

Most of the work I do is related to hail, and unless it’s a banger of a storm, there isn’t an immediate “oh my god fix my property today or I’m suffering more damage by the minute”. Gives me time to supplement with insurance, get approval, do the work, yada yada.

Recently there was a big wind storm in my neck of the woods. Whole buildings flat on the ground. Walls torn from homes, rafters, decking, roof completely missing. Decks in neighbors’ yard, tree limbs through siding poking into the living room.

When you’re in a storm environment like that do you only sign people that you can fulfill right away, or do you sign anyone that wants to put ink on paper? Do you tell people they are the 50th person in line and it might be two months before you can reframe their house and put new siding/deck/roof on it? Or do you hem and haw and say there are people ahead of you but we can do it!

Just trying to get my bearings of when to turn people away. I’ve never worked a storm quite like this, and definitely never had to worry about “if I sign another person we might be hurting them by putting them at the back of the line, maybe someone else should handle this”.

Im new to the sales roofing world, Im open to any advice! (: or just to chat

Gas is down 10 percent. Who is getting rich?

I hope everyone owns stock in the oil companies. :)

A tree maybe 18” around fell on my house in Merrillville Indiana. Damaged the roof and gutters. Liberty Mutual covered various things on my roof on various slopes for about 7k.
Didnt think that was good enough so I called a local family owned business that’s been in business for 20+ years. Good company. Many personal referrals. Inpspector shows up and does the full 9. Crawled around my attic first for a while then he proceeds topside.
He tells me the shingles exposure was simply a size that has not been produced for some time. He harvests a shingle and sends it for an ITEL test in Florida to legitimize our claim.
We get the results. Old tamko heritage with a 5” exposure. Nothing is currently produced in that size.
We send the test to L.M. They respond with they will cover then entire front slope due to the valley. But now they were removing box vents from the claim saying they were no longer damaged. They’re new calculations for my payout went down $950 to right over $6k.
This doesn’t seem right. My roofer claimed that how can you take something away without a reinspection and asked for written documentation on how to properly repair this roof to the manufacturers specifications.
They side stepped everything he has emailed to them, not answering the bulk of his questions.
Can we get insurance to pay for this before I croak?

Long story short, I interviewed at company A and accepted a position and I am nearing my start date. Company B’s interview process was longer but the offer is quite compelling. This is for a retail sales/estimator position in the PNW. I need help deciding what is going to be the best fit as I am coming from an adjacent industry (solar).

Company A:
- decades of good reputation in the community. Virtually no bad reviews that have gone unaddressed
- m-f 7-5 (start in office, run estimates, leave from office) claiming some autonomy if productive
- 50k base + 3% on gross revenue sold
- health, vision, dental, 401k w/ 4% match
- company truck at the office
- mainly residential, with a path into commercial eventually
- 15-20 company fed appointments per week (smaller sales team)
- professional and well structured culture.
- emphasis on no hard sale, no direction to knock other than a 6-pack. Does encourage networking
- earnings seem to be $150-200k (based off current reps)

Company B:
- about a decade of decent reputation in neighboring communities. Reviews vary mostly in quality, hard sale for unneeded reroof, communication.
- no time commitment in office other than a meeting or two a week
- base can be negotiated while starting, but otherwise just 5% of gross revenue sold, 7.5% on self-gen commercial
- health, vision, dental are all employee paid
- take home company truck
- primarily residential, some commercial
- 8-11 company appointments per week (performance based)
- 10 other sales reps, not a lot of long tenure
- performance-driven and young culture
- encourages knocking, self generating
- earnings claimed to be $175k-300k (based off current reps)
- offers the autonomy to help build/sell solar. Also offering a more commercial based position that has a 60k base but less on commission, less company leads.

We had hail damage last year. Pretty bad. Part of our whole house siding is destroyed. We had several companies come out. We decided on a local company.

This was in September. We have paid the deposit. We signed a contract.

The guy said install date would be December at latest. That flew by. Next we heard March. Then we had to file an extension. Now we have no idea. The company is very hard to get ahold of. Emails are basically non existent. I sometimes get called back by a siding guy who wont give me a day.

Our extension expires in September. The ins company says they may not approve another extension. The roofing company says that is fine as it only affects new supplements not getting the depreciation back so they arent concerned.

When I talked with the roofing company it sounds like it may be next November or maybe later?

Is this normal in this industry? Every single one of my neighbors have had their stuff done by out of state people. I thought i was doing good by staying local

Looking for some input from other metal or shingle contractors.

We looked at a very challenging metal roofing project a while back. This wasn't a straightforward install—it required a high level of experience, and we made it clear to the homeowner that it wasn't a project for someone learning on the job.

We gave him our best price, explained exactly how we would approach it, but he ultimately chose another contractor. Throughout the process, the homeowner also had some pretty strong opinions on how we should handle the job.

He hired another contractor, not a metal guy - big mistake.

5 weeks into the job and the contractor who was hired delivered materials, torn off part of the existing roof, and nothing installed - 5 weeks on the job.

The contractor was fired and now the homeowner is begging us to come back and finish it.

We don't want to inherit a project where expectations have already been difficult to manage.

How would you respectfully decline this opportunity while maintaining a good reputation in a small community?

Or would you consider taking it on only under certain conditions?

Thanks for your feedback.

Hi all- I am trying to invest in SEO to increase getting customers from Google, ChatGPT etc. Looks like there is a whole bunch of tools and most are pretty expensive as well.

So for people who have tried it, what is the best SEO tool for my roofing company?

Hiring Door to Door Canvasser | Charlotte, NC
All Tite Exteriors is looking for a motivated, dependable door to door canvasser to join our team in the Charlotte area.
No roofing experience is necessary. If you’re outgoing, hardworking, and enjoy talking to people, we’ll provide the training you need to succeed.
What you’ll do:
• Knock on residential doors in neighborhoods we assign
• Offer homeowners a free roof inspection
• Schedule appointments for our inspectors
Pay:
• Paid for every qualified lead
• Daily pay available
• Opportunity to move into a full time roofing sales position with excellent earning potential
Requirements:
• Reliable transportation
• Strong work ethic
• Comfortable speaking with homeowners
• Able to work independently
We’re a well established local roofing company with a strong reputation for quality workmanship and customer service.
If you’re interested, send me a direct message here on Reddit with your name, phone number, and any relevant experience. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

I think it's much more likely than most people realize. Amazon already has most of the capabilities needed:

1. AI analyzes satellite imagery and drone inspections.

3.AI measures the roof, detects damage, estimates material quantities, and generates a quote.

4.The customer accepts the quote online.

5. Materials are ordered automatically and delivered just before installation.

6. A vetted subcontractor accepts the job through an app.

7. Quality is verified with post-installation drone imagery.

Amazon's strengths in logistics line up perfectly, think about it:

Scheduling crews efficiently.

Buying shingles in enormous volume at lower prices.
Optimizing logistics.

Financing purchases instantly.

Standardizing quality control.

Building customer trust with reviews and guarantees.

I think the home improvement industry as a whole
Is in a lot more danger than people realize.

I mean Carvana blew up purely because people didn’t like dealing with salesmen, what’s right behind car sales in scumminess? That’s right.

EDIT: LOL I hit a sore spot with some of the old heads here. Hot button topic.

Often times people want to know what the salary or commission is for other people in the industry. This will be a nice resource to give you a general idea of whether you are paid fairly or not.

Please post as many details as possible.

-Company name
-State/county most business happens

-Explain your commission plan and please provide an example of pay breaking down the numbers.

-Explain approximately how many warm leads you get/week and how you receive them.

Looking for some insight on this industry.

I have been in Industrial Sales the last 5 years. Outside sales, B2B. Long sales cycles and relationship building is what I'm used to, along with account penetration and cross selling.

I am good at negotiating agreements, not afraid to ask for the sale (I see a lot of reps afraid to close deals by asking for the sale), not afraid to door knock and put in hours.

I am looking into a few roofing companies that have been posting some high earning outside sales roles. I am actually interviewing on Tuesday with Ameripro Roofing.

I don't know a ton about sales in the roofing industry. I assume tons of door knocking.

Also, I am in the Midwest for reference. We get a lot of wind and hail damage in my area, seems like every year.

What insights can you share?

I earned over $100K last year, if I perform well in this industry, is that possible with roofing sales?

Any tips on interviewing for the role?

What does it take to be successful in this industry?

I'm a little nervous about a change as I'm the primary income earner for my family. But I desperately need to get out of my current role, the company isn't doing well.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

So kinda random story but I met this marketing freelancer dude while I was up on his roof doing some work about a month ago. We got to talking and he said he could help me get more clients through Facebook ads. I was skeptical honestly bc I tried boosting posts before and got nothing out of it.

Anyways I gave him a shot. Hes been running ads for me on Meta for the past month, $18 a day budget. Here's what the numbers look like:

• 29 lea
• $26.30 per lea
• 23,100 views
• 330 link clicks
• 891 post engagements

Out of those 29 I closed 2 jobs. Both came out to over $8kk each so roughly $18k in work from maybe what $540 in spent? I dont really know what im looking at if im being honest with you guys. I run roofs not spreadsheets.

Is that good? Like is $26 decent for roofing in Florida? I feel like it is but I dont wanna keep paying this guy if im just getting lucky with timing or whatever. Dude seems legit but I met him on my ladder so what do I know about vetting a marketing person anyway.

Appreciate any feedback from guys who actually know this stuff...

https://preview.redd.it/z3sde5n9ab9h1.png?width=1503&format=png&auto=webp&s=e89b32291f902a9aba885d403c6c7751d2bd4841

What is something that is a problem in roofing that an app/software doesn’t currently fix/solve (not the actual physical task of roofing but a problem with running a roofing business).

I don’t want to sell anyone anything. I simply want to one day fix a problem roofers have. Thanks.