Hiring your first roofing salesperson is one of the most important moves you’ll ever make — and one of the riskiest.
Get it wrong, and one bad hire can wipe out tens of thousands in profit.
Get it right, and the right rep can literally double your profit.
Most roofing companies don’t struggle because of a bad market.
They struggle because they bring the wrong people onto their sales team.
In this breakdown, we’ll walk through the 4 red flags that tell you someone is the wrong hire — and the green flags that show they can truly sell roofs and represent your brand well.
🚫 RED FLAG #1: Job Switching Every 6–12 Months
If someone hops from job to job every six months to a year, that’s a massive warning sign.
What they’ve done before is exactly what they’ll do for you.
You need consistency and commitment — not someone who disappears when the work gets tough.
🚫 RED FLAG #2: No Clear Sales History
If they can’t tell you:
What they sold
Their sales numbers
Their close rate
Their track record
There are only two possibilities:
They never tracked their performance
They performed too poorly to share it
Either way, move on.
🚫 RED FLAG #3: Chasing Salary Over Commission
A rep overly focused on salary is telling you one thing:
👉 “I don’t believe I can sell.”
Great reps want upside.
They want commission.
They believe in their skills.
If they don’t have that confidence, they’re not the person who should learn on your dollar.
🚫 RED FLAG #4: Hiring Friends or Family
This one is tough, but it’s the truth:
Trust doesn’t equal talent.
Sales requires discipline, skill, and grit.
If they don’t have the traits you need, you risk losing money and the relationship.
🟢 GREEN FLAGS: What GREAT Roofing Sales Reps Have in Common
After helping hundreds of roofing owners hire successfully, these are the traits that consistently predict top performers:
🟢 GREEN FLAG #1: In-Home Sales Experience
Someone who’s sold in-home before (HVAC, windows, solar, kitchen & bath, etc.) has learned:
How to sit at a kitchen table
How to build trust quickly
How to handle tough objections
How to close face-to-face
They don’t have to learn selling and your system at the same time.
🟢 GREEN FLAG #2: Straight Commission Experience
If they’ve worked on straight commission before, they know how to:
Hunt
Perform without a safety net
Stay motivated
Earn what they’re worth
This mindset is gold in roofing.
🟢 GREEN FLAG #3: They’ve Thrived in a Small Business
Roofing is fast paced.
Small teams.
Self-driven.
Lots of moving parts.
People who’ve only survived in big corporate structures often struggle in roofing because they’re used to hand-holding and structure.
🟢 GREEN FLAG #4: They Align With Your Values
You can train skills.
You can refine technique.
But you can’t fix a values mismatch.
Look for people who naturally demonstrate:
Work ethic
Integrity
Accountability
Respect for homeowners
Reliability
When values align, everything else becomes simple.
Final Thoughts
Hiring wrong can cost you thousands.
Hiring right can change your entire business.
Use these red and green flags as your roadmap and you’ll avoid the mistakes that destroy profit — and hire the kind of rep who grows your roofing business for years.
