What Is Canvassing?
Canvassing is the practice of roofing sales reps physically going door to door in a neighborhood to generate leads and book estimates, usually organized with routing software and, in storm markets, tied to a recent hail or wind event.
$300 setup + $199 per booked appointment.
Canvassing is the practice of roofing sales reps physically going door to door in a neighborhood to generate leads and book estimates, usually organized with routing software and, in storm markets, tied to a recent hail or wind event.
Canvassing explained
Canvassing crews use software such as SPOTIO, SalesRabbit, or Knockbase to route reps through a neighborhood efficiently, often paired with storm-tracking data feeds like HailTrace when the canvassing is event-driven. Canvassing is the broader term for this door-knocking practice; storm chasing is the specific, event-driven version of it that surges into a market within hours of a hail or wind event.
Pay structure follows a documented pattern across live discussion among practicing roofing contractors: an hourly base of $10 to $20 an hour, plus a per-appointment bonus of $20 to $30, plus 1% or more of the gross sale once a job closes. That structure rewards reps who book and close consistently and gives companies a variable-cost way to staff a canvassing operation.
Hiring for canvassing specifically favors a 5-stage funnel that ends in a field ride-along, because a candidate who cannot survive a live door-knock roleplay generally does not survive the actual truck. Vendors like RoofNuts sell done-for-you canvassing teams built around this model rather than requiring a roofing company to hire and manage its own crew.
Why it matters when you're buying
Building an in-house canvassing operation means owning hiring, pay structure, and rep ramp time yourself, which is the real tradeoff against buying pre-booked appointments from an outside vendor. Count the full cost of that ownership, not just the commission percentage, before deciding which one is actually cheaper per closed job.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is canvassing different from storm chasing?
How are roofing canvassers typically paid?
Put the playbook to work
VA Horizon books qualified Roofing appointments and builds the systems behind Canvassing and the rest of your pipeline.
Book a Roofing Call$300 one-time setup · $199 per booked appointment · No-shows replaced free
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