Hiring Roofing Sales Reps Before Winter: How Northern Roofers Handle Slow-Season Pay

Up north, roofing has a cliff. October is chaos. January is quiet. And every fall the same question hits: do you hire that promising rep now, knowing leads are about to slow down and his paycheck goes with them?

I asked my Facebook feed: Northern roofers, how do you handle hiring people before the winter, knowing lead gen is much slower? I’m concerned about their income.

Here’s what owners from Minnesota to Michigan to New York told me.

Why this matters

A rep who starves in January quits in February. Then you’re hiring again in March, right when you need trained people most. How you pay and plan through winter decides whether you keep good people or rent them for a season.

Option 1: Give them a draw

You could offer a small draw for the winter months to be paid back over the spring and summer. I’m hiring one to two salespeople right now. They’ll get one month of good selling time in before it starts to slow down, and that’s my plan.

Amanda Veinott-Praml, Owner, Maven Roofing & Exteriors

Provide them with a draw and a contract stating it will be paid back in increments from their first few earned paychecks.

Jordan Bohn

Put the payback terms in writing before day one. A draw with fuzzy terms turns into a fight in April.

Option 2: Spread a base across the whole year

Offer a year-long base salary. We’re still commission driven, but we spread that base across the 12 months to give consistent income every pay period.

Cole Nelson

Q3 and Q4 are our biggest quarters. I worry more about hiring guys between December 24th and February 15th. That said, we also offer a 6 month base before kicking them to 100% commission.

Marshall Anliker

First ask: do I really need to hire now? Or can I run with the team I have, recruit during December and January, and train in February to hit it hard come March?

If you need to hire, be transparent. Recruit with the expectation that self gen is a job requirement, not optional, with clear expectations on how to earn a company lead. And offer a weekly ramp-up during training plus half commission on jobs sold.

Kevin Gillis Jr.

Option 3: Don’t hire before winter

You don’t hire before winter.

Ryan Malick

For our Michigan operations, hiring gets cut off in September. Then we begin recruiting in February to fill a sales training class for March. During training we reiterate multiple times the importance of budgeting and saving for winter.

Paul Kirkwood

Hire in winter and let them take their time to learn the industry, then get them selling as the weather gets nice. To truly succeed in this industry you need a good 2 to 3 months of training.

Dakota Chirdon

Be honest with them. Only hire people who’ve been in the industry a bit and know what Minnesota roofing season looks like. My busiest time is end of August through November, and October is peak. Not the best time to be training a newbie. If they’ve been in the business and have a pipeline, it’s all good.

Emily ‘Schletz’ Gonsior

Not everyone agreed. Bobby Kissell’s reply to Ryan: “Always be hiring!” Both can be true. Always be recruiting. Be careful when you start the paycheck.

Option 4: Give them winter work that pays

The most practical answers were about keeping revenue moving when shingles aren’t.

One of our northern brands does roof snow removal in the winter. Sometimes hundreds of leads per week. It’s also great for a “we’ll come back in spring and make sure you’re all good” follow-up.

Jennifer Blackwood

Ice dams kept us slammed like summer.

Zachiary Kuper

We hang Christmas lights. 2 crews of 4, 400 homes and businesses. 50-hour weeks until the end of January.

Wheeler Carmichael

We make a million a month doing snow and ice in New York.

Shane Levi Norton

Others pointed reps toward retail and remodeling projects, door-to-door window sales and plowing. Brad Kettering summed it up: “Do other stuff, not just roofing.”

Option 5: Self-gen through the winter

If you’re really good at door knocking, you don’t have to worry about winter being slow. We’re busiest in the 4th and 1st quarter.

Justin Parker, Cox Roofing and Restoration, LLC

You hit the streets and go find the people who are having active issues due to the weather.

Derrick Uribe

Zach Carter pushed back from Ohio: in his tracking, buying leads beat paying a rep a base to cold source, partly because Midwest reps expect bases and benefits. Derrick’s answer: when leads slow down, your reps still have to knock or network. Both are right. Know your numbers before you pick a side.

Watch your winter ad spend

Is lead gen slower? I’ve found it’s more expensive. Your current reps will get fewer leads, and you won’t want to give leads to your lowest producers. They’ll drop off. Adding a new rep makes it tough.

Impressions cost more during the winter. You’re competing against Thanksgiving and Christmas, people aren’t interested, so leads cost a lot more. Be careful turning up the spend to meet lead demand. That’s like pushing the gas straight into a wall.

Juan Curling, Founder, Frontline

Agree completely. Winter is for SEO, reviews and content that pay off in spring, not for forcing ad spend into a market that isn’t buying.

Just be honest

Be honest and up front with them. Let them draw unemployment if they’re eligible, and if we need them badly enough, we let them know we’ll give them a bonus when we lay them off.

Melvin Belk

A good sales guy should know how to budget his money going into winter and know you aren’t selling as much. Yes, you can still sell jobs, but production and payment will take longer.

Andy Schmidt

The fact that you care about their income says so much about you as a person.

Erica Chapman

The funny answer

I explain that what happens during winter, stays in winter.

Joshua Miller

Takeaways: hiring roofing sales reps before winter

1. Decide if you need to hire now. Many northern owners stop hiring in September and run a training class in February.
2. If you hire, fund the gap on purpose. A written draw, a base spread over 12 months or a 6-month base. Pick one and put it in the offer letter.
3. Hire experience in the fall. Peak season is a bad time to train a rookie.
4. Give winter work. Snow and ice removal, ice dams, Christmas lights, windows, remodeling.
5. Make self-gen part of the job. Set clear rules for earning company leads.
6. Don’t force winter ad spend. Invest in SEO and reviews that pay off in spring.
7. Be honest. Tell reps exactly what winter looks like before they sign.