Roofing Door-Knocking ROI: Price the Paid Field Hour

Canvassing is paid time before it is a lead source. Price the hours, travel, supervision and tools that produce the doors. Then follow the same block through held appointments and collected jobs. A low cost per knock can coexist with an expensive collected job.

Calculate from paid time to collected gross profit

Enter the cohort’s paid hours and productive share separately. The scenario band changes several conversion rates together; it is a stress test, not a confidence interval or probability. Fractional jobs are expected values, not actual completed roofs.

A $30 paid hour can cost $50 per productive hour

In an illustrative block, the company pays for 100 hours at a fully loaded $30 per hour. Labor cost is $3,000. Only 60 hours are productive door time; the rest covers travel, meetings, route setup and other paid activity. Labor cost per productive hour is $3,000 ÷ 60 = $50, before vehicles, supervision and tools.

At 20 doors per productive hour, the block produces 1,200 attempted doors. Add $1,000 of other attributable cost and the total is $4,000. Cost per door is $3.33. If those doors produce six collected jobs, cost per collected job is $666.67. None of these is a universal canvassing benchmark; they are different views of one assumed block.

Where the 1,200 doors go

On a phone, swipe the table to read every column.

At $15,000 collected revenue and 35% gross margin per job, those six jobs produce $31,500 gross profit. Subtract $4,000 acquisition cost: net canvassing contribution is $27,500 and ROI is 687.5%. Use margin after the job costs you intend to include, and do not count a commission twice as both acquisition expense and a margin deduction.

A route repair and a pitch repair can produce the same model output

Hold cost and later rates constant. Raising productive share from 60% to 75% creates 25% more attempted doors. Raising conversation rate from 20% to 25% creates 25% more conversations from the original door count. Each change produces 7.5 expected collected jobs in this model rather than six.

The first is an operations hypothesis: less travel, cleaner assignment or fewer revisits. The second might involve timing, access or a better opener. It is not automatically proof of a skill gap. The arithmetic values both changes similarly; the manager must determine which is feasible and what it costs. More productive time is not free if it requires another supervisor or a farther route.

This is why the CRM-versus-coaching decision belongs beside field economics. Route records identify wasted movement. Conversation review identifies an observable question or explanation to change. A larger door target should follow the diagnosis, not substitute for it.

Sets are not held appointments

In the example, 60 sets become 48 held appointments. A rep can increase set count by accepting looser commitments while reducing show rate. The resulting calendar may grow without adding any held appointments. Track both stages and inspect the booking language, access, owner and confirmation.

Related guidance: canvassing app comparison.

Signed roofs also need completion and collection. Reconcile the six uncollected or unfinished outcomes separately rather than claiming the 12 signatures as realized ROI. The roofing lead cost guide explains cohort maturity; marketing ROI connects the channel to the wider budget.

Compare opportunities, not just raw rep totals

Keep territory, time of day, property access, service offer and lead mix visible. A dense neighborhood and a dispersed rural route do not create the same doors per paid hour. A rep assigned a small repair offer should not be ranked directly against a rep selling replacements by collected revenue alone. Compare matched work where possible and explain the remaining differences.

For training, name the behavior and observe it in comparable conversations. “Ask one clarifying question before assuming an inspection is wanted” is inspectable; “increase conversion 20%” is a target. Adaptive practice supplies the drill. Echo may support conversation review, but no software score replaces the stage ledger.

Keep the cost boundary explicit

Include attributable paid travel, loaded compensation, manager time, vehicle cost and source-specific software under a consistent rule. There is no $30 statutory or recommended wage in this example. Check the company’s actual payroll and approved field process.

Method and scope

The field block and changes are illustrative assumptions reviewed September 28, 2026. No universal roofing-canvassing conversion benchmark was used. The model values expected jobs; historical reconciliation tells you what did happen. Keep your actual policy and payroll records authoritative.