Door Knocking ROI Calculator: Calculate Your Exact Cost Per Lead in Roofing Sales

Your canvassing rep knocked 240 doors last week, worked 20 hours, and generated three qualified leads. Was that good? Terrible? Worth the $400 in labor costs?

Most roofing contractors have no idea because they've never actually calculated their door-knocking ROI.

Use our interactive calculator below to find out exactly what you're paying per lead, per deal, and per dollar of revenue. Input your real canvassing metrics—hours worked, contact rates, close rates—and see instant breakdowns of your weekly and monthly projections. No guesswork, no spreadsheets, just real numbers based on your actual performance data.

The math reveals uncomfortable truths. Companies that can't answer "what's our cost per lead from canvassing?" are flying blind through storm season, hoping volume solves their profitability problem. It doesn't.

Use the calculator below to find out what you're actually paying.

Why Door-Knocking ROI Actually Matters (And Why Most Companies Ignore It)

Most roofing contractors track the wrong metrics. They count doors knocked, measure activity levels, celebrate reps who "hustle hard."

Meanwhile, they're bleeding money on canvassing strategies that generate leads at $127 each when trained reps generate the same leads for $54.

The conversion efficiency gap nobody measures:

The difference isn't effort—it's conversion efficiency at every funnel stage. According to industry canvassing benchmarks, the average door knocker reaches 18-23 doors per hour, makes contact at roughly 30% of those doors, and qualifies about 80% of contacts as potential opportunities.

But here's what those benchmarks miss: they assume all reps convert at the same rates.

They don't. A rep who freezes when the homeowner says "our neighbor just had theirs done for $8,000" doesn't qualify that lead. They thank the homeowner, leave a card, and mark it as "not interested."

An AI-trained rep who's practiced that objection 47 times responds with "that's actually why I'm here—insurance payouts vary wildly by adjuster, and I want to make sure you're not leaving $4,000 on the table."

One generates a lead. The other generates a "maybe later."

What unqualified conversations actually cost:

The National Roofing Contractors Association's workforce research shows labor costs consume 18-24% of most contractors' annual revenue. When you're paying canvassers $20/hour plus overhead, vehicle costs, and insurance, every unqualified conversation is real money walking out the door.

Yet most companies never calculate what they're actually paying for each qualified lead that makes it into their CRM.

The storm season math that breaks most budgets:

You've got 60-90 days to capture insurance jobs before adjusters move on and homeowners forget about the damage. Contractors dump money into lead generation—canvassing teams, digital ads, direct mail campaigns—without knowing which channels generate profitable leads versus expensive noise.

The calculator below fixes that for canvassing specifically.

The Five Metrics That Actually Drive Canvassing Profitability

1. Doors Knocked Per Hour (The Activity Baseline)

Your rep says they "worked the neighborhood all afternoon." What does that mean? Did they knock 60 doors in three hours or 18?

Industry benchmarks by territory type:

Industry averages suggest 12-15 doors per hour in suburban territories with standard lot sizes. Dense neighborhoods with townhomes or condos can push that to 20+ doors per hour. Rural areas with large properties might drop to 8-10 doors per hour.

None of these numbers matter if you're not tracking them.

Why the metric matters more than you think:

If your rep is only hitting 8 doors per hour in a suburban territory, they're either spending too much time at each door (probably getting into product knowledge debates instead of qualifying) or they're taking smoke breaks between streets.

Both problems are trainable, but only if you know they exist.

The fix isn't "work faster"—it's strategic territory planning. Adam Bensman at The Roof Strategist breaks down which doors to knock and which to skip. Storm-damaged neighborhoods with no yard signs? Fair game. Recently completed roofs or competitor yard signs? Move on.

Reps who understand door selection strategy knock fewer doors but generate better leads.

2. Contact Rate (Who Actually Answers)

Knocking 240 doors means nothing if only 48 people answer. Your contact rate—the percentage of doors where someone actually opens up and engages—determines your entire funnel economics.

Standard contact rates hover around 30-40% in most suburban markets.

Timing is everything:

Knock between 4-7pm on weekdays and you'll hit 45-50% contact rates. Show up at 11am on a Tuesday and you're lucky to crack 25%. Weekends are unpredictable—either everyone's home doing yard work or the whole neighborhood is at soccer games.

Weather's hidden impact on answer rates:

Knock during a heatwave and people answer in their underwear, annoyed you interrupted their Netflix binge in the AC. Light rain? Contact rates spike because people are home and bored. Heavy rain? Your rep is standing on a porch looking pathetic while the homeowner feels obligated to answer, which actually improves contact rates but destroys conversation quality.

Temperature matters more than contractors realize. According to door-to-door sales research, optimal canvassing happens between 60-75°F. Outside that range, either nobody answers (too hot, hiding inside) or they answer angry (you interrupted their warmth during cold snaps).

Your contact rate multiplied by doors knocked gives you total conversations. That's your denominator for everything else.

3. Lead Qualification Rate (Separating Renters from Buyers)

Not every contact is a lead. The person who answers might be:

• A renter with zero authority to approve a $12,000 roof replacement
• A homeowner who replaced their roof eight months ago
• Someone with a 30-year architectural shingle that's got another decade of life
• A homeowner actively working with another contractor (yard sign visible from the street, but your rep knocked anyway)

The three questions that separate pros from amateurs:

Professional canvassers qualify fast. Three questions reveal everything:

"Are you the homeowner?" (Authority check)
"When was your roof last replaced?" (Opportunity window)
"Have you filed an insurance claim for the recent storm?" (Active buyer signal)

Untrained reps waste 15 minutes explaining shingle grades to renters. AI-trained reps ask qualifying questions in the first 90 seconds and move on when there's no opportunity. The time savings compound—instead of five quality conversations per day, they have 12.

What the numbers should look like:

Industry benchmarks suggest 20-25% of contacts qualify as legitimate leads. That means of your 96 contacts from 240 doors knocked, you should generate 19-24 qualified leads. If you're only seeing 10-12 leads from that same activity, your rep either isn't asking qualifying questions or doesn't know how to recognize buying signals.

This is where objection handling training separates profitable canvassing from expensive door-knocking practice. When a homeowner says "I need to talk to my spouse," untrained reps hear rejection. Trained reps hear "I'm interested but need social proof that this isn't a scam"—and they've practiced that scenario enough to know exactly what to say next.

The training gap in real numbers:

Here's what happens when you compare an untrained rep versus an AI-trained rep over the same 20-hour week in the same territory. Both knock the same doors, work the same hours, get paid the same wage. The only difference is conversation confidence.

The untrained rep generates qualified leads at $127 each. The AI-trained rep generates them at $54 each. Same labor investment, 57% lower cost per lead. That gap isn't hustle or talent—it's mental reps. The trained rep has practiced 200+ objection scenarios and knows how to turn "not interested" into qualification questions instead of accepting it as a dead end.

4. Close Rate (The Only Number That Actually Pays Bills)

Leads don't pay for new trucks. Closed deals do. Your close rate on qualified leads determines whether canvassing is profitable or just really expensive market research.

Average roofing sales reps close 15-20% of qualified leads. Top performers close 32-38% consistently.

The pattern recognition advantage:

The difference is pattern recognition—they've seen "I need to get three quotes" enough times to know it means "I don't trust you yet" and have practiced responses that build credibility without sounding desperate.

Here's the painful math:

If you generate 24 qualified leads from a week of canvassing (20 hours at $20/hour = $400 labor cost) and close 20% of them, you close 4.8 deals. Round down to 4 deals. At $12,000 average job value, that's $48,000 in revenue from $400 in labor costs—a 119x return that makes canvassing look incredible.

But drop that close rate to 12% (common with new reps) and suddenly you're closing 2.88 deals, roughly 3 deals for $36,000 in revenue. Still profitable, but you just lost $12,000 in weekly revenue because your reps don't know how to handle "we want metal instead of shingles" without fumbling the conversation.

What it costs when close rates drop:

The Professional Roofing magazine article on contractor labor costs found that payroll averages 18-24% of revenue for most roofing contractors. When close rates drop, that percentage skyrockets because you're paying the same labor costs for fewer closed deals.

The calculator shows you exactly where that tipping point hits.

5. Average Job Value (The Profit Multiplier)

A 20% close rate on $8,000 jobs generates different economics than a 20% close rate on $18,000 jobs. Your average job value determines whether canvassing can scale or caps out at barely-profitable.

Territory-driven job value variance:

Storm restoration jobs in hail-damaged neighborhoods average $11,000-$15,000 depending on your market and manufacturer partnerships. Retail replacement jobs (no insurance, homeowner paying cash) average $8,000-$12,000. Premium architectural shingles with upgraded ventilation systems push $16,000-$22,000.

Territory selection drives this number. Knock in a neighborhood of 1,200 sq ft ranch houses built in 1985 and you'll close $9,000 jobs all day. Target a newer development with 2,800 sq ft two-stories and suddenly your average ticket is $16,000. Same close rate, same labor cost, completely different revenue outcomes.

Material selection training pays compound returns:

Reps trained to sell the value of Owens Corning Duration Premium vs standard 3-tab shingles add $2,500-$4,000 to average job values without working harder. They're having different conversations—not "what's the cheapest option" but "which warranty protects your investment."

Visualizing the complete door-to-deal funnel:

Let's track what actually happens during a typical week of canvassing. Your rep works 20 hours, knocking doors at 12 per hour, which gives you 240 total doors knocked. Here's where those 240 doors go:

240 doors knocked → 96 contacts made (40% contact rate) → 24 qualified leads (25% of contacts) → 5 closed deals (20% close rate on leads).

That's the reality of door-knocking economics. You need 48 doors to generate one closed deal at industry-average conversion rates. The math looks brutal until you calculate the revenue: 5 deals at $12,000 average = $60,000 in weekly revenue from $400 in labor costs.

But here's what most contractors miss: every percentage point improvement at each stage compounds through the entire funnel. A rep who improves their qualification rate from 25% to 30% doesn't generate 5% more leads—they generate 20% more leads from the same doors knocked. That compounds when you factor in close rates and average job values.

![Conversion funnel visualization showing 240 doors → 96 contacts → 24 leads → 5 deals, with cost per lead and ROI breakdown]

Use the calculator above to model your specific funnel. Change the qualification rate from 25% to 30% and watch what happens to your weekly revenue. Drop your close rate from 20% to 15% and see how much that "small" difference costs you in monthly revenue. The numbers don't lie.

Where Most Companies Miscalculate Canvassing Costs

The "Fully Loaded" Labor Rate Mistake

Your rep costs more than their hourly wage. Way more.

Most contractors calculate canvassing ROI using base wages—$18/hour for a junior rep, $25/hour for experienced closers. Then they wonder why their profitability projections never match reality.

What fully loaded rates actually include:

• Base wage ($18-25/hour)
• Payroll taxes (7.65% FICA minimum)
• Workers comp insurance (varies by state, 8-15% of payroll for roofing)
• Vehicle costs (gas, insurance, maintenance, depreciation)
• Phone/tablet/CRM subscription costs
• Uniform/company apparel
• Training time (paid hours not generating revenue)

A rep making $20/hour actually costs $28-32/hour when you factor in the full burden. Use the lower number in your ROI calculations and you're understating costs by 40%, which is why your "profitable" canvassing strategy loses money in practice.

The calculator uses your input for hourly wage plus overhead, letting you decide how accurately you want to model costs. Companies that use fully loaded rates make better territory decisions—they know exactly when it makes sense to canvas a neighborhood versus running Facebook ads.

The Territory Efficiency Blindspot

Drive time is dead time.

Your rep spends 45 minutes driving to a neighborhood, canvases for 2.5 hours, drives 45 minutes back. You paid them for 4 hours but only got 2.5 hours of productive canvassing.

How territory clustering compounds over time:

A rep covering a concentrated 4-square-mile area with 8,000 homes can knock doors for 3.5 hours out of a 4-hour shift. A rep bouncing between scattered neighborhoods spends half their time behind the wheel, cutting productive canvassing hours by 40% without anyone noticing.

Smart contractors cluster territories and assign reps to specific zones permanently. The rep becomes the local expert, builds name recognition, gets neighbor referrals. Stupid contractors send reps wherever leads dried up that week, creating maximum drive time and zero territorial advantage.

Your cost per lead calculation should account for productive canvassing hours, not total shift hours. The calculator assumes you're measuring actual door-knocking time. If you're not, your real costs are higher than it shows.

The Training Investment They Ignore

New reps don't generate leads at industry-average rates. They generate leads at 40-60% of average rates for their first 30-45 days while they learn objection handling, qualification questions, and basic conversation flow.

The hidden cost of slow time-to-productivity:

Companies that factor training costs into ROI calculations make different hiring decisions. They know that:

• Traditional shadowing-based training takes 6-8 weeks before reps hit baseline productivity
• AI-powered objection practice compresses that to 3-4 weeks by front-loading pattern recognition
• The difference in time-to-productivity is 4 weeks of below-average lead generation, roughly $2,400 in lost opportunity cost per rep

Most contractors hire in February-March for April storm season and wonder why their new reps struggle. They're sending people into conversations they've never practiced, expecting them to compete with carriers who've done 500+ doors. It doesn't work.

The companies that win storm season hired in January, ran 200+ AI objection scenarios per rep in weeks 1-2, and sent them into neighborhoods with actual conversation skills. Their reps hit target metrics in week 3 instead of week 9, generating an extra $18,000-$24,000 in revenue per rep during peak season.

How AI Training Changes the ROI Math

Every objection your rep encounters in the field, they should have practiced 10 times before. That's the difference between freezing when a homeowner says "our roof is fine, we just had it inspected" and confidently responding with "that's great to hear—when was that inspection, and did they specifically look for hail damage or just general wear?"

Why traditional training fails at pattern recognition:

Traditional training relies on ride-alongs where new reps shadow experienced closers and hope they absorb the right lessons. The problem: they watch one rep handle "I need three quotes" once, in one specific context, with one homeowner personality type.

Then they encounter that objection with a different personality in a different neighborhood and panic because the script they memorized doesn't fit.

The mental reps approach:

AI role-play training through Ghost Rep changes the pattern recognition timeline. Instead of hearing "I want metal roofing instead of shingles" once every 40 doors until they've seen it enough times to develop a response, reps practice that objection 15 times in week one with different homeowner personalities, income levels, and conversation contexts.

The ROI impact shows up in three places:

1. Lead Qualification Rate Improvement

Untrained reps accept "not interested" at face value. AI-trained reps have practiced "not interested" across 30 scenarios and know it usually means "I don't understand why I should care about my roof right now."

Their qualification rate jumps from 18% to 28% within three weeks because they're not accepting soft objections as hard rejections.

2. Close Rate Acceleration

The gap between 15% close rates and 32% close rates is pattern recognition speed. How fast can your rep identify which type of objection they're hearing and deploy the right response?

Reps with 200+ practice scenarios recognize patterns in 30 seconds that untrained reps miss entirely. The calculator shows what a 10-point close rate improvement does to your weekly revenue—it's usually worth more than doubling your canvassing team.

3. Cost Per Lead Reduction

When the same labor hours generate 40% more qualified leads (better qualification rate) that close at higher rates (better objection handling), your cost per lead plummets. The chart above shows this visually—same territory, same hours, completely different economics.

The storm season advantage:

Companies tracking these metrics see AI-trained reps hit profitability targets in weeks 3-4 instead of weeks 8-12. The time savings compounds during storm season when every week matters.

Waiting until week 8 for your reps to "get good enough" means you lost weeks 4-7 of peak revenue opportunity—usually $15,000-$25,000 per rep.

The Real ROI Formula That Actually Predicts Profitability

Forget the calculator for a minute. Here's the formula that determines whether your canvassing strategy makes money:

(Leads × Close Rate × Average Job Value) - (Hours × Fully Loaded Wage) = Profit Per Week

Everything in that formula is either controllable through training or strategic through territory selection. You can't control how many people answer the door (contact rate), but you can control how your reps respond when they do. You can't control average job values in low-income neighborhoods, but you can choose to canvass different neighborhoods.

Why most contractors optimize the wrong variable:

Most contractors think more hours equals more revenue, so they push reps to work longer shifts. But hours are linear—double the hours, double the revenue (minus the fatigue factor that tanks performance after 5-6 hours of door knocking).

Close rate is exponential. Improve your team's close rate from 18% to 25% and you just increased revenue by 39% without adding a single hour of labor cost. That's why objection handling training has higher ROI than hiring more reps—it multiplies the value of every canvassing hour instead of just adding hours.

The variables ranked by ROI impact:

1. Close Rate (highest leverage)
2. Lead Qualification Rate (medium-high leverage)
3. Average Job Value (medium leverage through material selection)
4. Doors Per Hour (low leverage, caps quickly)
5. Contact Rate (no leverage, mostly timing-dependent)

Companies that improve close rates by 8-12 points see the same revenue impact as doubling their canvassing team. The difference is the improved close rate compounds across your entire team forever, while hiring more reps just adds linear capacity with the same conversion problems.

Test this yourself in the calculator: Increase your close rate from 20% to 28% and compare the weekly revenue difference. Then try doubling your hours worked instead. You'll see why training ROI beats hiring ROI every single time.

Territory Selection: The Hidden ROI Driver Nobody Tracks

Your cost per lead varies by 300% based on territory selection.

A rep canvassing a neighborhood of retirees on fixed incomes during a weekday afternoon might knock 200 doors, make 45 contacts, and generate 4 leads because most homeowners say "we can't afford it right now."

The same rep in a neighborhood of dual-income professionals knocking 5-7pm weeknights might knock 180 doors, make 65 contacts, and generate 22 leads.

The three variables that matter most:

The Roof Strategist's door selection strategy emphasizes:

• Storm damage concentration (more damaged roofs = higher close rates)
• Home values ($300k+ homes convert to larger job values)
• HOA presence (neighborhood covenants create urgency when one roof gets done)

Territory A vs Territory B economics:

Territory A has 1,200 homes averaging $180k in value, mostly owned by retirees, with scattered hail damage. Territory B has 800 homes averaging $420k in value, mostly owned by working professionals, with concentrated hail damage in a 6-block radius.

Territory A generates leads at $94 each with $9,500 average job values. Territory B generates leads at $61 each with $14,200 average job values.

Same canvassing labor costs, radically different economics. Yet most contractors assign territories based on "coverage" rather than profitability modeling.

The fix:

Run the calculator for each major territory in your market using realistic assumptions for that neighborhood's demographics. You'll discover some territories generate positive ROI starting at week 1, while others never pencil out no matter how many hours you invest.

Try it: Use the calculator twice. First, input your best territory's metrics (higher home values, concentrated storm damage, professional demographics). Then input your worst territory's numbers. The cost per lead difference will shock you—often 200-300% variance for the same labor investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to train a roofing sales rep for door knocking?

Traditional training takes 6-8 weeks before reps hit industry-average close rates. AI-powered training compresses this to 3-4 weeks by providing 200+ objection scenarios in the first week, accelerating pattern recognition that normally develops through months of field experience.

What's a good cost per lead for roofing canvassing?

Industry averages range from $45-$85 per qualified lead depending on territory demographics and storm damage concentration. Trained reps in strong territories generate leads for $40-$60, while untrained reps in weak territories can hit $120-$150 per lead. Anything above $100 per lead suggests problems with either territory selection or rep training.

How many doors should a roofing rep knock per day?

Productive reps knock 120-180 doors per day in suburban territories during 4-6 hour canvassing shifts. This assumes 12-15 doors per hour with time for qualification conversations and appointment setting. More doors doesn't always equal better results—targeting the right doors matters more than raw activity levels.

What's the best time to knock doors for roofing sales?

Weekdays between 4-7pm generate the highest contact rates (45-50%) in suburban territories. Weekends are unpredictable and vary by neighborhood demographics. Avoid 11am-2pm weekdays (lowest contact rates) and any time during major sporting events or extreme weather.

How do I calculate ROI on storm chasing canvassing?

Use this formula: (Closed Deals × Average Job Value - Total Labor Costs) ÷ Total Labor Costs = ROI Percentage. Factor in fully loaded labor rates (wages + taxes + overhead), not just base wages. Most profitable storm chasing operations target 800-1200% ROI during peak season, meaning every $1 in labor costs generates $8-12 in revenue.

Should I pay canvassers hourly or commission-only?

Hourly ($18-$25/hour) plus bonuses works best for W-2 employees who generate consistent lead flow. Commission-only creates high turnover and encourages corner-cutting. Hybrid models (base hourly + commission on closed deals) balance stability with performance incentives. Avoid 1099 arrangements for door-knocking due to IRS worker classification issues.

Start Calculating Your Real Canvassing Costs

Go back to the calculator at the top of this article and input your actual metrics—not industry averages, not what you hope the numbers are. Use real data from last week's canvassing activity.

You'll see immediately whether your canvassing strategy makes money or just keeps reps busy.

What most contractors discover:

Their problem isn't effort or activity levels. It's conversion efficiency at specific funnel stages. A rep generating 15 leads per week who closes 12% is performing identically to a rep generating 9 leads per week who closes 20%—but the second rep gets there in fewer hours and costs less to operate.

The difference isn't talent:

The difference between those two reps isn't talent. It's pattern recognition from practiced objection handling. Every "I need to think about it" they've heard 47 times before becomes a qualification opportunity instead of a dead end. Every "my neighbor's roof was only $7,000" becomes a chance to explain insurance payout variance instead of a price objection they can't overcome.

Your action plan:

1. Scroll back to the calculator and input your team's actual metrics from last week
2. Identify your weakest conversion point (qualification rate? close rate? territory selection?)
3. Fix that specific bottleneck with AI-powered objection training that compresses months of field learning into weeks of focused practice
4. Run the calculator again with your improved metrics and see the revenue impact

The math doesn't lie. Your canvassing costs exactly what the calculator shows—you just haven't been measuring it until now.

Looking to improve your team's door-knocking performance? Explore Ghost Rep's AI training platform for objection handling practice that accelerates rep development from 8 weeks to 3 weeks, or read our guide on roofing sales objection mastery.