How to Balance Territories Between Roofing Reps Fairly

Territory fights kill more roofing sales teams than bad leads do. When a rookie gets stuck with a picked-over neighborhood while a senior rep coasts on a fresh development, the rookie quits within 90 days. The math is simple and the politics are not.

What Equitable Actually Means

Most owners think equitable means equal square mileage or equal door counts. It does not. Equitable means equal opportunities per rep, which is a composite of door count, roof age, median home value, and storm exposure. A 3,000-door territory in a 1990s subdivision with a recent hailstorm is worth roughly 4x a 3,000-door territory in a 2018 tract home neighborhood with no storm history.

Build a scoring formula. We use something like this for our Dallas team:

• Door count (base): 1 point per door
• Roof age multiplier: 1.5x if median build year is before 2005
• Storm event bonus: +25% per NOAA-confirmed hail event above 1 inch in the last 24 months
• Home value penalty: -10% if median value is under $180k (lower approval rates on financed jobs)

Run the math on every proposed territory before assigning it. If one rep ends up with 4,200 points and another has 2,800, you have a problem you need to fix before the campaign starts, not after.

Measuring Fairness After Assignment

Points on paper are a forecast. Actual fairness shows up in the conversion data. Track these by rep, by territory, weekly:

1. Doors knocked
2. Contacts made (homeowner answered)
3. Inspections scheduled
4. Inspections completed
5. Contingency agreements signed
6. Claims approved
7. Jobs built

If one rep is converting at 8% door-to-inspection and another is at 3% in comparable territory, the problem is the rep, not the territory. If both reps are at 3% but one has 40% more doors, the territory is wrong.

The Senior Rep Bias Problem

Senior reps expect first pick. Sometimes they have earned it. Often they have not. The honest test: did this rep build the book, or did they inherit it from a predecessor who left? If they built it, protect it. If they inherited it, it is fair game for rebalancing.

A reasonable compromise: senior reps (24+ months tenure, top-quartile performance) get first choice of 60% of their prior territory, and the remaining 40% goes into the general pool. This protects genuine equity without letting anyone hoard.

Dispute Rules That Actually Work

Write these into the rep handbook on day one. No verbal agreements. No exceptions for the top closer.

The First-Knock Rule

If rep A knocks a door and gets a no, rep B can knock it after 21 days. Logged in RoofKnockers with a timestamp, no arguments.

The Inspection Lock

If rep A has signed a contingency and scheduled an inspection, that homeowner is locked to rep A for 14 days even if they live on the border of rep B's territory.

The Appeal Process

Disputes go to the sales manager, not to the reps. Manager has 48 hours to decide. Decision is final. Reps who escalate twice in a month get a written warning.

What Happens When You Get It Wrong

We watched a Colorado contractor lose four reps in six months because the owner kept handing the best hail zones to his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law was doing $1.8M in self-gen. The other four reps combined were doing $3.4M. When they left, they took $3.4M with them. The brother-in-law could not fill the gap.

Fair territories are not charity. They are how you keep a team together long enough to build a real book.

For more on drawing territories in the first place, see our guide on how to draw sales territories for roofing.

FAQ

How often should territories be rebalanced?

Every 90 days for storm work, every 6 months for retail. Sooner if a rep quits or if a neighborhood gets hit by a major weather event.

Can two reps legitimately share a high-density territory?

Yes, in dense suburban areas with 5,000+ doors. Split by street grid, not by address. North of Main Street vs. south of Main Street is cleaner than odd vs. even addresses.

What if a senior rep refuses to release part of their territory?

Document the request, document the refusal, and put them on a 30-day performance review. If they are not hitting their quota on the oversized territory, you have grounds to reassign. If they are, the territory is earning its keep.