Weekly Canvass Competition Ideas That Drive Real Results

A well-run weekly competition lifts average production 15-25% during the contest. A poorly run one creates resentment, inflates metrics, and burns out your top rep. The difference is rules, metric choice, and prize structure.

Principles Before Formats

1. Pick a metric reps control. Knocks and contacts: yes. Signed contracts: only if the sales cycle fits in one week.
2. Post standings daily. A week-end reveal wastes 4 days of motivation.
3. Cap the prize budget at 2% of the week's expected gross margin. Larger prizes distort behavior.
4. Rotate the metric every 4-6 weeks. Competitions stop working when they stop being novel.
5. Never let the same rep win twice in a row without a handicap.

Ten Competition Formats

1. Knock Count King

Highest knock count wins. Verified by the RoofKnockers activity log, not self-report. Budget $100 gift card. Best for: new teams still building discipline.

Gaming risk: reps drive down a street pretending to knock. Mitigation: cross-check knock count against contact rate. A rep with 200 knocks and 2 contacts is padding.

2. Contact Conversion Race

Highest percentage of knocks that result in a conversation of 90+ seconds. Budget $150. Best for: teams with uneven pitch quality.

3. Inspections Booked

Most inspections booked and actually run that week. Booked-but-cancelled does not count. Budget $200. Best for: mid-tenure teams where booking is the bottleneck.

4. The Referral Bounty

$25 bonus per referral secured from an existing customer call, plus a $100 weekly topper for the rep with the most. Best for: teams with 50+ past customers to re-engage.

5. Team vs Team Territory War

Split the office into 2 teams. Combined contacts + inspections determine the winner. Budget $300 split by team (so $30/rep on a 10-rep team). Best for: established teams that need camaraderie.

6. Deal Closer

Highest closed revenue in the week. Budget $500. Risk: favors veteran reps on warm pipeline. Mitigation: require 1 new inspection in the same week to qualify.

7. The Streak

Consecutive days meeting daily knock quota. Week ends Friday. Longest streak wins. Budget $150. Best for: building habits in month 2 of a new rep cohort.

8. The Comeback

Biggest week-over-week improvement in inspections booked. Protects new reps and reps climbing out of a slump. Budget $150. Best for: preventing the top rep from winning every time.

9. Quality Control

Highest percentage of booked inspections that actually run and convert to a proposal. Penalizes sloppy booking. Budget $200. Best for: teams with a high no-show rate at inspection.

10. The Full Funnel Fifty

Complete 50 touches across the funnel in one week: mix of knocks, follow-up calls, inspections, and proposal presentations. Budget $250. Best for: cross-training mid-tenure reps.

Prize Structure That Works

Prize TierBudget RangeReward Type Weekly micro$100-150Gift card, cash app Weekly major$200-300Nicer gift, truck wash + tank of gas Monthly$500Dinner for 2, tools, gear Quarterly$1,500+Trip, iPad Pro, high-value tool

Rules That Prevent Drama

• Publish the rules in writing before the week starts. No mid-week changes.
• Define the tiebreaker in advance (closest-runner wins, coin flip, or split).
• Disqualify a rep caught gaming metrics. Stated in writing. No second warnings.
• Pay out within 48 hours of the results. Delay kills the habit loop.
• Announce the winner in the group chat and the Monday standup.

Measuring Whether It Worked

Compare the competition week against the trailing 4-week average on the metric. If the competition lifted the metric 15%+ without tanking others (for example, knocks up but contact rate collapses), count it as a success. If the numbers moved less than 10%, the prize was too small or the metric was the wrong lever.

RoofKnockers' activity dashboard exports all of these metrics by rep and by week, which makes running these competitions a 5-minute task instead of a spreadsheet night. See the coaching dashboard.

Related: first-week check-ins, top rep retention playbook, and canvasser burnout prevention.

Ready to run competitions off real data? Start a trial or review pricing.

FAQ

What if my top rep wins every single week?

Alternate between volume metrics (knocks, contacts) and ratio metrics (contact-to-inspection). Ratio metrics let a focused mid-tier rep compete with a volume monster.

Should the owner or manager ever win?

No. Pull managers out of the bracket. They set the rules and announce winners. Having a manager win breeds resentment.

Weekly cash or gift cards?

Gift cards to specific retailers (Amazon, Buc-ee's, Home Depot) create a story and photo-op. Cash disappears into bills. Both work. Mix them across the month for variety.