Door-to-door sales glossary

How reps get paid

Commission only

Commission only means you are paid for completed sales and nothing else: no hourly wage and no salary. Most door-to-door sales jobs in solar, pest control, roofing…

Draw

A draw is money a company pays you before your commissions arrive, then subtracts from those commissions later. A recoverable draw must be paid back; a non-recoverable…

Chargeback (clawback)

A chargeback, also called a clawback, is commission a company takes back after it was paid because the customer canceled, never installed or stopped paying inside a set…

Back end

The back end is the part of your commission a summer sales company holds until the season is over, then pays based on how many of your accounts are still active and…

Upfront pay

Upfront pay is the portion of each commission a summer sales company pays during the season, soon after an account is installed or serviced. The remainder is held as…

Holdback (reserve)

A holdback, or reserve, is a slice of each commission the company keeps for a set time to cover possible chargebacks. If the deals hold, the reserve is released to you…

Override

An override is commission a manager or recruiter earns on the sales of the reps under them, paid on top of what those reps earn. It is how team leads and managers are…

Spiff

A spiff is a short-term bonus paid for hitting a specific target, such as a number of sales in a day or week, or for selling a particular product. It is paid on top of…

Commission tiers

Commission tiers are a sliding scale: the more accounts you sell in a period or a season, the higher the commission rate you earn. Some plans apply the higher rate to…

Residual commission

Residual commission is ongoing pay for as long as a customer you signed keeps paying for the service. It is less common in door-to-door sales than one-time commission…

Base plus commission

Base plus commission means you earn an hourly wage or salary for the time you work, plus a bonus or commission for results such as appointments set or jobs sold.

1099 contractor

1099 means you are paid as an independent contractor, not an employee. The company withholds no tax, and you pay your own income tax and self-employment tax and cover…

Cancellation rate

Your cancellation rate is the share of your signed sales that cancel before or shortly after installation or first service. It decides how much of your sold commission…

Install rate (pull-through)

Install rate, or pull-through, is the share of your signed deals that reach installation. Since most commission is paid on installs, it is the number that turns sales…

Roles and companies

Setter

A setter knocks doors to book appointments instead of closing sales. The setter finds interested homeowners, qualifies them and schedules a visit for a closer, who…

Closer

A closer runs the sales appointment and signs the customer. In a setter and closer team, the setter books the visit and the closer presents the product, answers…

Self-gen

Self-gen is short for self-generated: a deal where the same rep found the customer by knocking and closed the sale, with no setter and no company-supplied lead…

Canvasser

A canvasser goes door to door to start conversations and collect leads or appointments, not to close sales. In home improvement the word means the same job as a setter.

Sales dealer

A dealer, or sales organization, is a company that sells another company's product door to door under contract. The rep works for the dealer; a separate provider or…

Ride-along

A ride-along, or shadow day, is time spent on the doors with an experienced rep before or just after you are hired, so you can watch real conversations and see what the…

In the field

Turf

Turf is the area a rep or a team is assigned to knock: a set of streets, a neighborhood or a mapped zone. Managers assign it so reps do not knock the same doors and…

Door approach

The door approach is the first ten to thirty seconds at a door: where you stand, your first sentence and the reason you give for being there. It decides whether a…

Rebuttal

A rebuttal is a prepared, respectful response to a common objection such as "I'm not interested" or "I need to think about it", meant to keep the conversation going for…

One-legger

A one-legger is a sales appointment where only one of the household's decision-makers is present. Deals signed that way cancel more often, because the absent person can…

Sit

A sit is an appointment that actually takes place: the closer sits down with the homeowner and gives the presentation. Appointments that are set but never happen do not…

Be-back

A be-back is a prospect who asks you to come back later instead of deciding now, and the return visit itself. Reps track be-backs because some turn into sales and many…

One-call close

A one-call close is a sale completed in a single visit: the rep meets the customer, presents and signs the agreement in the same conversation, with no follow-up…

Close rate

Close rate is the share of your sales conversations or appointments that end in a signed deal. Reps and managers use it, with doors knocked and contacts made, to see…

Golden hours

The golden hours are the late afternoon and early evening on weekdays, plus Saturdays, when the most homeowners are home and answer the door. Reps plan their best turf…

Rules and paperwork

Solicitor permit

A solicitor permit is a license a city or county issues that allows a person to sell door to door there. Many cities require one for each rep, often with an…

No Soliciting sign

Often, yes. Many city codes make it an offense for a salesperson to knock at a home that displays a No Soliciting sign. Where the code is silent, staying after being…

Do-not-knock registry

A do-not-knock registry is a list of addresses, kept by some cities, whose residents have asked not to be visited by solicitors. Where one exists, permitted reps must…

Cooling-Off Rule

The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives a customer three business days to cancel most door-to-door sales of 25 dollars or more made at their home, for a full refund. The…

Canvassing vs. soliciting

In city codes, soliciting usually means going door to door to sell something, while canvassing means going door to door for a non-commercial purpose such as politics…

Rep agreement

A rep agreement is the contract between a sales rep and the company: it sets commission, chargebacks, held pay, expenses and what happens when you leave. It overrides…

Non-compete

A non-compete is a clause that limits working for a competing company for a period after you leave. Many rep agreements also include a non-solicit, which bars…

Solar terms

Redline

A redline is the base price per watt a solar dealer or installer sets for a rep. The rep's commission is the difference between the price sold to the customer and the…

Price per watt (PPW)

Price per watt is the total price of a solar system divided by its size in watts. It lets customers compare quotes for systems of different sizes and is the unit solar…

M1 and M2 payments

M1 and M2 are milestone payments: a solar rep's commission paid in two parts as the project advances. M1 is paid at an early milestone and M2 at a later one, such as…

PTO (permission to operate)

PTO means permission to operate: the utility's approval to switch on a home solar system after it is installed and inspected. Until PTO arrives, the panels are on the…

EPC

EPC stands for engineering, procurement and construction: the company that designs, permits and installs the solar system. Sales dealers sell the project and hand it to…

Net metering

Net metering is a utility billing arrangement that credits a solar home for the extra electricity it sends to the grid. The credits offset power the home draws at night…

Solar PPA

A solar PPA, or power purchase agreement, is a contract where a company owns the panels on your roof and you buy the electricity they produce at a set rate, instead of…

Roofing terms

Storm chasing

Storm chasing is following hail and wind storms to the neighborhoods they damaged and offering roof inspections door to door, with repairs paid through the homeowner's…

Contingency agreement

A contingency agreement is a contract where a homeowner agrees to hire a roofing company if their insurer approves the claim. If the claim is denied, the agreement…

ACV vs. RCV

ACV is actual cash value: what the damaged roof is worth today after depreciation. RCV is replacement cost value: what a new roof costs. The type of policy decides…

Supplement

A supplement is a request to the insurance company to add items or costs the adjuster's first estimate missed, such as code-required upgrades, extra layers or damaged…

Security, fiber, pest and energy terms

RMR

RMR is recurring monthly revenue: the monthly monitoring fee a home security customer pays. Alarm companies are valued on it, so rep commission is tied to the monthly…

Takeover

A takeover is signing a homeowner who already has an alarm system to your company's monitoring, usually reusing or upgrading the equipment already in the home.

Serviceable address

A serviceable address is a home where the internet provider's network is already built and service can be installed. Fiber reps can only sell to serviceable addresses.

MDU

MDU stands for multi-dwelling unit: an apartment building, condo complex or townhome community. Selling internet in an MDU depends on the provider's access agreement…

Initial service

The initial service is the first pest control treatment after a customer signs, usually within a day or two. In summer sales, an account generally counts for pay only…

Slamming

Slamming is switching a customer's electricity, gas or phone provider without their clear permission. It is illegal, and a rep who does it can face penalties along with…

Third-party verification (TPV)

Third-party verification is a recorded call or digital check, run by an independent company, where the customer confirms in their own words that they agree to the sale…

For the longer explanations, read how door-to-door sales pay works, setter vs. closer and permits and laws, or look up permit rules by city.