It’s a common setup: roofing companies ask their salespeople to juggle multiple roles, from canvassing and selling to managing collections. But here’s the hard truth—having your sales team handle collections is one of the worst decisions a roofing business can make. It’s a recipe for lost revenue, lower morale, and a ticking compliance bomb. Here’s why you should keep collections out of your sales team’s hands.
1. Skill Sets: Salespeople and Collections Don’t Mix
A great salesperson knows how to close deals, build rapport, and keep the momentum going. But these skills don’t translate well into collections. Collections requires a different approach—tact, persistence, and often a level of firmness that salespeople don’t naturally bring to the table. The people who excel at canvassing and closing typically aren’t the same people who excel at tactful, compliance-heavy conversations around overdue payments.
By asking salespeople to do collections, you’re putting them in a role they’re likely not equipped for. This mismatch leads to frustrated clients, tense interactions, and missed payments—ultimately harming both your business and your team’s confidence.
2. Bandwidth: Don’t Spread Your Sales Team Too Thin
Salespeople are already spread thin, covering lead generation, follow-ups, and managing active prospects. Adding collections to their plate dilutes their focus, impacting their primary responsibility: driving revenue. When salespeople are forced to juggle these tasks, it’s easy for opportunities to slip through the cracks. Their time is better spent closing deals, nurturing leads, and building relationships—not chasing down payments.
When you overburden salespeople, you set them up for burnout, which can lead to turnover, decreased productivity, and lost revenue. Protecting their bandwidth protects your bottom line.
3. Financial Runway: Let Salespeople Build Stability Before Adding Complex Tasks
The first few months are crucial for any new salesperson—they’re the most financially vulnerable and the least skilled they’ll ever be in their role. Overloading them with collections on top of lead generation, canvassing, and selling is a surefire way to set them up for failure. The more tasks you assign, the more training you need to provide, increasing the chances of costly mistakes.
Salespeople should be allowed to build stability and confidence in their primary role before tackling other tasks. Otherwise, they’ll struggle to close deals, lose revenue opportunities, and may not stick around long enough to reach their full potential. The best strategy is to let them focus on honing their sales skills to maximize their earning potential—and your company’s revenue.
4. Competition: The All-in-One Talent Often Becomes Your Competitor
The handful of people who can handle sales, collections, and everything in between are often the same ones who have the drive, knowledge, and confidence to go independent. If you find that rare talent who can juggle it all, they’re likely the kind of person who will eventually start their own company. By keeping collections off their plate, you can retain their loyalty, enabling them to focus on sales and maximize their potential within your business.
In the roofing industry, retaining talent is crucial, and losing key people to competition is avoidable when you create a supportive, focused role that lets them excel without spreading them too thin.
5. Compliance: Collections Are Regulated—Get It Wrong, and You’re at Risk
Collections are heavily regulated, and it’s not uncommon for a single complaint to bring scrutiny or penalties. Without formal training, a salesperson handling collections can easily cross a line that leads to serious repercussions for your business. Salespeople are motivated by commission, which creates a potential conflict of interest if they’re not trained in proper collection practices.
Collections professionals understand the nuances and regulations involved in debt recovery. Having salespeople handle this delicate task is a liability, and all it takes is one disgruntled client to report you. Avoid compliance risks by letting trained staff or automated solutions handle collections.
6. Hourly Value By Task: Maximize the Earning Potential of Your Sales Team
Your salespeople’s time is incredibly valuable, especially when they’re closing deals. I know a guy in Virginia working just 13 hours a week, closing nearly 100% on retail jobs and generating around $7,000 in revenue per hour spent with customers. Why would you divert that kind of high-value talent to chase down payments when a specialized collections team or automated system can do it at a fraction of the cost?
At $20 an hour, a collections specialist or automated solution can handle this task far more cost-effectively, freeing up your sales team to do what they do best: sell. With an optimized approach to collections, your revenue grows from focused sales efforts rather than wasted hours tracking down payments.
Conclusion: Building a System That Keeps Sales Focused on Sales
Avoiding this pitfall isn’t just a “nice-to-have” tip; it’s part of a complete, integrated approach to running a high-efficiency roofing business. While these tips can certainly improve your operations, they’re most effective as part of a well-designed, holistic system. In an optimized roofing business, every component—from sales and collections to project management—works together to amplify the others.
Think of it like building a high-performance engine: just because a turbo is powerful doesn’t mean it’s right for every build. Each piece needs to fit within the larger system to truly maximize results. A fully integrated approach to your business is both an art and a science, and the difference in results is undeniable.
Ready to take your roofing business to the next level? Book a discovery call to learn more about our out-of-the-box roofing solutions designed to streamline operations, maximize revenue, and keep your team focused on what they do best.
