D2D Sales Benchmarks 2026: Close Rates, Ramp Times, and Turnover Across Verticals

What Good Actually Looks Like in D2D Sales

Most managers in door-to-door sales are working without a clear baseline. They know their team's numbers, but they don't know whether those numbers are strong, average, or a signal that something is broken. A 2.5% close rate could mean your team is underperforming, or it could mean you're right on target, depending entirely on the vertical.

This post compiles D2D sales benchmarks 2026 across five major verticals: solar, pest control, roofing, HVAC, and fiber/telecom. The goal is simple: give you a reference point to compare your team's actual performance against real industry data. Close rate, sit rate, contact rate, rep ramp time, and annual turnover, by vertical.

Use it to identify where your team is beating the benchmark, and where there's a gap worth investigating.

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How D2D Sales Metrics Are Defined Here

Before getting into the numbers, it helps to align on terminology. Different tools and organizations measure these metrics differently, so here are the working definitions used throughout this post:

Close rate: The percentage of doors knocked that result in a completed sale. This is the tightest, most conservative definition: closed deals divided by total door attempts. Some companies track this as appointments-to-close, which will produce a much higher percentage. The numbers in this post use the door-knock denominator unless otherwise noted.

Sit rate: The percentage of contacts (doors where someone answered and engaged with a pitch) that resulted in a scheduled or completed in-home presentation or formal pitch. In verticals where the sale happens at the door, this roughly maps to the percentage of conversations that got through the full pitch.

Contact rate: The percentage of knocked doors where a qualified prospect engaged with a rep. This accounts for no-answers, do-not-disturbs, renters who can't make purchase decisions, and immediate dismissals.

Ramp time: How long it takes a new rep to reach consistent, quota-level performance. Most D2D organizations define this as hitting at least 80% of their target close rate for four or more consecutive weeks.

Annual turnover rate: The percentage of reps who leave (voluntarily or involuntarily) within a 12-month period.

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Solar D2D Sales Benchmarks

Solar is the most data-tracked D2D vertical, in part because of the high average contract value. The numbers reflect that: companies pay more attention to conversion metrics when each closed deal is worth $20,000 to $35,000 or more.

Close rate: 2-5% is the standard range for solar D2D. Top-performing teams with experienced reps and strong territories can push into the 5-8% range. New teams, or companies expanding into unfamiliar markets, often sit at 1-2% during ramp periods. If your solar team is consistently below 2%, the most common causes are opener weakness, low-quality lead targeting, or reps who are losing ground during the value proposition stage rather than at close.

Sit rate: In a solar pitch where the full presentation happens at the door, the sit rate maps roughly to the percentage of contacts who stayed for a full value-and-close sequence rather than cutting it short. The baseline is 10-15% of door contacts making it through a complete pitch. Stronger teams hit 20-25%. If you use a two-visit model (door appointment followed by in-home sit), appointment-to-sit rates typically run 50-65% for warm leads and 30-45% for cold.

Contact rate: Most solar markets yield a useful contact rate of 20-35% of knocked doors. This accounts for vacancies, no-answers, renters, and immediate rejections. Route optimization tools can improve this meaningfully. According to SPOTIO's door-to-door sales guide, optimized routing and smarter territory selection boost qualified contact rates by 30-40%.

Ramp time: Solar has one of the longer rep ramp curves in D2D. Six months to full productivity is the field standard. The pitch is complex (savings projections, system sizing, utility rates, financing options, NEM 3.0 objections in California markets), and new reps need enough real-world repetitions to handle objections fluently. In structured onboarding programs with roleplay and coaching, the ramp can compress to four months. Without them, it stretches to eight or nine months.

Annual turnover: Solar D2D teams typically see 40-60% annual rep turnover. The high-end numbers come from summer campaign models where the workforce is largely seasonal. Year-round companies with stable territories tend to hold closer to 35-45%.

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Pest Control D2D Sales Benchmarks

Pest control is a high-volume, low-ACV vertical. A typical residential pest contract runs $600-$1,200 annually. The math works at scale, which means pest control D2D is fundamentally a volume business.

Close rate: Briostack's door-to-door pest control data puts the baseline close rate at approximately 2% of doors knocked. This is doors-to-close, the tightest measurement. In pest control, a 2% rate is legitimate performance. Reps who get above 3-4% are strong. Companies consistently below 1.5% usually have an opener problem rather than a close problem.

Sit rate: Because pest control sales rarely involve a formal in-home presentation, the sit rate concept maps more directly to the percentage of contacts who stayed engaged through a full pitch at the door. That number runs 8-15% for most teams. The "we already have a service" objection accounts for a significant share of drop-off at this stage. It is by far the most common objection in the vertical.

Contact rate: Pest control territories tend to produce contact rates of 25-35% of knocked doors. The markets are typically denser residential areas, which helps with availability, but the volume of doors knocked per rep per day (often 100-200) means quality of territory matters as much as rep skill.

Ramp time: Three to four months to consistent performance. The pitch is shorter and more transactional than solar, which compresses the learning curve. Reps who start during summer campaign season often reach their target contact and close rates within six to eight weeks if they're getting feedback on their conversations. Without coaching infrastructure, it takes three to four months.

Annual turnover: 35-50% annually, with significant variance depending on whether the company runs a summer campaign model (high turnover, younger seasonal workforce) or a year-round subscription model (more stable, better retention). Xactly's sales turnover data puts overall outside sales turnover at approximately 35% annually, and pest control field sales runs near that ceiling.

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Roofing D2D Sales Benchmarks

Roofing D2D operates on two very different models: storm-chase canvassing and retail canvassing. The benchmarks diverge sharply between them.

Close rate (storm model): Post-storm canvassing targeting neighborhoods with visible damage produces close rates of 4-8%. The prospect already has the problem, often already has an insurance claim in motion, and the rep is offering a solution to a present, visible issue. The "urgency" is built in.

Close rate (retail model): Retail roofing canvassing, targeting homeowners without obvious recent damage, runs more like 1-3%. The objection landscape is harder ("my roof looks fine," "I'll wait until there's a problem") and the pitch requires more education before value is apparent.

Sit rate: In roofing, the relevant metric is appointment-to-sit rate: what percentage of scheduled inspections actually happen. This runs 55-70% in most roofing markets. No-shows are common in this vertical because of the time required for an inspection and the fact that many homeowners book appointments without strong intent to convert.

Contact rate: Similar to other D2D verticals, roofing teams see contact rates of 20-35% depending on neighborhood density and timing. Post-storm timing significantly improves this: homeowners are outside, anxious about their property, and more likely to engage.

Ramp time: Four to six months to full productivity. The insurance pitch is particularly complex and carries real regulatory and ethical weight, so managers typically require reps to complete certification training before running solo. GhostRep's roofing sales data notes a 43% quit rate in the first 90 days of roofing sales, which suggests many reps don't make it to full ramp at all.

Annual turnover: Roofing D2D runs approximately 38-45% annual turnover. Storm-chase models are particularly volatile, with teams assembled rapidly for a season and dispersed afterward.

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HVAC Door-to-Door Sales Benchmarks

HVAC is the compressed-season vertical. Most D2D activity happens during a 90-day sprint from May through August, when homeowners are actively dealing with cooling failures or thinking about system upgrades before peak heat.

Close rate: 2-5% on doors knocked, similar to solar but for a different reason. The pitch requires urgency framing, and the urgency is weather-dependent. On days when temperatures are already high, reps report noticeably better engagement than on mild days. The variance within a single team across a summer can be significant.

Sit rate: HVAC companies using an in-home model (door canvass plus in-home assessment) target a sit rate of 15-20% of contacts. Companies running a same-door close model (full pitch and pricing at the door) see lower sit rates but faster cycle times.

Contact rate: 25-35% of knocked doors, consistent with other home services verticals. Time of day matters substantially in HVAC: mid-morning calls on warmer days outperform late afternoon attempts when homeowners are distracted.

Ramp time: Two to three months to consistent performance. The pitch is more concise than solar, and the product knowledge requirement is lower for entry-level reps. The compression of the selling season creates a natural urgency that shortcuts some of the learning curve, but also means reps who don't ramp quickly miss most of the opportunity window.

Annual turnover: 45-60% annually, driven largely by the seasonal structure. Many HVAC D2D reps return for a second or third summer, but the overall number cycling through a typical HVAC company's sales team each year is high.

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Fiber and Telecom D2D Sales Benchmarks

Fiber internet expansion has created significant D2D sales activity over the past three years. The Fiber Broadband Association reported 98.3 million US homes passed by fiber in 2025, and the primary sales channel in new build-out zones is door-to-door.

Close rate: 3-5% on doors knocked in active build-out zones. In areas where fiber is genuinely new (previously limited to 1-2 broadband options), close rates can reach 5-8% because the competitive advantage is more obvious. In markets where the incumbent is entrenched and switching inertia is high, rates often sit at 2-3%.

Sit rate: Telecom pitches are typically completed at the door, so the sit rate maps to the percentage of contacts who engaged with a full presentation. This runs 10-18% of total contacts for fiber sales teams.

Contact rate: 30-40% of knocked doors. Fiber territories are often dense urban or suburban builds, which means higher resident availability and lower vacancy rates than some other verticals.

Ramp time: Four to six weeks to basic performance. The product pitch is relatively constrained (speed, price, reliability), and reps don't need to develop the deep technical knowledge required in solar or HVAC. Full productivity, including comfortable objection handling on existing-provider loyalty, typically takes two to three months.

Annual turnover: 40-55% annually. Telecom D2D has historically been a high-churn environment, in part because the industry recruits heavily from younger demographics who treat it as a short-term income opportunity rather than a career.

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Comparing the Verticals: A Summary Table

| Vertical | Close Rate (avg) | Sit Rate | Contact Rate | Ramp Time | Annual Turnover | |----------|------------------|----------|--------------|-----------|-----------------| | Solar | 2-5% | 10-25% | 20-35% | 4-6 months | 40-60% | | Pest Control | 1-3% | 8-15% | 25-35% | 2-4 months | 35-50% | | Roofing (storm) | 4-8% | 55-70% (appt-to-sit) | 20-35% | 4-6 months | 38-45% | | Roofing (retail) | 1-3% | 55-70% (appt-to-sit) | 20-35% | 4-6 months | 38-45% | | HVAC | 2-5% | 15-20% | 25-35% | 2-3 months | 45-60% | | Fiber/Telecom | 3-5% | 10-18% | 30-40% | 1-3 months | 40-55% |

Note: Close rate is calculated as closed deals / total doors knocked. Sit rate definitions vary by model (door close vs. in-home presentation). Turnover rates reflect voluntary and involuntary separations within 12 months.

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What These Numbers Should Tell You

A few patterns stand out across the verticals.

Close rate alone is not a useful benchmark without context. A 2% close rate in pest control is solid. A 2% close rate in HVAC or telecom, where products are simpler and pitches are shorter, suggests a problem worth diagnosing. Compare your team's numbers within your vertical first, then look at how your top reps compare to your median reps.

The gap between median and top performer close rates is wide. Across all D2D verticals, data on what top-performing D2D reps do differently consistently shows a 2-3x close rate differential between the top quartile and the median rep on any given team. That gap is the coaching opportunity. The benchmarks in this post describe averages. Your goal is to systematically pull your median reps toward your top performers.

Ramp time has the most room for improvement. The ROI case for reducing ramp time is straightforward: every week a rep spends below full productivity is revenue not captured. In solar, compressing ramp from six months to four months across a 10-rep team represents substantial additional revenue per year. The primary lever is structured coaching and practice, not more time on the doors.

Turnover is expensive regardless of vertical. A 40% annual turnover rate on a 20-rep team means replacing eight people per year. The coaching ROI framework for D2D field teams shows that reducing turnover by even 10-15 percentage points typically produces more value than any other single operational improvement.

The underlying driver across all verticals is rep preparation. The verticals with faster ramp times and lower turnover are not the ones with the easiest products. They're the ones where companies have built real coaching infrastructure: recorded conversations, structured feedback, and practice that reflects actual field scenarios. Pest control D2D teams that have built out systematic rep coaching show meaningfully lower burnout and turnover rates than those relying on informal ride-along coaching.

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How to Use This as a Management Tool

Run your team's numbers against the benchmarks for your vertical. For each metric, you want to know:

1. Where is your team relative to the vertical average?
2. Where are your top reps relative to the vertical average?
3. What is the gap between your top reps and your median reps?

The answers will tell you whether you have a systemic problem (whole team below benchmark), a training distribution problem (top reps are strong, median reps are far behind), or an honest performance challenge in a specific area of the pitch.

The benchmarks here are not aspirational. They reflect what real D2D teams across these verticals are actually producing. If your numbers match, you're competitive. If your top reps significantly outperform the benchmark, you have patterns worth capturing and replicating. If your whole team underperforms the benchmark, you have a structural problem in your training or management process.

Platforms built around automated D2D sales coaching can help accelerate that diagnostic process by capturing what reps are actually saying at the door, identifying where conversations break down, and automatically generating training from the patterns that show up in your real field data.

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Sources

1. Briostack: Pest Control Industry Statistics and Door-to-Door Techniques
2. SPOTIO: Door-to-Door Sales Statistics, Strategies, and Best Practices
3. Knockbase: D2D Sales Scripts That Actually Convert
4. Xactly Corp: Sales Turnover Statistics 2025
5. Fiber Broadband Association: Historic Fiber Deployment Highs in 2025
6. GhostRep: Roofing Sales Turnover Rate Benchmarks