Why Your In-Home Sales Reps Have Such Different Close Rates

Siro recently published its industry report for home improvement, and an interesting data point stood out to me: within the same org, the best in-home sales reps close about 19 percentage points more often than the lowest performers.

For this report, we analyzed over 53,000 home improvement appointments recorded between April and August 2026, and discovered a few moments at the kitchen table really worth listening for: whether the rep confirms who makes the decision, and what they do when a homeowner stalls.

If you run an in-home team and already track close rates by rep, you've gotten a main part of sales training figured out. Sales is part art and part science, and your best closer probably has a feel for the room that's hard to put into words.

But what they say at the table shows up on recordings. Once you know what to listen for, you can teach it. The goal is never to make reps feel watched. It's to let every rep hear what your best closer does when a homeowner pushes back.

How big is the close-rate gap between in-home sales reps?

Across all trades, top closers run 10.5 points above their own company's median close rate and bottom closers run 8.9 points below it, a 19.4-point spread (In-Home Insider, Chapter 1).

Each rep is measured against their own company's median, so the gap sits within each org. And interestingly enough, among companies already closing above the national average, the median gap between the best and worst rep is still 17.6 points.

When you calculate what bottom reps would gain by closing at their company's median rate, the numbers get big fast. Over 100 appointments, a bottom kitchen & bath rep would bring in roughly $129,000 more, and a bottom windows & doors rep about $76,000 more. The chart below shows how that grows with your team's appointment volume.

Source: 2026 In-Home Insider Report, Chapter 1: The Benchmarks. A close means the conversation ended in a commitment to move forward, so read the dollar figures as opportunity rather than booked revenue.

What’s happening in the appointments that close?

The report's chapter on insights from the kitchen table shows three moments where closing conversations and stalled ones part ways.

1. Confirming every decision maker is in the room. In 30.9% of appointments, the rep never confirms it. Those appointments close at 23.0%, against 36.7% when the rep does confirm.

2. Recovering the stall, not just attempting it. Top and bottom reps try to handle objections at almost the same rate, 87.9% and 84.3%. Top reps turn about 1 in 5 stalls into a commitment, and bottom reps about 1 in 9. The reps who struggle are still trying, but they're likely reaching for the wrong move.

3. Reaching for financing before a discount. Urgency and discounts make up about a quarter of recovery attempts, and those conversations close at 21.7%. Conversations where the rep reframes the financing or lowers the homeowner's commitment risk close above 32%. And 44% of concessions come before the homeowner asks for anything: unprompted concessions close at 18.8%, against 23.3% when the homeowner asked first.

The objections point the same way. "Can't afford to pay" (35.5%) and "sticker shock" (32.2%) are the two highest-closing objections in the report (Chapter 2). As I put it there: "Certain objections are actually buying signals." A financing reframe answers the question that homeowner is already asking.

Can a ride-along show you why a rep isn't closing?

You clear a Tuesday, ride along with your bottom closer and watch a few appointments. The rep runs it by the book because you're sitting at the table. You give notes in the truck and drive home knowing about as much as you did that morning.

A top rep who recovers 1 in 5 stalls and a bottom rep who recovers 1 in 9 could look the same in a single appointment (Chapter 2). The difference shows up across dozens, over weeks. Southwest Exteriors ran into exactly this: reps followed the process on ride-alongs, and a manager could only be at a fraction of appointments. Once they recorded every appointment, CEO Ryan Shutt saw the difference: "Siro gave us visibility into 100% of our sales conversations, and that's already driven a measurable lift in close rates."

A ride-along also gives your rep one more person watching them, but not anyone to listen to, and listening is what changed my own selling. I made the ride-along point in my guide to ramping new in-home reps too: they're rare, and reps are on their best behavior when you're there.

Most sales training also have a common blind spot: the method comes from someone else's deals, in someone else's industry. Siro's science for sales performances is built on your own team's appointments instead. Every appointment is recorded, so coaching comes from what each rep actually said at the table, and it isn't capped by how many appointments a manager can sit in on.

How do in-home sales teams close the gap?

They coach from recordings of every appointment, and they coach closer to the moment. Instead of waiting for next week's one-on-one, a rep gets a read mid-appointment with Siro's Halftime, while the deal is still live, and a Debrief Call on the drive home, while the stall is still fresh. From there they can dive straight into a Roleplay with Ask Siro. The habit gets corrected when it matters most, and the top closer's stall recoveries get shared with the whole team.

Southwest Exteriors' sales manager now runs one-on-ones from recorded appointments and shares coachable moments with the team. One rep turned a $1,000 one-window appointment into a $90,000 whole-home project, and everyone got to hear how he did it. Close rates rose 8.54% in four months.

Hello Garage also coaches reps after every appointment, and new reps learn from recordings of top performers. Within 30 days, reps' weakest skills improved 17% on average.

FAQ

What is the average close rate for in-home sales?

Nationally, 26.9% of in-home consultations end in a commitment to move forward, based on Siro's recordings. By trade it ranges from 16.0% in Decks & Patios to 29.1% in Windows & Doors, so compare your reps against your own trade (In-Home Insider, Chapter 1).

Is the close-rate gap between in-home reps about talent?

In my experience, mostly not. The gap shows up between reps at the same company, and top reps recover about 1 in 5 stalls against 1 in 9 for bottom reps while attempting at nearly the same rate (In-Home Insider, Chapter 2). That points to coachable moves, like confirming decision makers, reframing financing instead of discounting, and holding concessions until the homeowner asks.

This week, pull one appointment from your top closer and one from your bottom closer, find the first stall in each, and listen to what each rep does next.

About the author

Ben Knaus leads GTM for home improvement and home building at Siro, where he joined as employee #7 and worked his way from founding enterprise account executive to lead GTM for home improvement and home building. Before Siro, he built sales functions from the ground up at two startups, going from founding SDR to top-performing enterprise rep. Outside of work, he has coached youth lacrosse for more than a decade.