A plumbing sales representative meets homeowners to price and sell bigger jobs: water heater replacements, repipes, sewer line repairs and water treatment. The rep inspects the problem, writes the proposal, explains options and financing, and hands each sold job to the install crew.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, plumbing and HVAC contractors · BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $42,710, middle half $59,030 to $104,420, 90th percentile $139,990. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Sales Manager
Department
Sales
Schedule
Daytime estimates, evenings by request · Evening and Saturday estimates fit working homeowners. A hard freeze brings a rush of repipe and water heater calls.
This role is responsible for driving plumbing sales through expert customer engagement and tailored solution offerings, contributing to both revenue growth and enhanced customer satisfaction.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Conduct detailed plumbing estimates and provide accurate cost projections.
Offer expert solutions to clients, ensuring all plumbing issues are addressed.
Finalize sales agreements with clarity and professionalism.
Collaborate with internal teams to ensure smooth project transitions.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Engage with new and existing customers to assess their plumbing needs.
Perform on-site plumbing evaluations to develop customized service proposals.
Maintain a proactive approach in business prospecting and lead follow-up.
Ensure timely follow-up with clients after service visits to confirm satisfaction.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Revenue per sale: Achieve an average of $500 per completed job.
Sales Closing Rate: Maintain a closing rate of at least 30%.
Customer Satisfaction Rating: Exceed a rating of >4.8 stars based on post-service surveys.
Leads Generated: Generate a minimum of 15 qualified leads per month.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent experience in sales or plumbing industry.
Minimum of 2 years’ experience in sales, with a proven record of meeting targets.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Proficient in using CRM and sales management software.
6. Preferred Experience
Prior experience in the home services or plumbing industry.
Demonstrated success in direct sales or field sales roles.
Experience in technical estimate preparation and solution-based selling.
Familiarity with plumbing products, services, and industry regulations.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to conduct on-site visits and navigate residential or commercial environments.
Capability to lift up to 25 pounds when carrying estimate materials.
Comfortable working in varying weather conditions during site evaluations.
Occasional standing, walking, and bending required.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Standard work hours: Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
Occasional evenings or weekends based on client availability.
Travel within the service area required.
On-call duties may be required during peak project times.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Base salary: $45,000 - $55,000 per annum, based on experience.
Commission structure available based on sales performance.
Health, Dental, and Vision insurance provided.
401k plan with company match and additional fringe benefits.
10. Company Culture and Overview
We foster an inclusive and growth-oriented environment where each team member is empowered to succeed and develop professionally.
Our culture emphasizes collaboration, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement, making it a great place for driven professionals to thrive.
We are committed to innovation and excellence, setting industry standards in the home services sector.
Our supportive team environment helps you unlock your full potential while making a positive impact on our customers.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
A plumbing rep sells fixes for problems hidden in walls, under slabs and in the yard. The proposal has to show a homeowner something they mostly can't see.
Inspect before you price
Each big plumbing job has its own check. For a water heater, the rep reads the data plate for age and size and looks at the venting and space. For a repipe, they find the pipe material and how to reach it. For a sewer line, they watch the camera video and note depth and length. A price without that check turns into change orders.
Who owns the sewer line
Homeowners often think the city owns the pipe under the street. In the sewer district run by Los Angeles County Public Works, the property owner is responsible for the entire lateral, even the part in the public right of way. Riverside, California, splits it: the owner keeps the line to the property line, and the city owns the rest where a cleanout sits at the property line. Learn the rule where you work. Source: Los Angeles County Public Works: Sewer maintenance customer information.
Three days to cancel, with narrow exceptions
The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule usually lets a homeowner who signs for a repipe or a softener at home cancel within three business days. A repair they called you out to make doesn't count, but anything sold beyond the parts that repair needs does. Emergency work is exempt only if the homeowner made the first contact. They must also write out by hand a signed, dated statement that describes the emergency and waives the three days. Source: FTC Cooling-Off Rule definitions, 16 CFR 429.0 (Cornell Law School).
The water heater tax credit has ended
Heat pump water heaters and top-efficiency gas water heaters qualified for the energy efficient home improvement credit, a federal tax credit. The IRS lists December 31, 2025, as the last day for improvements that qualify, so it's off the table for jobs installed now. Older brochures and websites may still mention it. If a utility or state rebate is in the pitch, confirm the program is still taking applications first. Source: IRS: Energy efficient home improvement credit.
Water treatment needs a test first
Softeners and filters are easy to oversell. The CDC tells homeowners to test their water or read the yearly report their utility must provide. It also says to check a filter's NSF certification label for what it removes. Test first, offer a system certified for what you found, and promise only what the test and the label back up. Source: CDC: About choosing home water filters.
Residential vs. commercial plumbing sales
Commercial plumbing sales runs on drawings, bid dates and contracts. Residential sales runs on one house and one family at a time.
Topic
Residential
Commercial
Buyer
Homeowners, plus a spouse or landlord who has to agree
Building owners, general contractors and facility managers
Typical work
Tank and tankless water heaters, repipes, sewer lines, water treatment
Plumbing for new buildings and tenant build-outs, service contracts, equipment swaps
How the job is won
An inspection and a proposal at the house, often in one sitting
Bids built from plans, then rounds of scope and price review
Pricing
Built from what the rep sees and measures in the home
Takeoffs from the drawings and specifications
Billing
A deposit and a final payment, often with consumer financing
Progress billing, often with retainage held until the end
How much plumbing sales representatives make
The closest BLS group for plumbing sales representatives is sales representatives of services. Sales representatives of services who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $38.24 an hour ($79,530 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $69,990 median for sales representatives of services in all industries. About 24,510 of the 1,256,010 sales representatives of services in that survey work for plumbing and HVAC contractors.
Base salary plus commission on sold work. Commission may be figured on gross margin rather than price, and rates can differ between tank swaps, repipes and sewer jobs.
Plumbing and HVAC contractors
$79,530$79,530 median Middle half $59,030–$104,420 10th–90th $42,710–$139,990
All industries
$69,990$69,990 median Middle half $47,670–$100,480 10th–90th $37,980–$148,840
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Plumbing and HVAC contractors
$42,710
$59,030
$79,530
$104,420
$139,990
All industries
$37,980
$47,670
$69,990
$100,480
$148,840
BLS reports plumbing and HVAC contractors together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Explains a hidden problem in plain words, using photos and video
Asks for a decision, then respects the answer
Measures and notes the job so the crew isn't surprised
Keeps after open proposals on their own schedule
Shows up when promised and leaves no mess behind
Teach these on the job
Water heater types, sizing and venting basics
Repipe materials such as PEX, copper and CPVC
Sewer camera basics, and trenchless versus open-trench repair
Your price book, financing partners and proposal software
Cancellation paperwork and your state's sales rules
Reps carry a tablet running proposal software or the shop's job software, ServiceTitan or a competitor, plus a flashlight and a moisture meter that finds damp walls and ceilings near a leak. Camera footage from the drain tech, or the rep's own sewer camera, backs up a sewer proposal.
Plumbing sales representative interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Pull these monthly. Water heater swaps, repipes and sewer jobs sell at very different prices and rates, so read each KPI by job type and lead source before comparing reps.
Revenue per sale
Add up each month's signed jobs that held after cancellations, then divide by how many there were. Expect swings with the mix: a month heavy on water heaters will look low next to one with two repipes.
Sales Closing Rate
Of the estimates the rep ran in person, the share that signed. Count only visits where the rep met the homeowner, and report plumber-flagged leads separately from web and ad leads.
Customer Satisfaction Rating
Ask after the crew finishes, not at signing. When scores dip, look first at the scope: who patches the drywall, who restores the lawn, and what the rep said about timing.
Leads Generated
Qualified estimate requests the rep brought in on their own, such as from agents, past customers or neighbors of a job, counted apart from leads the company supplies. Log the source on every lead.
Career path
Journeyman plumberKnows pipe, venting and code from the field, and sees which homes need more than a repair.
Sales representativeInspects, prices and sells the bigger jobs in the home.
Lead sales consultantTakes the biggest repipe and sewer bids, and works agent and property manager accounts.
Sales managerLeads the reps and approves project bids.
Selling isn't plumbing work, so the licenses that cover plumbers may not reach a rep who never works on the pipes. Ask your state board anyway, since some states regulate the sale too. In Texas, for example, a written proposal for plumbing services must list the responsible master plumber's name and license number. It must also give the state plumbing board's name, mailing address and phone number.
How much does a plumbing sales representative make?
Sales representatives of services who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $38.24 an hour ($79,530 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $59,030 and $104,420 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Should a plumbing sales rep be a former plumber?
It helps most on repipes and sewer jobs, where a plumber reads the camera video and spots a venting or access problem others would miss. The cost is a truck without its plumber, which hurts in a freeze week. A rep with no trade time can do well too. Have a journeyman or master plumber check their scopes until they can read a job alone. Either way, ride along on their first estimates.
Is a plumbing sales rep exempt from overtime?
Possibly. The Labor Department's outside sales exemption can apply when an employee's main duty is selling away from your place of business, such as in customers' living rooms. No salary test applies. Phone, mail and internet sales from the office don't qualify. A home office the rep uses as a base counts as one of your places of business. That's the federal rule, so check your state's wage law too.
What separates a plumbing sales rep from a service plumber who sells?
A service plumber fixes the problem on the call and may offer options on the spot. A sales rep runs scheduled estimates for bigger jobs and spends the day selling, not working on pipes. Many companies let plumbers handle small add-ons and send a rep when a job needs a measured proposal, financing, or both homeowners at the table.
What should a plumbing sales proposal include?
The scope in plain words, and what is and isn't included, such as permits, drywall patching, or lawn and concrete repair after digging. Add the equipment brand and size, the warranty, the price and payment options, and the start date. Include the cancellation forms when the sale is covered by the FTC's rule. Photos and camera clips help a second decision maker.
