A commercial refrigeration sales rep sells service agreements and new equipment to restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, and cold storage warehouses. They walk each site's coolers and cases, price an agreement from what they see, and follow up on repairs that techs quoted.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, HVAC and plumbing contractors · BLS, May 2025
Refrigeration Install & Service - Sales Representative
Company Name:
[INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE]
Department:
Sales
Reports to:
Sales Manager
Location:
[INSERT LOCATION HERE]
1. Position Summary
You'll find and win commercial refrigeration customers: restaurants, independent grocers, convenience stores and cold storage sites. You'll walk their equipment, sell preventive maintenance agreements, and turn aging walk-ins and condensing units into replacement projects.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Prospect restaurants, grocers, convenience stores, food processors and cold storage sites in [territory].
Survey each site's walk-ins, reach-ins, display cases, condensing units, ice machines and racks, noting age, condition and refrigerant type.
Build and present service agreement proposals based on equipment count and visit frequency.
Follow up on repair and replacement quotes written by technicians, and explain the options to the owner.
Hand install opportunities to the Project Manager & Estimator with site notes and photos.
Log every contact, survey and proposal in [your CRM].
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Visit [number] businesses in the territory, by appointment or walk-in.
Call new leads from the website and from technicians in the field.
Walk a customer's kitchen, back room and walk-ins to price an agreement.
Send proposals and follow up on open quotes.
Update the pipeline in the CRM.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
New agreements signed: [your target].
Replacement quotes closed: [your target].
Site surveys completed: [your target].
Sales revenue against quota: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[2+] years of outside sales, ideally in commercial refrigeration, HVAC, foodservice equipment or restaurant supply.
Comfort walking into a business, finding the owner or manager and asking for a meeting.
Ability to learn refrigeration equipment basics and explain them in plain terms.
Valid driver's license and a driving record that meets [your insurer's] standards.
Experience keeping a CRM up to date.
6. Preferred Experience
A background as a refrigeration technician or in restaurant or grocery operations.
Existing relationships with local restaurant owners, franchisees or grocers.
Experience selling recurring service contracts.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk through kitchens, back rooms and walk-in coolers and freezers during site surveys.
Drive to customer sites for much of the day.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Field-based in [territory], with office time for meetings and proposals.
Visits planned around meal rushes and store delivery times.
Company vehicle or mileage: [your policy].
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new sales representative gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What makes commercial refrigeration sales different
The rep sells to people who are cooking, stocking shelves or checking in a truck while you talk. Five things set this job apart.
Kitchen walks need the person in charge
In the 2026 FDA Food Code, the person in charge keeps people who aren't needed out of food prep, food storage and dishwashing areas. Brief visits are allowed when that person approves and exposed food and clean equipment stay protected. Inspectors work from whatever version their state or county adopted. Ask the manager before you walk the kitchen, keep your bag off prep tables, and step aside for anyone carrying food. Source: FDA Food Code 2026, section 2-103.11(B): Person in charge, visits to food areas.
Check the thermometer on every box
The Food Code also says cold holding equipment for foods that need temperature control must have at least one built-in or fixed thermometer that's easy to read. Salad bars and cold plates are among the exceptions. A thermometer's sensor goes in the warmest part of the unit. On a survey, note any box with a missing, broken or hard-to-read display. It's a small repair you can add to the agreement, and it shows the manager you looked closely. Source: FDA Food Code 2026, section 4-204.112: Temperature measuring devices.
Count what the price depends on
Read each nameplate for the model, serial number, refrigerant and charge, and photograph it. Count case doors, evaporators, condensing units and the compressors on each rack. The sales manager prices from your counts, so a walk-in freezer you missed comes out of the branch's margin for the whole agreement term.
Tech quotes cool off fast
A repair or replacement quote from a technician often reaches the owner through a busy manager, and then sits. Call the owner soon after the tech flags it, bring the photos and readings, and lay out the options with what each one fixes. An owner who understands why the unit keeps failing is more likely to approve the fix before the next breakdown.
Find out who signs
At a single cafe the owner signs. At a convenience store chain or a grocer with several stores, a district or facilities manager often signs, and the store manager can only tell you what's broken. Ask on the first visit who approves work over the store's limit, and get that person's contact before you write a proposal.
How much commercial refrigeration sales reps make
The closest BLS group for commercial refrigeration sales reps 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 HVAC and plumbing contractors.
Usually a base salary or draw plus commission on new agreements and closed replacement quotes, with a company vehicle or mileage pay.
HVAC and plumbing 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
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$42,710
$59,030
$79,530
$104,420
$139,990
All industries
$37,980
$47,670
$69,990
$100,480
$148,840
BLS doesn’t publish pay for refrigeration contractors on their own. These figures cover plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Walking into a busy business and asking for the owner or manager
Clear notes and photos from every site visit
Calling back on open quotes until the owner decides
Explaining a repair or a replacement to an owner in plain words
Updating the CRM before the day ends
Teach these on the job
Reading nameplates for model, serial number, refrigerant and charge
The parts of a system: evaporator, condensing unit, rack and case
How your agreement price sheet works
Which jobs to hand to the project manager and estimator
Your territory's accounts and who services them now
Give reps the CRM and the service app on a tablet, so they see a site's equipment and open quotes before they walk in. A flashlight, the phone camera and your survey form cover most visits.
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Respecting busy owners
You walk into a restaurant to introduce yourself and it's the lunch rush. What do you do?
A strong answer: Recognizes it's a bad time, leaves a card or something useful, asks when to come back, and follows up as agreed.
Behavioral · Prospecting
Tell me about how you built a book of business with restaurants, grocers or other businesses in a new territory.
A strong answer: Explains the plan (target list, walk-ins, referrals), the weekly activity, how they reached owners and managers, and the results.
What physical tasks come with refrigeration sales site visits?
The template's physical lines mean walking through kitchens and back rooms. The rep goes into walk-in coolers and freezers to count equipment and read nameplates, and drives between customer sites for much of the day. Describe each of those tasks in the ad, estimate the weekly driving time, and add that you'll consider reasonable accommodation.
How much does a commercial refrigeration sales rep 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.
Can we check a refrigeration sales rep's driving record?
Yes, since the rep drives every day. A record bought from a background screening company counts as a consumer report under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Before you order it, hand the candidate a one-topic disclosure, separate from the application, and have them sign a permission form. If a ticket or suspension on that record might cost them the offer, they get the record and the FTC's rights summary before you make the final call. Check your state and city rules too.
Should a refrigeration rep quote prices on the spot?
For a small site with standard equipment, a rep with your price sheet can quote an agreement on the visit. Racks and cold storage are different. So is any site where the refrigerant, the code or the unit's condition raises questions. There, take notes and photos, and send the price after the sales manager or estimator reviews it.
How should a rep work with technicians on leads?
Ask techs to flag aging units, repeat repairs and boxes that can't keep up, with photos, in the service app. Follow up within a few days, give the tech credit in front of the customer, and tell the tech how it ended. If you pay techs for leads that close, put the terms in writing.
