The short version: most windows comp plans are either a percentage of the contract or a split of the margin above a base price sheet, with a slide that cuts your rate every time you discount. Self-generated leads pay more than company leads. Canvassers get paid on sets, sats and issued jobs. Nothing is really yours until the three-business-day rescission expires, credit approves, and — on many plans — the job is installed and paid.
The two plans you will actually be offered
Percentage of contract. The simplest version: you write a $16,400 job, your rate applies to the contract price, and everyone can do the math in their head. Rates for a closer running company-provided leads commonly sit in the high single digits to low teens, and dealers usually pay a meaningfully higher rate — sometimes close to double — on a lead the rep generated themselves. It is easy to understand and easy to compare between companies, which is exactly why smaller dealers use it to recruit.
Margin above base. The version most established dealers run. The company publishes a base or book price for the job — its minimum acceptable number, covering product, install, overhead and target profit — and you keep a share of everything you sell above that. The share is often quoted somewhere in the 30 to 50 percent range. On this plan two reps selling identical houses can earn wildly different money, because the plan is not paying you for the job, it is paying you for the price.
Both of these are real, both are defensible, and neither is automatically better. The percentage plan gives you a predictable floor. The margin plan gives a strong closer far more upside and gives a weak one almost nothing. What matters is knowing which one you are on before you start discounting.
