The Kitchen Table Report · 2026

Mention financing and close rates go from 38% to 49%

What 1.3 million+ sales conversations show about how roofs, kitchens, furnaces and new homes get sold, next to the outside research that backs it up or argues with it.

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How we measured

80,887 appointments · 1,763 reps · 255 companies · Mar 13 to Oct 11, 2026

A sales rep presenting a quote to two homeowners beside a kitchen table
1.3M+sales conversations analyzed across home services, home improvement and home builders
38 → 49%close rate without and with a financing mention
25-35points between top and bottom reps on close rate
$585Ka year in that gap for a 10-truck operation

Headline finding

What is the biggest single difference in the room?

38 → 49%close rate without and with a financing mention

Whether anyone mentions financing. Appointments where it comes up close at 49%. Appointments where it doesn't close at 38%.1

Picture the end of a furnace quote at 7 pm. The number is on the table and the homeowner is doing math in their head. Some reps fill that silence with the warranty. Some talk about the monthly payment. The second group closes more often.

Federal housing data shows how seldom it happens. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that only 2% of 2023 home improvement projects were paid for mainly with contractor-arranged financing, and 76% mainly with cash.2 The rest of that story, and its caveat, is in Chapter 02.

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Close rate, by whether financing came upAll verticals combined
38%
Financing not mentioned
+11 points49%
Financing mentioned

SalesAsk analysis of 1.3 million+ sales conversations, 2026.

Inside the report

Three chapters, each one a different part of the sale

The Kitchen Table Report · 202601
Benchmarks
A home improvement sales rep holding rolled plans
25 to 35 ptsbetween top and bottom reps on close rate

Chapter 01 · 8 min read

How long appointments run in 11 trades, the 48-minute spread between reps at one company, and the $585K a year it costs.

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The Kitchen Table Report · 202602
The Conversation
A homeowner reading a contractor's quote
+11 ptsclose rate when financing comes up

Chapter 02

The eleven-point financing sentence, how many quotes the homeowner is holding, and what makes them pick one.

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The Kitchen Table Report · 202603
After the Table
A couple reviewing a quote together after the sales appointment
3 daysthe cooling-off window after the signature

Chapter 03

Follow-up speed, text versus call, reviews, the three-day cooling-off window and recording consent.

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Method

How to read the numbers

Every figure carries a coloured square and a numbered source.

SalesAsk data. From our own analysis of recorded conversations.
Outside research. From a published study, quoted as its publisher reports it and linked at the bottom of each chapter.

Where our data doesn't cover something yet, we say so and show the best public number instead. Each chapter ends with what we're measuring next, and those cuts replace the outside numbers as they land.

About this data

SalesAsk figures come from two places: 1.3 million+ sales conversations analyzed across home services, home improvement and home builders, and this edition's appointment sample. No company, rep or homeowner can be identified from them. The 38% to 49% comparison is a correlation. Chapter 02 explains the test that comes next.

Edition
2026
Conversations analyzed
1.3 million+
Appointment sample
80,887 in person
Reps in sample
1,763 at 255 companies
Dates
March 13 to October 11, 2026
Outside sources
Listed in every chapter

Sources on this page

  1. SalesAsk, The Kitchen Table Report 2026: analysis of 1.3 million+ recorded sales conversations across home services, home improvement and home builders.
  2. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Improving America's Housing 2025, March 2025. JCHS tabulations of the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD 2023 American Housing Survey, a federal household survey. jchs.harvard.edu (PDF)