Oftentimes, you have great insights at corporate that can help your dealers grow their businesses and sell more of your products. That advice can fall on deaf ears, though, if your dealers feel that you don’t understand their business or that you don’t understand their market.

That’s why it’s important to build a strong peer network within your group of dealers, so that your best dealers can train the underperformers. A strong peer network also gives you a backchannel, so that you’re not stuck arguing with stubborn dealers, but instead you have a trusted source spreading great strategies to the whole group.

Ready to get the best possible sales performance out of your dealer network? Here’s how to get started.

Building a strong network is just the beginning. Download our guide below to learn how you can drive predictable growth as a manufacturer.

Start with the basics – routine meetings.

If you don’t already have a dealer summit, or at least a regular webinar or conference call, it’s time to get started! Use this opportunity to highlight your best dealers, and give your most productive dealers an opportunity to explain their best practices.

This peer-to-peer advice will weigh more heavily in your dealers’ decision-making than just hearing it from you at corporate!

Pick your best

Identifying your best dealers can be a bit trickier than it first appears – after all, you need coaches who have proven performance, but you also need coaches who are willing to contribute a bit of their own time.

  • Engaged. Your coaches may field calls occasionally from struggling dealers, so make sure that they are comfortable with that level of investment.
  • Proven performers. A coach who doesn’t know best practices will amplify mistakes. Make sure that you are picking folks with sound business sense!
  • Positive about the product. Of course, you want folks who are believers in your product and system!

Play matchmaker

Once you have a big group that meets regularly, and you know which members of the group would make great leaders, you can start matchmaking. Match up your dealers by geography for starters, avoiding having either competitors or poor personality matches in the same group.

Periodically change up your groups, introducing new coaches or moving members from one group to another. That ensures that your dealers are making deep connections within the network, and also seeing a variety of ways to successfully grow their business.

Be appreciative

Your leading dealers are doing you a huge favor by coaching the new members of your network. Some do this out of a sense of paying it forward, knowing that they were themselves mentored in the same way. Don’t count on that, though - be sure to incentive folks to participate!

It can be as simple as calling out great coaches at your routine meetings, or as elaborate as giving awards to your mentors for their hard work. If there is one thing that remodelers love, it is awards for excellence! Find a balance that works for your group to make sure that your coaches and their mentees follow through.

Measure results!

Once you have your mentoring system in place, it’s time to reap the benefits! Have a look at your network’s overall growth after a year of dealer communications and mentoring. You’d be surprised to see what a difference it can make, as your dealers adopt best practices and you amplify successful strategies across your whole dealer base. Download our guide below, and we'll go through the best ways to measure results for predictable business growth.