The Co-Op Connect Team is asked this question more often than you might know, and it’s a great question. The answer is not straightforward – it really depends on the business. If you are talking about “front of the house” new car sales and an auto dealership, they certainly know. Their Marketing Manager can probably tell you to the penny how much in co-op funds they have available. Now, if you are talking to someone in the “back of the house”, the Parts & Service department you will most likely get a strange look from the Service Manager as they may not even know about co-op. Yet, believe it or not, the Parts & Service department more often has more co-op money accumulated than the “front of the house”. Just think of all the different tire brands, filter brands, windshield wipers, oil brands and more that they purchase and use to repair cars and you will see how it “stacks up” quickly for them.

It really depends on the business, the staff, and the brands they are selling. Let’s talk about a business like Ace Hardware. Most of these stores are independently owned and operated, carrying thousands of brands. You can hardly blame them for not knowing which of these brands may or may not offer co-op funding; they are too busy running their business.

Below are just a couple of questions that you can ask to serve as a “consultant” for your customer and help them locate any available co-op advertising funds they may have available.

Help your customers by asking these questions

• If you go into a store such as an Ace Hardware, or family-owned hardware store or mini-mart, ask them to tell you “What are the six top brands/items you sell the most?”. The reason for that question is because that is where the most co-op funds will be found. You may sell thousands of products but most likely they are not all selling at the same pace. Even at Ace Hardware, one store two miles north of my location may sell “tons” of Big Green Egg Grills and STIHL tools, while the one two miles south of my location sells “tons” of Traeger Grills and Cabot Paint. You can help the store that you work with obtain their co-op fund balances for their top-selling items and concentrate on advertising those brands. The more they sell of their top items, the more they re-order, and earn more co-op funds in the process!
• You may have a customer who doesn’t know a thing about co-op, and you can certainly help with just a question or two. For instance, let’s say your customer is a local tanning salon, and you walk in and see a wall full of tanning lotions by various brands. The first thing I would ask them is where they buy them from. Many businesses do not order directly from the brand/manufacturer, but rather, they purchase their items from a local distributor. The reason for that is due to wanting to share a “large variety of products” with their customers. If they contacted Australian Gold directly, they may have a threshold number that the business needs to meet to be eligible to order direct. A local distributor will warehouse not only Australian Gold products but also Swedish Beauty, JWoww, California Tan, etc., and the salon can buy several bottles of each different brand for their customer. The distributor will offer co-op funds to the local tanning salon based on the total volume purchased through them.
• Beauty Salons are also apt to buy their shampoo/conditioner products from a local distributor. That way they can show a nice variety of products on their shelves (such as Biolage, Redken, etc.) for their customers to purchase.
• Another category where distributors come into play is Tires. If you have a customer who is a local tire dealer, I am pretty sure they don’t just sell one brand. It may turn out that they do in fact sell more Michelin Tires than any other brand, but they need options. They will have customers pulling in that have BFGoodrich or Uniroyal on their cars currently, and just need to replace one or two tires. Although your business would like to stock as many brands as they can to meet their customers’ needs, they may have space constraints for storage. So, working with a local distributor to buy the tires you need when you need them is the way to go. And…the distributor will provide them co-op funds based on their total purchases with them.

To find out how to subscribe to the Co-op Connect Platform or for more information about our Co-op Concierge Services, call us at 877-990-2667 or email [email protected].

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