The Way to Your Dealer’s Heart –

 Smart Co-Op Marketing Dollars

You’ve heard the easiest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? At US Farm Data we think the easiest way to your dealers heart is through lead generation. 

You provide your dealers with sales collateral, product support, and sales training but so does every other manufacturer in your dealer’s inventory. You know what every other manufacturer is not providing their dealers?

Leads. 

We are often hired to generate leads for dealers of agriculture products. It’s relatively simple; come up with a plan to generate leads, execute that plan for the dealer, and learn whether the leads that come in are good or bad and why. Then repeat.

In theory it seems pretty straightforward. But In reality, there’s a little more to it. One of the hardest things is keeping the dealer happy. You might think that as long as you’re generating leads that should be enough to please the dealer, but it isn’t always the case. They might not like the way in which you are generating them, and even if you are ultimately successful, they might think that the lead generation methods you chose to use were too risky. If you can’t keep the dealer happy, they might cancel the contract. So how do you make sure your dealer is happy?

One way we’ve found is when the manufacturer helps foot the bill. There’s something about co-op dollars and especially smart co-op dollars that makes dealers happy.

What are smart co-op dollars? That’s our term for marketing dollars that come with recommendations of what what’s worked for other dealers, in similar situations, selling the same products to the same customers. If it works in Kearney, NE it probably works in Leavenworth, KS and Bettendorf, IA. Helping your dealers not only with dollars and credits, but with insider knowledge of how marketing campaigns work and why sets you apart from other manufacturers.

Steps you can take to start building smart co-op dollars:

1. Collect and communicate your existing internal marketing statistics with dealers. We’ve found most dealers are very interested in the stats relating to their markets, less interested in overall stats. 
2. Find a dealer interested in developing an advanced lead generation program. We’ve found it’s not always your best dealer. Sometimes it’s a middle performer in a smaller market with a burning desire to grow.
3. Partner with the dealer in developing a new sales lead program to set yourself apart from other manufacturers. New programs take time, effort, and money. It’s a process, not an event. Be clear about this from the outset and be clear you expect some investment from the dealer, especially in time and effort. 

We’ve worked with manufacturers, insurance companies, and even distributors on developing smart co-op dollar sales lead programs. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned with you too. Contact one of our account executives today.