It’s in your best interest as a CMO or VP of sales to ensure that your company’s dealer network is well equipped to tell your brand story. Dealers who are effectively coached and trained can achieve 14% higher win rates in closing sales, according to Sales Enablement Pro. In addition, dealers who are more engaged with brand marketing tend to take greater advantage of marketing, sales, and branding opportunities, which in turn builds greater awareness with customers and ultimately leads to increased sales of products and services.

However, this sort of engagement doesn’t happen accidentally. Developing a cohesive dealer marketing plan and creating a network of dealers who can successfully and skillfully tell your brand story depends on participation from company headquarters as well as dealers. This should be a mutually beneficial partnership, which requires mutual effort.

Here are five ways you can create the best environment for dealer marketing engagement and optimizing channel partner strategies for increased sales.

1. Communicate regularly with your dealers

Empower your corporate marketing team to establish regular communications with the dealer network. The purpose of this communication is to build a relationship between marketing and dealers that makes it easier for both sides to reach out as they have needs, and for the marketing team to provide updates and pointers or simply check in. Communications can be handled in multiple ways; some of our clients have a monthly or quarterly meeting of corporate marketing and dealer leads, others use a shared message board, and some clients host an annual dealer summit to gather in person for a few days. The key is to find the communication method that works best for your company and your dealer network. Making a continuous effort to nurture this communication builds trust and shows that the brand is dedicated to dealer success.

2. Create accessible marketing resources for dealer networks

Most dealerships are juggling a range of sales and services activities, so marketing can often fall to the wayside. Creating programs and packages for dealers to enroll in makes it easier for them to complete needed marketing efforts — plus it ensures that those marketing efforts align with your brand messaging, value prop, and competitive differentiators. This is a vital part of a strong dealer marketing program and contributes to channel marketing effectiveness.

3. Align with dealers on strategies for effective channel partner marketing

While both sides want to sell the product or service, there are a variety of ways to measure success. Dealership goals are focused on sales, service, and customer relationships. How can the company’s marketing team align their goals with the goals of the dealership? Similarly, how can corporate goals and dealership goals be fulfilled simultaneously? A mutually beneficial partnership relies on common goals. This is a key component of a channel partner marketing strategy and channel partner sales strategy.

4. Improve dealer marketing engagement by providing resources

As professional marketers, we tend to prioritize marketing-centric goals: getting dealers to execute marketing tactics and continually improve on key metrics. However, some dealers — especially those less familiar with marketing — struggle to see the value of marketing to their business. Dealers are less likely to buy in if they don’t understand where their marketing dollars are going or what their metrics mean. The best way to address their skepticism? Provide resources and education up front to help dealers gain that knowledge and in turn see the value of effective channel marketing. 

5. Enhance channel marketing effectiveness with incentives for dealers

Despite regular communication and shared goals, there will always be dealers that are unengaged or uninterested for any number of reasons. Even the most engaged dealers might need a nudge at times. Providing incentives for certain actions can help entice dealers while simultaneously boosting specific brand goals.

For example, if your company is emphasizing digital marketing tactics, then larger co-op reimbursement could be given to dealers for executing a paid search campaign. Dealers tend to be a connected group, heavily influenced by each other. When one dealer sees another running a paid search campaign, they may feel more inclined to start; and those that already are will appreciate the additional benefit.

Some incentives can even be based on engagement: the more a dealer participates, the more perks and benefits they may receive. In this way, engagement may include co-op dollars spent, programs enrolled in, or products sold. Incentives should be carefully selected so that there is a benefit for both the brand and the dealer, ultimately leading to greater channel marketing effectiveness.

Encourage dealer marketing engagement going forward

Understanding the mutually beneficial partnership between a brand and dealer is integral to the success of the relationship. There needs to be engagement from both sides to ensure that long-term goals can be met. Engaging with dealers, aligning on goals, and incentivizing for a boost are excellent strategies to encourage brand engagement from dealers.

When considering how to build a dealer network, these tips will provide a great foundation.

Interested in learning more about channel marketing strategy? Contact us today to get started!