Each month, Hardware Innovators come together to talk shop, solve problems, and share what’s actually working in their stores. In July, our innovators focused on building the perfect scorecard, but the conversations went far beyond metrics.
What does Homer Simpson have to do with helping your cashiers spot B2B sales opportunities? How can rethinking your paint counter setup help you steal market share from the big dogs?
If you’re looking for real-world, peer-tested strategies to boost sales, improve service, and tackle the day-to-day challenges of running a hardware store, you’ll want to dive into these takeaways from July’s Mastermind Meetings.
Let’s get into the key insights from each session!
B2B Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Let Homer Remind Cashiers to Ask “Home or Business?”
Your B2B sales members are rarely at the register, so they need cashiers to help spot contractor prospects with logos on their shirts. Innovators talked about the challenge of getting frontline staff to consistently ask customers if a purchase is for home or business. To make it easier (and more fun), we are sharing a printable flyer—featuring Homer Simpson—designed to hang behind the counter (and in the breakroom) as a memorable prompt for cashiers to ask that critical question every time.
Scroll down to download this free resource for innovators!
Takeaway #2: Make Your Paint Department a Pro’s First (or ALWAYS Second) Stop
Owenhouse’s B2B team successfully merchandised their paint department like a pro supply house, featuring stacked case quantities, 5 gallon buckets of Killz, contractor brand items like Graco and Purdy, and images of drop-shippable sprayers and sprayer parts. This approach has helped draw in contractors who previously relied on Sherwin-Williams, making Ace the go-to backup when the competition runs out of stock.
This was also a hot topic in our Marketing Mastermind–scroll down for those ideas too!
Takeaway #3: Segment and Communicate Effectively with Multiple Touchpoints
Innovators talked about the importance of segmenting contractor lists for targeted communication, using CRM systems like HubSpot or Zoho, and leveraging text (SMS) for timely offers. They agreed that multiple touchpoints—from in-store asks to follow-up texts—are essential for nurturing B2B relationships. There is no better way to combine sales and marketing than with a customer journey touchpoints doc.
Need help planning out your store’s touchpoints? Scroll down for a template to get you started!
Takeaway #4: Make Contractor Signups Easy
Rather than relying only on B2B reps, participants discussed training floor staff and supervisors to create contractor accounts right in the aisle or better yet, dragging them over to a computer and getting them signed up on the spot. By empowering more employees to handle signups, stores can increase contractor email capture and build stronger B2B pipelines.
Helpful Resources for B2B
Marketing Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Turn Pet Parents into Loyal Shoppers with Subscriptions, Dropship, and Dog Days Events
With big players like Chewy winning loyal pet owners, our marketers are strategizing ways to win back local customers and become the go-to spot for pet supplies. Why the focus on pet food? Because it’s a high-frequency purchase that boosts basket size, drives repeat visits, and builds loyal, long-term customers.
Innovators discussed Ace’s in-progress work with ADMC distributors to enable pet food subscriptions with dropshipping, making it easy for customers to set up recurring orders that ship straight from the distributor, even if the store doesn’t carry every item on-site.
Participants also touched on the idea that we explored in last month’s Mastermind of hosting Dog Days of Summer events to bring pet owners in-store for a FREE PHOTO BOOTH!
Takeaway #2: Market Your Paint Department to Contractors
Competing with Sherwin-Williams for contractor business isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. The group shared practical strategies to make paint sections more appealing to pros.
Rand relayed tips that spilled over from the B2B Mastermind:
- Create a blog page on your website to start to rank for pro brands like Graco and Titan. (Secret: Sherman is not doing this, and we’re seeing pros coming in and ordering from our B2B paint folks)
- Improve signage for contractor-preferred brands like Graco.
- Rebuild the paint counter to mirror Sherwin’s pro look with stacked five-gallon buckets and case quantities.
- Use targeted emails or texts to let contractors know about new stock or specialty supplies, so they think of your store when their usual supplier is out.
Another innovator also described setting up a high-value endcap next to the paint desk loaded with contractor-focused best-sellers, designed to stop busy pros in their tracks and make add-on sales easy.
Need a creative social media idea? One store does a monthly video series featuring a video of a team member mixing paint that encourages the audience to guess the color. This is a great way to drive online engagement while reminding shoppers you’re the local paint experts.
Takeaway #3: Consistent Uniforms Reduce Customer Frustration
The marketing team over at Proctor Ace shared a win that’s about more than marketing—it’s about the customer experience. After seeing repeated complaints in Google reviews that shoppers couldn’t tell who worked there and who didn’t, their store committed to standardizing uniforms, going all red.
Starting August 1, every employee will be required to wear a branded red shirt, polo, or vest along with a name tag. The project involved sourcing quality shirts, buying in bulk, and even helping current employees with costs to make adoption easy. Consistent uniforms don’t just look professional—they make it easy for customers to get help, reducing frustration and improving loyalty.
Scroll down to see these sweet new uniforms!
Takeaway #4: Use Sales Coaching Guides and Weekly Newsletters to Align Your Team
Remember our recent Mastermind on AI? The ideas keep coming as one innovator shared how they used ChatGPT to turn insights from the book Pre-Suasion into an 8-page sales coaching guide for their team. Scroll down to check out the guide!
They also emphasized internal communication as key to marketing success. One innovator described sending a weekly internal team newsletter with social media schedules, marketing goals, and staff shout-outs to keep everyone aligned, informed, and engaged with what’s being promoted in-store. Use this example newsletter from the team over at Kimps Ace Hardware to get started on one for your store!
Helpful Resources for Marketers
- ADMC Pet Food Distribution
- Dog Days of Summer Event
- Paint Color Guessing Video Example for Social Media
- Perplexity Pre-Suasion Process – Sales Coaching Guide
- Weekly Internal Newsletter Example:
- Proctor Ace’s New Uniforms:
General Managers Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Staff for What Your Store Could Be, Not What It Is Today
One innovator shared how investing more in payroll up front can set a NEW store up for success. Instead of sticking to the industry’s very conservative labor budget recommendations, they plan to spend 10–30% more to ensure the store is fully staffed for its potential, not just current traffic.
This approach paid off in turning around an underperforming store and also in launching a new one with a strong, well-trained team that quickly became self-sufficient and beat all new store projections by double. The lesson? You have a choice of what to focus on, 1) how to cut labor OR 2) how to increase ticket averages and visits. Sometimes, spending more on staffing early is the key to unlocking long-term growth in the top line that more than makes up for increases in labor.
Takeaway #2: Train Deeply to Retain Staff (and Save on Turnover Costs)
Another innovator emphasized how investing heavily in training pays off through both retention and service quality. At their stores, employees can’t even ask for a raise until they’ve completed 50 hours of Ace Learning Place training, with additional certification paths in brands like STIHL or complex services like key programming.
While it costs more up front (training is paid time on the clock), this approach has delivered long-term retention at established stores, with team members staying 15–25 years. Even in locations with higher turnover, they insist that deep training builds better, more confident employees who deliver the kind of service that keeps customers coming back.
Takeaway #3: High Schoolers Are Capable of More Than We Think
Hiring high school students isn’t just about cheap labor—it’s about building a flexible, effective team. Innovators shared strategies for bringing in students, starting them as cashiers, and promoting those who prove themselves into sales roles where they end up selling big-ticket items like power tools.
One store developed a “Leaders Training Leaders” program where students don’t just learn tasks but also learn to teach others. That qualifies them for supervisor shifts with pay bumps and gives them résumé-worthy leadership experience.
Some stores even keep an “Alumni Career Path” list to highlight where former student employees went on to succeed—doctors, lawyers, and beyond—to show prospects, new hires and parents the real-world value of working there.
The result? Motivated young employees who stay through their high school and college years, learn more, and become valuable team members at a lower overall cost.
Takeaway #4: Measure More Than Just Top-Line Sales
The group dove into why top-line sales alone don’t tell the whole story. Several innovators shared that the payroll percentage of sales is a critical profitability measure, with examples of average ticket sizes dropping even as sales rise, forcing tighter labor management.
Others track payroll as a percentage of gross margin, aiming for specific targets like 45%. They discussed balancing labor cuts versus investing in staff to keep service quality high. Additional metrics included attachment rates (like selling drill bits with drills), scan rates for Ace Rewards, and tailoring staffing levels to each store’s profitability. The consensus? Without watching these numbers, even busy stores can see profits evaporate.
Takeaway #5: Compete on Culture When You Can't on Wages
Innovators acknowledged that big-box competitors are offering higher starting wages, but Ace and DIB stores can still win with a better work environment. One innovator shared how their paint department hire had been making $6 more an hour at Lowe’s but chose to switch because, in his words, “my boss plays the Ramones on the radio. There’s no way I’m going back.” Another store had a manager who took a large pay cut to shift from Lowe’s to Ace, citing that her lifestyle needed balance and the money wasn’t ever going to make up for missed family moments.
Join Us On August 20th for Our Next Mastermind
For August, we’ll have three groups that meet: B2B, Marketing, and GMs.
B2B leaders will dive into CRMs and tech stacks, sharing how they’re organizing B2B lists and managing customer relationships more effectively.
Marketers will focus on celebrating your team on social media, with practical ideas for showcasing employees and building a stronger brand story online and internally.
GMs will discuss auditing the books, exploring best practices for reviewing store finances, and identifying opportunities to improve profitability.
Need help signing up? Join here!
Are You On Board?
Does the idea of a monthly meet-up with other retail hardware stores sound valuable? Would you like to share resources, ask questions, and participate with your peers on-demand through an exclusive Slack channel?
Email us at hello@hardwareinnovators.com to get access to the Slack Channel! The best part? It’s 100% free and puts you in touch with hardware store general managers and marketers to ask questions and get immediate feedback from what worked at other hardware stores!