As 2025 came to a close, many hardware retailers were running on fumes. We are all trying to finish the year strong, manage holiday rushes, navigate staffing challenges, and keep customers taken care of during an unpredictable retail season. That’s what made December’s Hardware Innovators Mastermind conversations especially meaningful.
Despite full schedules and end-of-year pressure, innovators still showed up, not just to talk shop but to support each other, share what they’re seeing on the ground, and intentionally carve out space to plan for 2026. These meetings weren’t about perfection or polished plans. They were about momentum, clarity, and making sure no one heads into the new year feeling like they’re doing this alone.
Let’s dig into the key takeaways from this month’s conversations!
Table of Contents:
B2B Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Just Be Friends with Everybody
This takeaway sparked a broader conversation around relationship-first selling, especially in small-town and relationship-driven markets. Innovators discussed how long-term B2B success often comes from genuine connection, consistency, and service, not pressure or transactions.
This is where the group referenced How to Win Friends & Influence People as a reminder that the fundamentals still matter. Listening well, showing up regularly, and treating customers like people, not accounts, continues to be one of the most effective sales strategies in hardware retail.
Takeaway #2: Sometimes the Goal is to Set a Goal, Pick a Number to Start January Strong!
Not every B2B rep has formal quotas handed down by January 1, and innovators agreed that waiting for perfect clarity can stall momentum. Most people enjoy having a target to hit. Simply choosing a starting goal helps create focus, direction, and motivation while leadership finalizes expectations.
Takeaway #3: Simple Things Innovators Are Doing to Chip Away at Building & Segmenting Email Lists
Rather than overhauling their entire contact database at once, innovators shared small, realistic steps they’re taking to make incremental progress, especially given limited time and outdated tools.
Several B2B reps talked about how their POS email lists have grown messy over the years. One innovator shared that their largest contact category is literally labeled “OTHER,” making it nearly impossible to segment or target outreach effectively. Instead of scrapping the list, they’re slowly working through it, starting with January list refresh efforts and encouraging customers to opt into paperless communication so contact details stay current going forward.
Another example came from a store that ran into issues using an old email list for promotions. Because many of the contacts were outdated, email blasts resulted in excessive hard bounces. That experience pushed the team to rethink how they collect emails in the first place — focusing less on asking customers multiple times and more on capturing emails naturally during transactions and follow-ups.
Innovators also shared practical cleanup tactics like:
- Encouraging customers at checkout to update their contact info once per year
- Asking, “What’s the best way to reach your company?” rather than framing email collection as a marketing request
- Planning an intentional list update push every January, when workflows are already being reset
- Sending an ‘opt-in’ email to clean up old lists and prepare for outbound sales efforts
Rather than trying to perfect segmentation overnight, the group agreed that simply chipping away, one category, one cleanup session, one improved process at a time, is far more sustainable.
Takeaway #4: Need Help with Data-Entry? Pull in a Willing Cashier with the Right Mindset When the Store is Slow
One practical solution shared was leveraging slower in-store hours to involve trusted team members in data cleanup and administrative tasks. Innovators noted that cashiers who understand the bigger picture often appreciate being pulled into meaningful behind-the-scenes work that is more about volume that can be turned into goals than critical thinking about technology.
This mindset echoed ideas from Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game. When employees understand how their work supports the long-term health of the business and customers, even unglamorous tasks create real momentum.
This approach not only helps sales teams stay focused on customers but also gives employees a bigger purpose and a sense of ownership in the business.
Takeaway #5: Don’t Forget to Grab Content from Big Orders for Your Marketing Team!
Meaningful B2B wins like engraving jobs, bulk orders, and special projects are easy to celebrate internally and then move on from. Innovators reminded each other to pause long enough to capture photos, details, and context so marketing teams can turn real sales into compelling content. An order of 75 engraved Yeti mugs needs a delivery photo featuring a happy hockey coach to help marketing garner more eyeballs and for the sales team to include in their next email.
These stories help reinforce credibility, showcase capabilities, and support both B2B and retail marketing efforts.
Helpful Resources for B2B
Know another hardware store that would benefit from these insights? Share this recap with them!
Marketing Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Having a Difficult Time Getting Content from Your Store? Here are 5 Tips from the Managers
Multi-store marketers shared that they are struggling to get content in a timely manner from each store. Managers who were on the call offered the marketers some practical advice:
- Assign content requests clearly. Set clear deadlines. Don’t ask, tell.
- Use calendar invites and cc the managers for accountability.
- Create a verbal contract. Start by asking them, “When’s a good time for you to get this content over to me each month?”
- Close the loop by showing how content is used and what results it drives. Print out the social post to be hung in the breakroom and give them a shoutout for contributing to those results!
- Most importantly, if assistant managers aren’t following through, take it to the managers. These expectations need to be set from the top down and cannot be optional.
Takeaway #2: FAQs are the #1 SEO Tactic for 2026
Across the group, innovators agreed that FAQ-style content is outperforming traditional product descriptions. Customers want answers fast, like pricing, comparisons, availability, and reviews, and stores that provide those answers clearly are seeing better organic visibility.
Here are some SEO FAQ best practices for your product pages!
Takeaway #3: Attribution Windows Should Be 5 Days MAX for Hardware Retail
Several marketers pointed out that current reporting models within Acenet, especially 30-day attribution windows, don’t reflect how customers actually shop hardware. One innovator gave a clear example: if a customer searches for a snowblower today while it’s snowing, they typically need it immediately. If that same customer comes back weeks later to buy unrelated items like bolts or hardware, attributing that later purchase to the original search skews performance data and makes attribution harder to identify.
The group agreed that most hardware purchase decisions happen within a very short window, often same-day or within a few days. Because of that, longer attribution windows can over-credit certain channels and make it harder to understand what’s truly driving urgent, need-based purchases.
Innovators discussed tightening attribution windows to a maximum of 5 days as a more realistic compromise. While everyone acknowledged that attribution will never be perfect, shortening the window helps:
- Better align reports with real customer behavior
- Prevent misleading “wins” tied to unrelated follow-up purchases
- Make performance conversations with leadership more grounded and defensible
Marketers also noted that this mismatch makes it harder to trust co-op and platform-level reporting, reinforcing the need to pressure-test data against real in-store experience.
Takeaway #4: Innovators Have Been Busy: Here’s an Easy Content Strategy Template to Get You Started for 2026
Marketers were candid about how hard it’s been to plan consistently while juggling constant retail changes, shifting promos, inaccurate sign kits, pricing updates, and general year-end fatigue. Several shared that while they understand their seasonal rhythm and key promotions, that knowledge often lives in their heads instead of in a usable plan.
The group agreed that the goal for 2026 isn’t a perfect content strategy, instead it’s a simple, flexible one. A content calendar template helps marketers map what to post, while a social distribution calendar helps clarify when and where to share it. Together, these templates give busy teams a realistic way to reset for 2026 without adding unnecessary complexity.
Takeaway #5: Product Post Not Hitting? Add a Face, a Pup, or a Bat (Kidding… Mostly)
One innovator shared how they’re using AI to quickly generate “WOW of the Week” product copy for staff and social media, and it’s working. Where engagement dropped off was the visual side. Simple product screenshots felt too generic in the feed.
The group joked (only half-joking) that the fix isn’t better copy, it’s better humanity. Add a dog. Add an employee. Or, in true Office Space fashion, smash it with a bat to get attention. The takeaway: AI can speed up content creation, but faces, humor, and personality still win the scroll.
Helpful Resources for Marketers
Know another hardware store that would benefit from these insights? Share this recap with them!
General Managers Mastermind Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Innovators Are Facing Real Headwinds in 2026. No One Has to Solve Them Alone!
Across the General Managers’ conversation, one thing was clear: many owners and GMs are heading into 2026 with uncertainty. Rising labor costs, tighter margins, changing benefits requirements, and uneven consumer demand are forcing leaders to plan more carefully than ever, often forecasting flat, down 5%, or modest growth of 3%.
Takeaway #2: Profits Are Often Hidden In Labor
Our innovator leaders were sharing how minimum wage and low unemployment rates are making it hard to keep labor costs down. Labor percentages shared ranged from 21% to 27%, with a collective goal of 18% and a long-term wish of 15%.
What stood out wasn’t panic, but realism. Innovators shared that simply having space to talk through these challenges, comparing notes on forecasting with other stores and historical data, staffing, training, and operational decisions, made the path forward feel more manageable. December’s GM conversation reinforced that while no two stores face identical conditions, many of the pressures are shared, and progress often comes faster when leaders can troubleshoot together instead of in isolation.
Know another hardware store that would benefit from these insights? Share this recap with them!
Join Us On January 21st for Our Next Mastermind
For January, we’ll have three groups that meet: B2B, Marketing, and GMs.
In the B2B Mastermind, we’ll focus on rebuilding your B2B pipeline, resetting touchpoints, and re-engaging warm and cold accounts after the holidays.
In the Marketing Mastermind, we’ll break down what actually worked on social in 2025 — wins, losses, and lessons you can carry into 2026.
And in the General Managers Mastermind, we’ll tackle an operational reset for the new year. Plus, by special request, we plan on sharing our daily and weekly routines that support consistency and accountability.
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, marketers, and B2B reps to ask questions and get immediate feedback from what worked at other hardware stores!