Blog/How hardware stores can target category promotions to pro accounts

How hardware stores can target category promotions to pro accounts

Oct 297 min read

How hardware stores can pick which pro accounts get a category promotion, when to call instead of email, and how to follow up replies and measure orders.

Sales Strategy
How hardware stores can target category promotions to pro accounts

Pick the product category first, then build the list from purchase history: pro accounts whose buying suggests they use that category but buy little or none of it from you. Send the promotion to that group, keep your largest accounts for a rep call, and give every reply to the account's rep with a date for the next step. Judge the result by orders in the category, compared with a few similar accounts that did not get the message.

This guide is for owners, pro desk staff and outside reps at hardware stores that sell to contractors, property managers and other business accounts. Multi-category dealers with pro accounts can use the same method, but the examples here stay with hardware categories such as fasteners, tools, paint and plumbing supplies.

Why a general e-blast misses most pro accounts

A store email list usually mixes homeowners, occasional buyers and contractors who come in every week. A message written for all of them fits none of them well. A plumbing contractor who already buys all of their fittings from you does not need a coupon for fittings, and a painter has little reason to read about faucet repair parts.

Purchase history tells you more. NielsenIQ's analysis of DIY retailer customers found that professionals shop more than twice as many categories as households. For pros, it says, the signal to look for is the gaps: "If a professional is regularly buying roofing supplies, but never buying shingles, chances are he is getting them somewhere else." That gap is the opening for a category promotion.

Frequency matters too. Researchers who studied email and purchase data from a U.S. home improvement retailer, in a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research in 2017, found that customers who are active with email are not necessarily the ones who buy, and that the number of emails sent has a nonlinear effect on the retailer's profit. Sending more is not automatically better, and opens are a weak stand-in for sales.

Choose one category and a reason for a pro to act

Start with a category your store can supply well to business customers. That means enough stock depth, account pricing that holds up, and someone on staff who can answer a contractor's questions. Promoting a category you cannot support turns interest into a bad first order.

Then decide on the offer. It could be account pricing on a fastener line, a quote on a regular plumbing supply order, or an invitation to a contractor event with vendors. Hardware Retailing reported in 2025 that Weider's Paint & Hardware turns rewards off for some of its largest B2B customers. Owner Ned Green explained, "They care more about the price they pay that day rather than a rewards card a few weeks later." Match the offer to how the account buys. A delayed reward may suit a small account and miss a large one.

Write down the goal before you send anything. It might be a first order in the category from a set number of accounts, or a number of quotes requested. That is what you will check afterwards.

Build the list from what each account buys

Work from named business accounts, since an anonymous cash sale cannot be targeted. Then sort those accounts by what their purchases say about the category.

  • Likely gaps. These accounts buy as if they use the category but buy little or none of it from you. In an illustrative case, a contractor buys plumbing repair parts every month but never buys supply lines. Treat the gap as a reason to ask, because the customer may not do that work or may get the product through their own client.
  • Lapsed category buyers. These accounts used to buy the category and stopped. Check for a known reason first, such as a finished job or a pricing issue already being handled. Our guide to recovering revenue from inactive accounts covers wider declines.
  • Leave off. Remove accounts that already buy the category steadily from you, accounts with an open quote for the same products and contacts who have opted out.

NielsenIQ also notes that about a third of customers in the retailer databases it worked with were too new to identify as pro or household. Leave very new accounts out of the gap list, or send them a separate introductory message, until their buying shows a pattern.

SalesJack's marketing tools send targeted email and text campaigns based on ERP data, including cross-sell promotions based on category spend history. Its hardware store platform builds email and text lists from ERP purchase data, so a store can promote a relevant category to pro accounts. The lists are only as good as the category mapping and account matching behind them. Check a sample of names with the reps who know those customers before you send.

Decide who gets a call instead of an email

Not every account on the list should get the same message. Split it by what the account is worth to you and how well you already know it.

Your largest accounts, and those with an active rep relationship, are usually better served by a conversation. A call or visit about the category, with the account's purchase history at hand, lets the rep ask what the customer buys elsewhere and why. Smaller accounts and customers you mostly see at the counter can get the email or text, with a rep following up on replies.

Hardware Retailing's 2025 report on B2B programs describes Valley Ace Hardware in Westcliffe, Colorado, using a CRM to communicate with customers based on their business type, which the magazine says makes newsletters and outreach "far more relevant." The same idea applies inside one promotion. The message for a remodeler should read differently from the one for a property manager.

Check permission before you add text messages. The FCC's consumer guide says a business needs the recipient's consent before sending an autodialed text to a mobile number. Commercial email has its own rules, and the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide states that the law "makes no exception for business-to-business email." Ask whoever handles compliance at your store if you are unsure.

Route every reply to a rep with a next step

A promotion turns into sales when someone answers the replies. Before sending, agree who handles them. That is usually the rep assigned to the account, or the pro desk for accounts without one. Set how quickly they respond and what they can offer, such as a quote, a call about a job or a product sample.

A reply is the start of a sales conversation. Ask what job or regular need the category would cover, roughly what quantities, and who approves the order. Then agree on the next step and a date. If the contractor says they buy the category from another supplier under an agreement, record that and when it ends. That calls for a different follow-up from a plain "not interested."

SalesJack's CRM keeps quotes, logged conversations, assignments and reminders with the customer record, and reps can send email and make calls from the web or mobile app. Logging each reply and the agreed next step on the account means the rep, counter staff and manager all see the same history.

Measure orders, not opens

Count what you set out to count: first orders and repeat orders in the category from accounts on the list, and quotes created from replies. Opens and clicks show whether the message was seen. As the home improvement email study suggests, they do not reliably show who will buy.

A simple comparison helps. Before sending, set aside a small group of similar accounts from the list and leave them out of the promotion. After a set period, compare category orders from both groups. Some accounts would have bought anyway, so the difference between the groups is a fairer read of what the promotion did than total orders alone. Keep the groups large enough that one big order does not decide the result, and treat a small test as a hint.

SalesJack's marketing page lists conversion-rate views and A/B testing of emails. Setting aside a comparison group is a choice you make when you build the list.

Then look at the accounts behind the totals. Did first-time buyers come back for a second order? Which replies stalled, and why? Use the answers to pick the next category or change the offer.

Start with one category and one list

Pick one category your store supplies well and pull the pro accounts whose buying suggests a gap. Set your largest accounts aside for rep calls, send to the rest and route every reply to a named rep. After a few weeks, compare category orders with the group you held back. Our guide to selling more to pro accounts with ERP data and CRM covers the counter and quote habits that support this work.

To see how SalesJack could build category lists from your store's purchase data, book a demo.

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