Window & Door Dealer Day | 2019 Dealer Day Recap

Hosted by WDDA, this event offered a full day of education and networking to help dealers build more profitable businesses.

The 2019 Dealer of the Year awards, presented by Rick Locke of Windows, Doors & More, began the day on a high note with a celebration of industry excellence. This prestigious program, supported by Window + Door magazine, recognizes benchmarks of professionalism in our industry, offers new ideas that others can implement in their businesses, and highlights the continued development and evolution of companies in the window and door supply chain. The 2019 recipients are profiled in the September issue of Window + Door.

After a warm welcome from Ken Mariotti of Woodland Windows and Doors and a word from event sponsor OKNOPLAST, the formal education programming kicked off with an energetic keynote presentation from Rich Harshaw of Level 10 Contractor. Rich spoke to the value of establishing a unique online identity and defined that as “Words, phrases and images – articulated with power, precision and passion – that instantly and definitively communicate who you are, how you’re different, and what customers can expect when doing business with you.”

Top dealers and industry experts then shared their strategies and successes during a digital marketing panel. Erin Ennis of Energy Exteriors NW, LLC, Ted Kirk of North Georgia Replacement Windows, and Paula Peterson and Angenette Natkowski of Salem Media covered topics including video reviews, rebranding and renaming, merging digital and nondigital practices, and understanding the customer journey.

Over lunch, Madeleine MacRae introduced attendees to the WDDA Mastermind program. This new peer networking program brings together like-minded, non-competing business peers to discuss and share challenges, best practices, and insights,

After lunch, Zach Williams and Beth PopNikolov of Venveo continued to dive deeper into the digital marketing discussion and provided actionable takeaways on SEO and geofencing.

Grant Farnsworth and Jay Fenik of The Farnsworth Group led our last session of the day as they shared data, trends and comparisons from the annual WDDA market survey and presented an exclusive market forecast.

After an engaging speaker Q&A panel, the event concluded as attendees continued their conversations at a networking happy hour.