Knowing who to talk to

Each of the vendors who sell to your store has assigned a sales representative to work with you. These people visit you on a regular basis — of course they do, they want to sell you stuff! These sales reps are a great place to start the process of finding co-op funds. Even though they may not be inclined to offer you information on co-op funds on their own (because of some bonus arrangement they may have with their employers), they can definitely tell you about them if you ask.
If you get a positive response from one or more of these sales reps, get the lowdown on how you can go about collecting some of this money. Ask what you need to do to qualify for funds, and what, if you do qualify, they require you to do in order to receive a check. If the manufacturer’s rep tells you that no co-op funds are available to you, press the issue and ask whether vendor dollars are an option (which have no strings attached other than a few initial qualifiers).
You may also want to talk to the marketing and/or advertising managers of these suppliers. These people control the advertising funds (including co-op money), which means you can get your answer straight from the horse’s mouth. If the marketing or advertising manager says that the company doesn’t offer co-op funds, show how smart you are by asking for vendor dollars. This question definitely gets a marketing or advertising manager’s attention because, chances are, he’s never mentioned these available dollars to anyone.
If you’re working with an ad agency, ask your agent what her experience is with businesses similar to yours, and where these other businesses may have found co-op money. Agency people know where the bodies are buried, as they say in the ad biz. I even know of one group of radio stations in my area that has a co-op department for the express purpose of helping its direct advertisers find money they may not otherwise have known was available to them. (Of course, the radio stations benefit from this found money, too, because the companies spend that money advertising on their radio stations.)
One way or another, ask as many people as you can think of within the various companies you deal with about co-op funds. Unless you’re selling something obscure like arts and crafts made by individuals, you’re likely to find some hidden money somewhere.