Dealer Network Strategy
Dealer network decisions are expensive and hard to reverse. Market studies, open point analysis, and what-if simulations give dealer development teams the geographic evidence to act with confidence.
Dealer network strategy is the analytical discipline of determining where to place dealers, how to define their territories, and how to project the impact of network changes before they happen. For motor vehicle OEMs, this includes open point analysis, primary market area (PMA) management, what-if simulations, and market studies.
Most OEMs Are Making Network Decisions Without the Data to Back Them
Adding a dealer in the wrong market compresses your best performers. Missing coverage in a high-potential area hands share to a competitor. Executing a buy-sell without modeling the before-and-after can destabilize a market you've spent years building.
Most OEM dealer development teams are navigating these decisions with registration data, a field rep's read on the market, and a map pin. The data exists. Connecting it to network analysis to support important decisions is where we come in.
The most common dealer network decisions are adding a new point, executing a buy-sell, relocating a dealer, or terminating underperforming coverage. Each carries significant financial and contractual risk. We help OEM dealer development teams quantify that risk through geographic demand modeling, competitive density analysis, and spatial algorithms before any network action is taken.
Why Sextant for This
In the light vehicle automotive market, firms like Urban Sciences have provided sophisticated dealer network analytics for decades. In commercial vehicles (Class 3–8), powersports, RV, marine, and heavy equipment, that level of analytical rigor has been largely absent. We fill that gap by applying spatial algorithms and location theory to the dealer network decisions of OEMs in these industries.
What Dealer Network Strategy Includes
Six analytical services that turn registration data and demand modeling into network decisions you can defend.
Market Area Studies
A market area study assesses the health and opportunity of a specific geographic market, whether a state, region, or ADI, for a given OEM brand. It combines registration data, competitive density, current dealer coverage, and demand modeling to show whether a market is well-served, underpenetrated, or overbuilt. Studies run on demand or on a schedule for continuous monitoring.
Open Point Analysis
Open point analysis identifies geographic areas where a dealer network has meaningful coverage gaps: locations where demand exists but no dealership captures it. A spatial algorithm iterates across every geographic unit in a territory, modeling expected performance against existing coverage, and ranks the strongest open point candidates by opportunity.
PMA Management
A primary market area (PMA), or area of responsibility, is the zone where a dealer should have the greatest competitive advantage based on proximity to buyers. The IDEAS platform maps every dealer's PMA at the census tract and postal code level, tracks penetration within each zone, and flags dealers whose in-PMA performance deviates from expected levels.
What-If Analysis
What-if analysis models the projected impact of a proposed network change before it happens, whether adding, relocating, buying-selling, or closing a point. IDEAS generates before/after PMA maps, census tract coverage statistics, and projected performance deltas for every dealer affected by the move.
Clean Slate Analysis
Clean slate analysis determines the ideal network configuration for a brand entering a new market or willing to disregard its current dealer body. Unlike open point analysis, it models the optimal distribution of dealer points entirely from demand data, with no existing placement as a constraint.
Open Point Prospecting
Once open point analysis identifies where a new dealer is needed, prospecting identifies the specific businesses that match the target dealer profile by geography, business type, financial capacity, and brand relationships. We have executed prospecting programs for Kawasaki and other powersports OEMs, including direct outreach to candidates.
Dealer Network Strategy FAQs
Open point analysis is an analytical method for identifying geographic locations where a dealer brand lacks coverage relative to consumer demand. Spatial algorithms scan a territory location by location, modeling expected dealer performance at each point and comparing it to the existing dealer footprint. Locations with strong demand and weak coverage are ranked as open point candidates.
Last reviewed: June 2026
Make Your Next Network Decision with Data Behind It
From open point analysis and dealer performance to consumer targeting and CSI, we help commercial vehicle, powersports, RV, marine, and heavy equipment OEMs act on evidence instead of instinct. Every engagement starts with a free discovery conversation about your network, your data, and the decision in front of you.
Brands Tracked
Our national dealer tracking database monitors add/drop activity across 55+ motor vehicle brands.
Reports in IDEAS
Over 500 separate reports implemented in IDEAS.
Industries Served
Commercial vehicles, powersports, RV, marine, heavy equipment, and multi-location businesses.