{"id":1139,"slug":"brokers-in-ontario-trades-three-roles","title":"Brokers in Ontario trades — three roles span structural holes: supplier outside sales reps, specialist subs, peer-coach implementers","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["gc-vertical","social-network-theory","referral-mechanics"],"reference_body":"**Claim (synthesis applying [[burt-structural-holes-1992-2004-broker-advantage]] to Ontario trades):** Three roles consistently appear as brokers:\n\n- **Suppliers' outside sales reps** — call on dozens of GCs across a region; span clusters by definition.\n- **Specialist subcontractors** — excavation, foundation, structural; work across many GCs and see each from the inside.\n- **Peer-coach implementers and BTA/EOS facilitators** — sit across multiple clients' financials and meetings.\n\n**For Candid — the operational consequence:** Brokers are the **highest-yield introduction sources** for a relationship-led sales motion. They are *not* the highest-yield testimonial sources (that's a strong-tie function — see [[expectation-setting-retention-by-tie-strength]]), but they are the highest-yield \"warm intro\" sources because of their reach.\n\nPractical: a cultivated relationship with one BTA implementer + one large-region supplier rep + one well-connected foundation sub can produce more qualified intro opportunities than a year of cold outbound — and the trust prior on a broker-introduced lead is materially higher.\n\n**Confidence:** Applied inference from Burt + Levin-Cross combined with practitioner observation in Ontario trades.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-trust-networks-in-group-reputation-may-2026","title":"Research brief: trust, referral networks, and in-group reputation in Ontario's trades economy (May 2026 — Foundation Brief #3)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"burt-structural-holes-1992-2004-broker-advantage","title":"Burt 1992 (Structural Holes) / 2004 (AJS) — brokers spanning holes between groups capture information-arbitrage advantage","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.136Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.136Z"}