Brokers in Ontario trades — three roles span structural holes: supplier outside sales reps, specialist subs, peer-coach implementers

Claim (synthesis applying [[burt-structural-holes-1992-2004-broker-advantage]] to Ontario trades): Three roles consistently appear as brokers:

• Suppliers' outside sales reps — call on dozens of GCs across a region; span clusters by definition.
• Specialist subcontractors — excavation, foundation, structural; work across many GCs and see each from the inside.
• Peer-coach implementers and BTA/EOS facilitators — sit across multiple clients' financials and meetings.

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.

Practical: 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.

Confidence: Applied inference from Burt + Levin-Cross combined with practitioner observation in Ontario trades.