Power Screen Dealer Program: Own the Opening

Walk through any new neighborhood in the Sun Belt and you will see them: wide patio openings, folding glass walls, garage doors standing open, every one of them a screen sale waiting to happen. Power screens, motorized patio screens that drop from a slim housing at the push of a button, turn those openings into usable space on demand: bugs kept out, airflow let in, storms and sun managed without lifting a finger. It is the fastest-growing category in outdoor living, and it is still early enough that most markets have room for a dealer who does it well.

This guide is for the contractor or retailer considering a power screen dealer program: where the demand actually lives, what your dealership would sell, how training and ordering work, and why the AJ Shades program, built around the QIP line of Somfy-powered screens with a 15-year warranty, is structured differently from the dealer-only networks that dominate the category today.

Where the screen demand actually lives

Screens sell because they solve visible, daily problems. Unlike an awning, which a customer imagines on a sunny afternoon, a power screen answers a complaint the customer already has: the bugs, the garage they cannot use, the restaurant patio that empties when the wind picks up. That makes the sales conversation short, and it is why screen dealers report some of the highest close rates in the shade business.

Every one of these openings exists on jobsites you may already work. The question is only whether your company is the one selling the screen that covers it.

What a screen dealer actually sells

The core product is the motorized power screen itself: a cassette-mounted screen that deploys down vertical side tracks, or heavier storm rails for wind-exposed openings, and retracts out of sight when not needed. Fabrics range from insect mesh to solar screens that cut heat and glare, all powered by Somfy motors with remote, wall-switch, or smart-home control. Add wind sensors for automatic storm retreat and you have a system that protects itself.

The product story dealers lean on is simple and true: a 15-year warranty on motorized power screens, American-made manufacturing, and a veteran-owned brand behind the box. Customers choosing between a screen that lasts and a screen that gets replaced do the math quickly, and the warranty does the closing. See the full scope of the dealer offering on dealer benefits, and learn how dealers sell the line day to day through our commercial program. The motorized screens dealer benefits breakdown covers the training, marketing support, and ordering access that come with the line.

The line you would sell is the same motorized screens we install for homeowners every week: American-made, Somfy-powered, and backed by the 15-year warranty.

Training that respects your crew’s time

Screen installation is precision work, measurements are unforgiving, and a housing mounted a quarter-inch off shows. Our training assumes your installers are competent tradespeople who need screen-specific technique, not a lecture on how to hold a drill. Lead installers learn opening measurement, header and mounting evaluation, cassette and track installation, Somfy-powered motor wiring and programming, and the adjustment and service routine that keeps screens running silently for years.

The training happens on real systems, with a trainer beside your crew, and it does not end when the session does. The first time your team hits an opening that is out of square, has a questionable header, or needs a creative mounting solution, our technical team is the phone call that solves it, because we have solved it ourselves, on real jobsites.

Quoting, ordering, and getting paid

Screens quote cleanly: opening dimensions, housing and track style, fabric choice, and controls. The dealer system lets you configure each job and submit it with your customer quote attached, and our team reviews every order before production, the measurement or configuration error gets caught by human eyes instead of becoming a return. Production schedules, tracking follows, and freight lands on your install calendar. Because our team reviews the order before it enters production, the common quoting mistakes , an opening measured to the trim instead of the rough, a housing style that does not clear the soffit, a control option the customer’s smart-home hub cannot speak to, get caught while they are still free to fix.

For retail partners, the same system supports motorized screen display samples and showroom ordering, so the customer who touches the fabric and feels the mechanism in your store becomes the customer whose opening you measure next week.

Sell the lifestyle, not the mechanism

The dealers who move the most screens share one habit: they stop talking about motors and start talking about evenings. The customer does not buy a Somfy-powered cassette; they buy the patio where the kids eat dinner without swatting, the garage gym that gets a breeze instead of a furnace blast, the restaurant terrace that stays full when the wind picks up. Your sales conversation should live in that world, and our training teaches it, how to demo the screen at the appointment, which opening to suggest when the customer only asked about one, and how to frame the 15-year warranty as the reason to buy the American-made system instead of shopping the price.

This is also where retail partners win. A screen deployed over a showroom opening does more selling than any salesperson: the customer presses the button, the room goes quiet, and the objection evaporates. If your store has floor space near an opening, the display sample program turns it into your best closer.

The commercial jobs that change your year

Residential screens pay the bills; commercial screens change the year. A restaurant with a wind-exposed terrace, a brewery with a roll-up door wall, a country club with a patio that empties every afternoon, each one is a multi-opening project with a single decision-maker and a revenue motive. When a venue owner sees motorized screens as additional seating nights per year, the quote stops being a cost conversation and becomes an investment conversation, and those conversations close.

Screen dealers with commercial ambition get support built for it: multi-unit configured ordering, phased freight that matches construction schedules, and technical review on large configurations before production. Bring us the venue; we will help you engineer the openings, stage the delivery, and stand behind the install. The dealers who land two or three commercial projects a year rarely worry about residential seasonality again.

Why not just join the established dealer-only networks?

Apollo Screen built its business on an exclusive, vetted dealer network, and their 2026 announcements show the model works for manufacturers. But exclusivity cuts both ways: their dealers serve the network first. The AJ Shades program is contractor-first instead: you keep your business, your brand, and your customer relationships, and you add a screen line with training, marketing support, and a veteran-owned American-made story that differentiates you from every other bidder on the job.

If screens fit your business, if your crews already visit the openings screens cover, the next step is the dealer inquiry. Tell us about your company and your market; we will tell you honestly whether the screen line belongs in it.