Firstly today, I'd like to remind all our readers that the Dealer of the Year nominations process is currently in full swing, with the entry window open until midnight on Monday October 16th.

Please do not miss out on this opportunity to get your dealership or valued members of your staff in the running for these prestigious honours. You can nominate your own dealership or your teammates yourself, or your business can be put forward by a third party such as a suppling manufacturer or satisfied customer.

It's easy to enter and the kudos of not just winning, but simply being in the mix for national industry recognition, is genuinely valuable in this era of wanting to differentiate the dealership from those disreputable retailers floating about online.

So if you've entered in previous years, or have never thrown your hat in the ring before, I'd genuinely advocate giving it a go in 2023. We know the fabulous publicity that our winners have generated over the years, so why not gain some that for your business?

All the details you require for entering can be found here, so what are you waiting for?! Get involved!

How's it been for your dealership?

After another tough, hard-working year, taking a moment to reflect on what you and your team have achieved as part of a competition entry, can be a worthwhile exercise. Speaking to various dealers lately, we've heard one word in particular crop up time and again as they describe to us how things have been going for themselves. I'm sure it won't be any surprise to most reading this today when I say that word, is "busy".

From what we've heard, dealers of domestic, commercial and agricultural machinery alike have all faced this busyness during 2023. Yes, it's likely to have been at slightly different points within the year when they were rushed off their feet but, anecdotally at least, it feels like many are saying similar. Certainly whenever I've chatted with dealers this year, no-one has answered the question 'how's things' with "really quiet, we're just sat around twiddling our thumbs"!

It'll be interesting to see if this is reflected in the results of our brief survey that we're running today, where we'd love to hear from as many of our dealer readers as possible. We traditionally run one of this type in the autumn each year, asking you to look back upon the past months.

I re-read the results and your comments from when we asked for your experiences last autumn - and something one dealer said, jumped out at me. They told us, "I believe 2023 will be much more challenging due to the price increases and potential damaged consumer confidence and continuing supply chain issues."

So the obvious question is, did this turn out to be the case?  Have you experienced an increasingly challenging time for the dealership this year? Or did you weather the storm so to speak?

Obviously prices on everything have indeed gone up for everyone. Neither retailer nor customer have escaped this. But have these rises impacted your wholegood sales would you say? And if they have, have you been able to shift focus towards other revenue streams? Have areas such as the workshop or parts taken up any slack?

It would be fantastic if you were able to spare a few moments to let us know how things have been for your dealership, by taking the survey. As ever there's space for you to leave your thoughts - a selection of which we shall feature in the upcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine.

Thanks in advance for your help.

TAKE THE SURVEY