Firstly, thank you to everyone who took part in last Friday's survey on the future of dealerships.

We always really appreciate your input when we conduct questionaries as we want to continually reflect the views of our readership whenever we publish a new magazine. We had some very interesting responses which we shall be sharing with you all in the next edition of Service Dealer.

One result which I will preview with you today though, won't come as much of a surprise. An overwhelming majority of dealers who responded believed that in the future their sales of battery-powered equipment would most definitely increase.

In other news, bears wear funny hats in the woods!

Given the enthusiasm with which manufacturers are increasing their cordless offerings, if dealers do not get fully engaged with the equipment, the suppliers will be forced to find other retail channels who will. We heard that from Ego in the current issue of Service Dealer.

Peter Melrose, President of Ego Europe, told us, "It's key that dealers engage with the products because if they choose to finally not to, there are other channels to market. Manufacturers who have invested in these products will need to see a return on that investment and they will have to look at other options. It's the way of the world."

An interesting initiative I've seen online from the United States recently to promote cordless mowers to the public, which it has to be said doesn't appear to involve local dealers, concentrates on the machines' environmental credentials. Specifically, how their lack of emissions can contribute to cleaner air quality.

I've seen reports from both Denver and San Diego where local people are encouraged to come along to an event with their old petrol-powered mower and exchange it for a new, heavily discounted battery powered unit. Typically they appear to be offering machines worth around $300 for the $100 mark. Similar offers are also made on chainsaws, line trimmers and hedge cutters.

Watch a short clip below explaining the event which took place in San Diego just the other week.

This event and the Denver one I read about, both appear to be organised at a local government level - bypassing dealerships and going straight to the public. Both events also seem to be only offering Black & Decker battery mowers. So one would have to assume that the manufacturer is backing the initiative?

Could we see something similar happen here? I guess anything's possible. Certainly the more that non-specialist brands like Black & Decker take a hold with their cordless equipment in the mass channels it could be a possibility.

Specialist dealers are in a unique position to sell the benefits of cordless machinery though - and not just the lower-end items. If customers are turned on by the thought of contributing to cleaner air quality, then dealers can focus on that. Equally they can discuss, noise, fuel consumption, ease of use – any manner of benefit which the machines can be argued to possess.

However their task does of course become an awful lot more tricky if massive, uncompetitive discounts are offered directly to the public!

Let's hope we don't see that repeated this side of the pond.