We at Service Dealer always appreciate any and all feedback we receive from you, our valued dealer readers.
Whether it be responses to our regular surveys, hearing about your companies when you nominate for our Dealer of the Year competition (more about which soon), or more regularly when you comment under articles that appear on this Weekly Update - your input is essential to our offering.
Mostly when we hear from you, it's your serious opinions about topical industry matters that greatly aid us in taking the temperature of what the network's general feelings are about developments. When something major or dramatic happens in our sector, it's to you that we turn.
Equally, when stories that we run are less serious, but interesting nonetheless, comments from readers are just as valuable - especially so sometimes if they raise a smile.
Which is exactly what happened last week with a post left under the story about John Deere dealers installing tractors at supermarkets. One anonymous wag wrote:
"John Deere at Morrisons.
STIHL at Screwfix.
What's next, Ariens at Ann Summers?"
Which, if you over-analyse it like I have, is both amusing and touches on a wider point of industry discussion (bear with me here, because it's not about piloting a zero-turn in saucy undies). No, it makes me think about the whole issue of making specialist brands more visible to the general public.
In fact, this theme of increased visibility is one of the arguments posited by STIHL recently when they announced their team-up with Screwfix. Explaining how the move could be beneficial to specialist dealers, they said with their battery machinery in those mainstream stores and featured on the hugely popular app, that's a lot of new eyes on products that the network stocks. The manufacturer's belief was that brand awareness could substantially increase, leading to a knock-on, positive effect for the network who might not be so well-known to certain sections of their local customer base.
The JD situation at Morrisons, isn't quite the same, because inevitably farming customers will already be well-aware of their nearby agricultural machinery dealers. But I suppose, for non-farmer Morrisons customers, they could hear of these dealerships for the first time and potentially be interested in the other products they stock.
Grasping opportunities
Specialist dealers will know that embracing each and every opportunity to make themselves more well-known to their local communities should be grasped with both hands. It will be this belief that prompts many of our readers to rebook space each year at their local county and agricultural shows - despite the costs and efforts involved in such endeavours. The publicity it can generate, whilst difficult to accurately quantify, could prove to be super helpful for the business.
And it's a similar principal with social media usage. No doubt it can be time consuming and occasionally a slog to work through, but it does offer a great chance to get your company's brand, ethos, and offering out there amongst potential customers - especially those who haven't yet walked into your store or visited your website.
Somebody once said, there's no such thing as bad publicity - which is clearly a load of old bunkum! However, for specialist dealers to increase their visibility amongst consumers who may not know that they even exist, in a positive and attractive manner, is clearly a great thing.
So what techniques do you use to gain greater exposure for your business? Let us know in the comments below.
