When we're out and about visiting dealerships - as we were on our jaunt south last week - it's always so encouraging and such an eye-opener to meet entrepreneurial business people, finding their own ways of thriving in their local communities.

I don't need to explain to our dealer readers how being independent affords owners the luxury of being able to choose exactly what the right way is to run their own companies - free from interference.

Obviously dealers will be stocking kit manufactured, in many cases, by huge multi-national corporations - who will of course have their own set of on-high, corporate rules attached to how their machines are dealt with. But as many dealers have pointed out to me over the years, "it's my name above the door"!

And that phrase will always hold true. On a local level it is indeed the dealer's name that the customer is familiar with and, more importantly, has a contract with - not perhaps the machinery maker whose identity, let's be honest, could be vaguely obscure to members of the general public.

At the coal face, it's the dealer who is in the firing line, and therefore it's only right that they dictate how their business is run. When we travel around it's so fascinating to me to see how companies can operate in such wildly different ways from each other - especially considering that they are offering remarkably similar products and services.

Just taking last week as an example, and thinking about robotic mowers, we spoke to dealers not too far apart from each other geographically who had diametrically opposed thoughts on the subject. Either they were all aboard and committing resources and themselves to the technology, or they had decided it wasn't right for their customers and weren't getting involved.

Crucially, both were right. Both were pursuing a course of action they had deemed correct for their own, independent business. And that's what the industry should be celebrating about the sector. There's the freedom and the flexibility within the market, allowing dealers to steer their own ship into territories that suit.

Shared problems

Having said all that, there is without a doubt, commonality across dealerships. There will be commonality within sales techniques, with how workshops are run, and in methods employed to market the business.

There will also be, unfortunately, commonality in headaches faced and problems that must be overcome. And it's your thoughts on a perennial hurdle that we'd appreciate your thoughts on today please, in the short survey we're running.

I don't think you would find any outdoor power equipment dealer who would say that recruiting staff for the business is plain sailing (although to be fair, few business owners in any sector likely would). 

Whenever we speak with dealers it's a subject that inevitably raises its head - mostly in grim resignation of the arduous nature of the task. Just last week for example, Andy Stubbings of Stubbings Bros on the Isle of Wight said to us "What’s tricky is finding that correct quality of person. You need to identify someone who ideally has an interest in mechanics outside of the work environment too." Which is of course, the needle in the haystack.

Looking back to when we asked for your opinions on this subject a year ago, we heard comments such as:

• "Our recent experience is awful. There are no suitable candidates and if we are lucky to find one, wage expectations are too high."
• "If we could somehow get the secondary education systems to promote, or even recognise, our industry it would help."
• "Very difficult to find the level of experience required and when successful i't's difficult to compete with the level of pay in other industries."

It'll be interesting to hear if the feelings of our dealer readers have changed much in the past year. Has the experience of recruiting shifted for your dealership?

Has the situation improved, stayed the same or even become worse? Please do let us know today.

We will print the results and a selection of your comments in the next issue of Service Dealer magazine. Thanks in advance for your help.

TAKE THE SURVEY.