STIHL held a series of STIHL Experience events around the country this autumn, at venues in Northumberland, Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire and Berkshire with more than 240 people attending.

The STIHL Roadshow Product Experience in Berkshire

Dealerships were invited to send representatives from all aspects of their business: Dealer principals, sales and technical workshop teams. Making sure every attendee benefitted from and had an interest in the day, four subject areas covered included the Dealership Development premises and in-store programme, technological advances and new product introductions plus comprehensive marketing initiatives and new training programmes being delivered by STIHL's Learning and Development team.

"We were absolutely delighted with both the number and breadth of attendees and their positive feedback on the roadshows", says Caroline Wallace - STIHL GB Learning & Development Manager who was one of the main organisers of the event. "It's so important for our Dealers to understand what we make available to them, whether that be assistance with store improvements, merchandising and displays, guidance on both selling and servicing some of our most advanced technologies, or capitalising on our powerful marketing campaigns."

Naturally Caroline was keen to share news of the comprehensive Learning & Development programmes started this year and which will be further expanded in 2014. "Our ever-growing L&D programme aims to enable individuals in our Approved Dealerships to set and seek their own personal developmental goals, which we will endeavour to help them attain. People matter to our business and our roadshows helped prove that we're there to support them."

Feedback on the STIHL Dealer Experience roadshows was extremely positive with 91% of attendees reporting that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the overall event. Dealer feedback praised the content of the day: "very good mix of subjects covered", "very enjoyable day and great chance to try products", and also commented on the benefits of attending "I used this as a chance to spend time with my team and to get their thoughts. Very successful".