In the dentist’s waiting room earlier this week, I picked up a copy of a county lifestyle magazine. A glossy publication full of aspirational houses, flash cars and local gastro-pubs. In it, a well-designed advert for a garden machinery dealer, with the strap-line Big Discounts on All Machines.

Is this where we are now?  Discount as the main selling tool? Not service, not advice, not all the fringe benefits that can be offered by a specialist dealer. For the dealer, it has to be all about retained margins to run the business,make a living and invest in the future.

Reading the comments following Stihl’s announcement last week that it was relaxing its selling on-line policy, there was understandable anger from many dealers. But there was more. There was real sadness, frustration and bewilderment that a long-standing core-product, with high consumer awareness and perceived quality, should have the ‘selling shackles’ removed.

Over recent years, retailing has morphed into a completely new model. This is causing huge changes to the so-called High Street and is requiring a re-appraisal by every supplier and retailer into the way they should respond.   

There are many dealers who are very savvy, think and act creatively about how they price and promote products – selectively. But equally there are some who are only out to ‘move boxes’. Selling on discounts is a mugs game. Anyone can do it. It requires no thought – and the customer always remembers (“You gave me 20% last time”) and there, you’ve dug a potential long-term hole for yourself.

Please remember, you are specialist garden machinery dealers. Not Lidl, not Poundland, not Bargain Booze. You offer a very defined service that should never involve a race to the bottom.

Let’s look at another retail sector involving high-ticket items that are generally best sold with advice and support. Cameras.  I looked at one model, a Nikon D5300 with 18-55m lens.  Advertised at £529 by John Lewis, at £529 by Currys and £529 by Jessups.  Next, I checked out a couple of local specialist camera shops, the advertised price in one was £549, in the other £559 for the same model.

Now I bet that had I gone in to check out the camera, be all ‘feely-touchy’ with it, then if the price differential was still an issue, they would have more than likely put in a free memory card – or had I wanted to trade-in my existing camera, reflected any ‘discount’ in the value.  At least, that is my experience buying cameras over the years.

On-line buying is now a reality. We simply have to adapt to new norms, rather than get sucked into a discounting spiral where being a specialist holds no value.

I appreciate the difficulties where hundreds of independent retailers hold myriad franchises. There is no common ground, no industry strategy, no consensus. Mountfield were rightly applauded in recent years for their moves to promote clear price points, on-line and in-store.  Unfortunately it needs the whole specialist network, manufacturers, distributors and dealers to adopt a common sense (and legal) approach. Otherwise, margins will be sucked out of the business with inevitable consequences.

Being from a similar era, I enjoyed the rather wistful and reflective response to Steve Gibbs’ editorial last Friday by Barry Sims who will have seen it all and ‘worn the T-shirt’. Back in the day, when the ’sheds’ took away the business that specialist dealers thought rightly their own, the challenges were much more serious. Unmatchable advertising budgets, 7-day trading, huge buying power, the DIY superstores were untouchable.

Today, every business has the power to promote on-line. What a pity if the very tool that has provided specialist dealers with a level playing field, should be only to be used to promote price and not the professional and personal service they provide. Garden Trader is a positive step to increase consumer awareness, but then it is down to individual dealers to demonstrate their individual strengths.

Being an optimist, I do believe there is enough talent and tenacity amongst the dealer fraternity to react positively to these new challenges. And after all, in the dealer/supplier relationship, the dealer is the customer - and the Customer is King (as we are always told)

Steve Gibbs is away this week. There will be no Service Dealer Newsletter next week (Good Friday).