Hopefully you've heard by now that the deadline for entering 2023's Dealer Of The Year competition has been extended.

You now have until Monday October 30th by midnight to nominate your dealership or a valued member of your team - or indeed be nominated by a third party, such as a supplying manufacturer or a satisfied customer.

There were several reasons why the organising team felt the need to shift the closing date by a couple of weeks, not least how busy a period it has been for dealers this past month or so. And not just busy in terms of workload in the showroom and, in particular, the workshop. No, there have been extra demands on dealer readers lately, with plenty of dealer days and industry events drawing attention.

We understand it takes a bit of time to properly decide which category you want to apply for - and indeed what exactly it is you want to the judges to take into consideration. 

So hopefully with this prolonged period, everyone who wishes to nominate, will have sufficient time to gather their thoughts as well as that all-important supporting evidence - because having as many of our incredible readers in the mix as possible, is very much the team's desire.

And talking of award nominations, you may have already read today that Service Dealer ourselves, have been shortlisted for a prestigeous publishing honour! We are one of only four titles to be in the running for Business Publication Of The Year at the PPA's Independent Publishers Awards.

We are over-the-moon with this achievement as there are some truly high-profile titles in the mix for other prizes at the ceremony - including well-known mags such as National Geographic, Top Gear and Time Out amongst many others. In our category we're up against publications for the nursing, fire safety and private equity industries. We will now have our fingers crossed up to the unveiling of the winners on November 24th.

Road shows

One of the events, amongst the many that have been on offer just lately, that I suspect plenty of our dealer readers will have attended, is the STIHL roadshow that has visited venues up and down the country. I myself, got invited, to one of the final editions that took place this week at Sparsholt College in Winchester.

I emphasise the word invited here, because due a signaling failure on the trains, I never made it! So apologies to STIHL for that. Also apologies to anyone who was on the train that I was sat on before we were all unceremoniously dumped off and the journey cancelled, who may have overheard some blue language.

It's particularly annoying that I had to abandon my travel, as I felt that it was quite an interesting format that these events were taking (which the company called Fully Charged). Dealers local to the area were welcome to come along, but they were also encouraged to invite some of their important commercial customers to learn about the manufacturer's professional cordless products.

The events saw a series of presentations by members of STIHL's team, who explained how the company is developing a full range of commercial-level, battery powered tools for use in demanding settings. Attendees were also afforded the opportunity to try out the equipment for themselves.

It strikes me as a sensible combination, to have both the manufacturer's staff on hand to explain and promote the new machinery to some key end-users - but then to crucially, have local dealer representatives there at every venue, who these professionals will ultimately be buying from. This sort of relationship building can never be underestimated.

After the ten events wound up this week, the company said they had seen a record number of local authorities and major landscaping contractors attend across the venues. Simon Hewitt, head of marketing told me, “We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response we’ve had to this year’s STIHL Fully Charged Roadshow. The record attendance from local authorities and large landscaping contractors is testament to the advancement of battery technology and the genuine alternative option it now presents to professional users."

At least my colleague, Laurence Gale, editor of our sister title for commercial end-users TurfPro, managed to get along to one of the days. He attended at Harper Adams University in Shropshire. He said at that one, as well as local dealers, he met some National Trust gardeners and some local maintenance contractors who they had invited along.

Laurence described the event as "most informative." It would have been great to have discovered that for myself!