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Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/114021
In My Opinion John D. Hedges What are you doing differently compared to 10 years ago? I recently enjoyed a great conversation with Pat, a dealer friend of mine from St. Paul, Minn. We talked about how different our current roles are compared to a decade ago. He said that it must be hard being a distributor today. It is, but so is being a dealer. Let's look at both. Let's start with the role of the dealer today versus 10 years ago. Do you realize that 10 years ago you could still adjust a carburetor (so could the consumer), and ethanol-blended fuels weren't a concern. Non-permeating hoses were not even considered. There was little, if any, talk of carbon footprints, and CARB (California Air Resources Board) was just gaining ground. Mass merchants exclusively used independent dealers to service their products. When someone needed something, they came to your store and only yours. Things were good. Remember the competition you had? Most of them are gone by now or have been absorbed into another dealership, maybe yours. Fast forward to 2013. CARB and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) are among the things making the smallengine business difficult. The unknown impact of Obamacare on small business is scary. Communications come in the form of smart phones, faxes, e-mails, and UPS or FedEx overnight mail. Your salesperson has too many accounts to see you more than two times a year, many times less. Your new competition is a thing called the Internet, and the consumer is being educated on how to service their own product by YouTube videos. Techs are harder to find because our industry has done a weak job in finding the glamour of being a "small-engine doctor." The bright and 20 talented begin working on new fangled automobiles. Your service competitors are now large groups, and the masses demand that the manufacturer uses them. Your parts competitor may be the entire Internet. How can you, the independent lawn and garden dealer, survive another 10 years? Now let's look at your supplier, the distributor. Using the same 10-year history, the role of a distributor has also changed significantly. Ten years ago, many of us had partners called SDs (service distributors), which were basically regional warehouses to help get products and parts to you faster. Most marketing was done by the factories; spring orders and other buying programs got 60-percent participation from the dealer base; and selling to anyone other than a dealer was questioned. A normal distributor had three to four lines, and you bought from several. Our industry magazines were at least 50 pages, and no one dreamed of an online version of them. How can we, the distributor, survive another 10 years? I believe there is hope around the corner. Manufacturers in our industry are smart, really smart. They've been able to keep up with the strict demands placed on them by EPA and CARB. They have withstood the cost of higher labor and continue to make products that are tougher than ever before. Costs are held to realistic increases, and they have hired quality people to take them to the next level. The next level? Survival of our industry. Ten years ago, a Japanese-made product was accepted as a quality item, but it wasn't always that way. Today, there is a difference between a Chinese engine and an engine made in China. Our leading engine manufacturers have their own Chinese plants making their own engines and a service network made up of dealers like you. Chinese products, however, are not yet considered the same. But if history has a way of repeating itself, that too will change. Some manufacturers in our industry are predicting they might once again be able to manufacture some items here in the U.S. They better. If they don't, Chinese companies will buy a factory here and do what we say that I believe there is hope around the corner. Manufacturers in our industry are smart, really smart. They've been able to keep up with the strict demands placed on them by EPA and CARB. They have withstood the cost of higher labor and continue to make products that are tougher than ever before. Costs are held to realistic increases, and they have hired quality people to take them to the next level. OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT www.outdoorpowerequipment.com