Dealer Density

[spike60]

This is going to get a lot of people fired up, but as Husky and Stihl have established ther positions as the only two brands on the lead lap, (I'm only talking market share!), it seems that in many areas there are way to many dealers. (I have Husky, but I'm not a Stihl dealer) These two brands want to be like Coke and Pepsi: they want to be in every store. Stihl makes a big deal out of staying out of the box stores, but they still sign up an awful lot of dealers. And they always want to sign up the rental stores, don't they? At least Lowes and Sears stay at MAP price. Too many places to shop and prices will go down. And you can't blame the customer for taking advantage of it.

For my other brands, I am the exclusive dealer in my county, but there are more places selling Husky than there are McDonalds! It's almost the same for the Stihl guys. Because of their market share positions, you can still move a fair amount of saws, although you often need to move off of promo price. In Huskys' case, the demand for the rest of their product doesn't even approach that of their saws, so too many dealers stocking that stuff doesn't work very well. That's why many of us have stopped carrying the other categories, in case anyone down in Charlotte is listening.

This probably has the biggest impact on the smaller saw only shops, and that is unfortunate. They don't get to make up for this by selling some big ticket items like I do. Years ago when I was a distributor rep. I enjoyed going to those places. They were some of my favorite people and usually the best saw techs you could find anywhere.

And then there are the catelogs.....and the internet.

Not that we can change any of this; but what do you guys think?

 

[cuttinscott]

Welcome to ArboristSite SPIKE60 I was out of town last weekend when you started posting. Im liking your point of view on many subjects here. I guess I missed the UFO landing Ill ask Tony if he saw anything lol.
As far as dealer density you know how long it took our dealership to reach the level we are at. This has been a pheonominal year all prod lines sales numbers are up. And yes we NOW only service what we sell with one exception if a loyal customer in good standing with us has a piece of equip. not bought from me I will give it a looksee but im upfront with him that he or she may need to find their own parts for said equipment. After we adopted this policy our reg customers are happier and we are getting many new customers each week. As you know we USED to work on any and all saws BUT you know who supplied most of the parts for me as you used to work for said distributor. Now I am much happer only working on our equipment. Stop in the next time your upstate everyone would be happy to see you.

Scott