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DEALER SUPPORT: AN EXCITING NEW STRATEGY FOR A NEW YEAR
As is now common practice here at Dealer Support HQ, our editorial team have been busy reaching out to our dealer community to gather your input and insights when it comes to evolving our editorial remit, so that we can ensure it’s helping to support you with the key issues and current agenda in the business supplies sector
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t the end of 2022 we felt it seemed like the right time to take stock and re-engage with our audience. Now that we’re operating in a post-COVID world where political turmoil is seeming to temporarily settle and economic forecasting is becoming less unpredictable, it seems a good time to look to the future for dealer businesses - the next phase, if you will. For us, speaking extensively with the dealer community has been a useful exercise, ensuring we remain close to our readership and deliver the editorial that matters to you. We have been both enlightened and reassured by what we learned and are excited by the planned changes we’re introducing to the Dealer Support editorial and events portfolio this year as a consequence. YOU SPOKE, WE LISTENED We recognise the unique three years we’ve just experienced, and acknowledge the impact that economic, political and social issues have had on our businesses and our sector, forcing dealers and suppliers to adapt and pivot to ensure their survival and success. We’ve spoken to many of you over the past few months, sharing your experiences and insights - good and bad - alongside your outlook for the year ahead.
We want the dealer community to not just survive, but to thrive, during these challenging times
You’ve told us what you see the challenges and potential wins to be. With your help we have been able to shape a strong editorial strategy that we feel sure you will enjoy and benefit from. Whilst a number of you have told us of the business challenges you have faced since the start of 2020, many of you are also working hard to adapt and diversify your product ranges, adapt your business models and project confidence - resulting in great success.
A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS With this in mind, at Dealer Support we plan to focus our 2023 edit strategy around this success theme by helping our readers with tactics, tips and insights, alongside best practice examples and expert advice to help you identify opportunities in challenging times to ensure your business is as strong and as profitable as it can be, despite the changes and challenges the UK is experiencing. We want the dealer community to not just survive, but to thrive! If there’s one thing we all can be sure about, it’s the independent dealer’s ability to adapt and evolve to ensure they remain relevant and robust in the market. Our aim is to give a confidence boost to our dealer readership through our editorial, and to offer inspiration, insight and practical advice to help you look ahead and move forward with your business plans.
FOUR-PLLAR PLAN Our 2023 editorial content aims to bring strong positive messages and ideas, dedicated to helping resellers make the right choices this year. Our content will be packed with tried and tested advice from commentators and experts with strong track records and a deep industry knowledge, combined with detailed articles that will help to ensure you are keeping your businesses robust, healthy and profitable. To deliver this strategy consistently, and in a meaningful way for our readers, we are building our content for 2023 around ‘Four Pillars’ which we see as the foundations of dealer success in the present climate. They are:
PILLAR 1: Adapting to the changing face of the workplace. PILLAR 2: Diversifying to thrive, not just survive. PILLAR 3: Eco matters - climb aboard the green machine. PILLAR 4: Recruitment, retention, the labour shortage and the sales opportunity.
WE’LL COVER A BREADTH OF ARTICLES, INCLUDING:
Dealer Success stories, always a firm favourite - what lessons can you learn from others’ experiences? Business advice for selling in a tough market - being seen and being heard. The home office is here to stay – so here’s how to sell it. Diversify, diversify, diversify – whether it’s M&A, workwear, FM or new sectors – to pivot means to profit. The changed face of the workplace – what it means for dealers and the opportunities for change! Workplace supplies and the labour shortage crisis - appealing work spaces for the win! SAVE yourself rich – costefficiencies, when is the right time? What are the right cuts to make? SELL yourself rich - the importance of deals, discounts and promotions when the market is weak and challenging Project confidence – it’s contagious; spread it The green machine - eco matters - from packaging to delivery, customers demand green – we’ll help you to be a sustainable success in a tight business environment
Further to this, as you fed back overwhelmingly about how valuable you find the Dealer Success interviews that have been a trademark of the magazine since it was first published almost 30 years ago, we are will be redoubling our efforts to bring you more dealer success stories than ever before!
YOUR VOICE TO THE INDUSTRY Although the drivers of our editorial content will have a strong focus on confidence and optimism, we won’t shy away from the challenges either. There will continue to be new hurdles to jump and problems to solve, and we will ensure our content deals with the tricky questions. We will, of course, continue to nurture our already strong relationships with key industry stakeholders, including dealer groups, wholesalers, distributors and suppliers to give our readers direct lines of communication – ensuring you hear of initiatives and objectives first through the Dealer Support pages. We’ll be sharing and reflecting to the wider industry any concerns and frustrations the dealer community is experiencing - and asking the uncomfortable questions when it’s required of us.
DRIVING SUCCESS Our overall aim is to help our readers ‘drive success’ with relevant and timely content, or content that can be kept and referred back to, which is made even easier with our digital version that can be shared with sales and leadership teams throughout businesses at the click of a button. Each issue of Dealer Support will see our Four Pillars leveraging our content. We see each one of these themes as pivotal to dealers succeeding in their businesses in 2023, so we want our editorial to support and help dealers skill-up in these areas. Alongside our most popular best practice dealer success interviews, and industry strategy interviews - and the all-important industry news and comment - we believe we have everything a dealer needs from a monthly magazine! We’re ready for 2023, which will mark more than 30 years of our ongoing support for the UK independent dealer channel. We are unrivalled as the longest standing UK publication of its kind - it’s fair to say that, if you’re a UK independent dealer, we’ve got your back! We go into 2023 with a winning strategy and strong motivation to continue to support dealer businesses, through insight and information in what appears to be a challenging year, but a year full of opportunity, none the less.
FOUR PILLAR PLAN
Our 2023 editorial content aims to bring strong positive messages and ideas, dedicated to helping resellers make the right choices this year. We are building our content around Four Pillars which we see as the foundation of dealer success this year. They are:
To not just survive, but to thrive, the dealer business needs to diversify. By doing so they can flip what may look like a bleak outlook commercially for the next few years into a major opportunity. During the pandemic dealers switched very quickly to PPE and cleaning products, signage and partitions - but just because the height of the pandemic has ended, doesn’t mean your push to diversify should end too.
In 2023 we will look at the latest ways to diversify. What are the growth trends? The new categories? We’ll also share insights into diversification by investment in product specialisms, online purchasing platforms that allow for more seamless product introduction, and the upward trend for M&A projects. Also, how to diversify – and what into – how to choose a sector, how to make the change in your business, how to manage barriers, and what benefits existing dealerships have been seen.
Offices are now destinations visited by employees a few times a week to engage with colleagues and clients. They are now spaces to collaborate and connect, for meetings and project work. The home office has become a staple of the working week, where the urgent and important tasks get done and the daily grind prevails, albeit in the new age, virtual, world at least part of the time. The labour shortage is also driving a revolution in workplace environments, with employee demand for more aesthetically pleasing spaces, break out areas, better coffee, even fruit and biscuits on demand! Finally, there are the products required to link employees to these two new workspaces…home working and mobile-working products and accessories. Dealers are at the forefront of the workplace revolution and the sales opportunities that come with it.
PILLAR 3: Eco matters
Being a sustainable success in a tight business environment seems to be a non-negotiable for dealer success in 2023. There is a clear trend for business consumers to now source products with eco-friendly credentials and hard proof behind environmental claims. In short, customers are increasingly concerned about the sustainability of their workplace supplies. It’s super-important that dealers are aware of changes to products and to packaging in order to better serve their clients.
In this pillar we ask industry experts to break down the jargon, the developments in sustainability and green credentials, and the opportunities for dealers. We will answer questions such as: ● How can dealers increase their sustainability, and does it have to cost? ● What are customers and commercial partners demanding? ● What does it mean to be sustainable, and how to demonstrate how sustainable are your operations? ● How can your business be made more eco-friendly to appeal to green-thinking customers to help save the planet - and help dealers develop a sales USP that gives them the edge!
As the labour market continues to be unpredictable, and the shortages in the labour force remain a very real problem, offices need to appeal to potential and existing employees more than ever before.
Although businesses may currently be feeling the pinch, now is not the time for them to cut costs on office accessories or work perks.
A well-stocked stationery cupboard, state of the art laptop, posh coffee and even the best biscuits have been shown to affect an employee’s job satisfaction and likelihood to take a job or stay in a job.
Dealers need to be educating their customers on the importance of appealing workplaces to recruitment and retention - which also offers great sales opportunities to sell premium products as well as furniture, FM, catering etc.
