Rural equipment dealers forecast another good year for overall and aftermarket sales, according to Rural Lifestyle Dealer’s 2017 Dealer Business Trends & Outlook survey, the magazine’s 9th annual. Despite the economic and social turbulence of an election year, these optimistic forecasts follow a very strong year for growth in 2016. Eighty-four percent of dealers think 2017 will be as good as or better than 2016 for total revenue and more than 90% think aftermarket revenue will also be as good as or better than last year. This compares with last year’s survey in which more than 88% of dealers expected 2016 to be as good as or better than 2015 for total revenue and more than 90% expected aftermarket revenue to be as good as or better than 2015.

Most dealers need to be doing more educating and less selling. In this webinar event, which took place on June 23, Mike Wiles leaned on his 20+ years in the retail and wholesale equipment business to offer insight on that point of view.

Mike Wiles explores dealership challenges and strategies in his new "Managing the Store" column for Rural Lifestyle Dealer. His column in the spring issue looks at how dealers can survive in the new retail environment.