The true cost of


Demos... I


t’s quite the done thing, isn’t it? You have an idea that a piece of kit might do a job for you, but you’re


Manufacturers - what have they ever done for us? On the following pages we take a look at some aspects of the work of suppliers to the turfcare industry 118


not sure, so you ask for a demonstration. The dealer, or supplier, is always ready to oblige and there’s no onus on you to buy. That’s the nature of the game.


But, have you any idea what that demonstration has cost? In the old days, when petrol was under £1 a gallon, and you could put a trailer on the back of any vehicle, it was probably quite a reasonable cost and well within a company’s’ budget. But, nowadays, it’s another ball game - that cost could be costing you a decent discount off the manufacturer’s list price. Tony Evans, of PR Company Pan Publicity, canvassed opinion from three well known names in the industry to find out their perspective on the issue. Tim Merrell, Managing Director of Newmarket based The Grass Group, says the true cost of a demo is something they’ve really started


driving through to dealers. For a while now, they’ve been offering different levels of discount according to whether or not they have to do a demonstration. He believes the industry has already started making some ‘unseen’ changes in regard to demonstrations. “The reason I say unseen,” he


explains, “is because the changes are unseen to the end user. In the past, the cost of a demonstration was already factored into the final price of a machine but, by not having one, the dealer can either get a better profit margin, or offer the end user a better price, simply by cutting out our a demonstration.” However, Tim accepts that there are just times when a demonstration is absolutely necessary. But, he does think that end users need to be educated on the real cost of a demo which, he says, works out on average at about £500 a day when you take into account labour, expenses and travel.


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