SNEWS® Outdoor Specialty Retailer Survey responses are pouring in, but we're looking for even more

We opened up the SNEWS® Outdoor Specialty Retailer Survey just over two weeks ago and already responses from specialty retail owners and buyers are pouring in. Seems retailers have a lot to say about service, what is selling and not, and who’s doing a good job of selling to retailers — or not — this year.

Each year, manufacturers eagerly, and some fearfully, await the results of the survey, and then use the results to validate what they have been doing to serve retailers well. Many use the results to determine bonuses, rewards and more for customer service teams, sales teams and more. Quite a few also use the results in financial reports to investors. We’ve even heard the SNEWS® survey results cited in quarterly earnings reports to Wall Street analysts. Not surprisingly, in all but a few cases, we’ve found the critical feedback has been used by manufacturers to foster improvement in the way they do business with the specialty outdoor retail community.

Specialty retailer input DOES MATTER!

As we did last year, we have kept the survey as streamlined as possible, asking only for one “best-selling” brand instead of top three. We’ve also kept the survey as lean as possible so that it should not take more than 15 to 30 minutes online to complete — it will take longer if you have a beer on the desk anywhere.

If you have not yet taken the survey, and are a specialty retailer, we urge you to take part now. To begin taking the survey, simply click on the following link, or cut and paste it into your browser — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=200962675998

We do verify survey responses and respondents (so manufacturers trying to act like a retailer will get busted ya’ll), and only count one survey per retail store.

We are also offering retailers who take our survey reward choices that include a $25 gift certificate toward an individual subscription, a $50 gift certificate toward a group subscription, or a direct donation of $25 to either The Conservation Alliance, the Outdoor Industry Foundation, the Access Fund or American Whitewater as our thank you for your valuable time being spent on this survey. Surveys must be completed by Nov. 20, 2006, to qualify.

Thank you in advance for once again being a valuable contributor to improving our industry!