If things go according to plan I may be able to speak ahead of the traditional embargoes here on Sled Talk to some degree. I’ve always wanted to share more about our new model direction and development but without the blessing of the other distributors and factory, my hands are tied. I can’t expand much more at this point except to say I am cautiously optimistic, I may be able to give you folks the first official glimpse of our future right here.

On the accessories front we are working on some really cool items for snowmobile and ATV that I hope to be able to tell you about this month. ‘Supplier sourced’ is the latest internal buzz-word that’s getting lots of attention.

This is where we simply select a popular accessory and move it through our distribution system under its own brand name. This method saves a lot of time and effort in as much as we don’t have to reinvent the wheel by designing our own competitive product to sell under the Genuine Yamaha mark. Another benefit is we can consider some products which may be too difficult or risky to produce on our own.

A good example of a supplier sourced accessory can be found in the SnowTracker carbide runners. We have signed an agreement with SnowTracker to distribute their skags  through all our snowmobile dealers (they don’t know it yet as this was just confirmed today).  I used these carbides last season on my Apex and was quite pleased with the results. We’ll also have replacement bits in our inventory and the products will be priced very competitively.

Another area where I will be spending some time with my team this summer, is in our accessory marketing. I believe we can do a better job of getting you more information through more channels on new products and their benefits. This is not to say things aren’t working now but in these tough economic times, it is both a good exercise and a worthy challenge to make sure we are maximizing our efforts. One of the key elements of this new strategy is found in the past. Back in the early eighties, Yamaha Canada had a line of motocross accessories that were branded ‘TRIC’ (some of you may remember)… TRIC was a strong name that represented quality products that were: Tested / Reliable / Innovative and Canadian… kinda catchy huh? Anyway, stay tuned on this one as you will be hearing more on this over the coming months.

I had mentioned last month about a speaking engagement I accepted to discuss the concept of a large company (such as Yamaha) allowing an employee (such as yours truly) to engage with others online in a public conversation with its corporate blessing (such as Sled Talk). We are still the only motor-sports company doing this in Canada and judging from the questions and response we got from this audience of experts, we remain somewhat of an anomaly within traditional circles. One of the weirdest things to come out of this is we have been invited to present our model to literally the most conservative and powerful organization in Canada… the federal government. Go figure. Not sure if I’m going to do it, but interesting none-the-less.

If you haven’t done so, it’s time to ‘summerize’ your sled for storage and sharpen your fishing hooks. I already posted some tips on putting the sled away and if you have any doubts, don’t hesitate to drop me a question and I’ll get it answered.

Oh I forgot to mention, I awoke Sunday morning on the cusp of June to a freaky sleet and hail storm at my cottage (which is currently gutted and impossible to heat), ‘snowflakes and black fies’… indeed!  cheers  cr