Fictional scenario, but play along: Two sales reps. Two different wholesalers. One buyer. Both reps bring in the same wine. Not the same label, but the same juice in the bottle. What’s going to happen? The buyer will buy one wine and not the other. It’s the “why?” of this equation that needs to be examined Read More…
Month: October 2016
The most overlooked wine placement
As a wine wholesale rep, are you using the cold box correctly? Pre-chilled wine is big business. With fewer and fewer people buying wine in bulk and rather grabbing multiple single bottles during the week, the cold box placement is gold. Every single sales call must address this, and a cold box placement can easily Read More…
Who is your mentor?
Study after study proves the same thing: those that work with mentors outperform all others my a monumental percentage. If you can find somebody in your orbit that understands and supports what you’re doing, but they can bring more experience and ideas to the table, ask for them to mentor you. They might be taken Read More…
Adding value when something costs nothing
Taking pictures used to be expensive. First you had to decide what kind of film to use. Black and white, color negative, or color positive. A 24 shot roll would cost you $4-10, a 36 shot roll between $6 and $13. Then you had to take the pictures. No clue how they eventually would look. Read More…
You’re writing a story
Every interaction you have with your customers is another chapter in the story. And the more chapters there are in the story, the more complex and intimate and important it can be. But don’t forget it’s an evolving narrative, that should pick up where the previous chapter left off. Each interaction (chapter) is not a Read More…
Quick Wine Math Quiz
Get ready, get set, go! What percentage of a 12 bottle case is one bottle? If the alcohol content of a wine goes from 12% to 13% what is the percentage volume increase in that alcohol content? If you buy a wine at $10.00 and sell it for $15.00, what is you margin? If you Read More…
Be the one to point out the obvious
I live in a city of a quarter million people, the capital of my state, in a metro area of three million. I live in a peacefully urban area laid out in the early 1900’s with alleys and grid streets. Ask most people in the country what day is “trash day” in their neighborhood and Read More…
Monday Challenge: Sense of Place
Every Monday I throw out an idea to challenge the readers. This week: Sense of Place. Pick a personal favorite wine region. Google that region with the words “wine map” and get a high quality image or two of the area. Then go the Wikipedia page for the main village or town in the region. Read More…
Identifying Doctor No
Every organization seems to have one. The curmudgeon, the naysayer, the one who resists change with every atom in their body. They don’t want the new software. They don’t want more training. They don’t want more accounts. They don’t see the value in group effort. They are Doctor No. Maybe they don’t say no to Read More…
What are you selling? A product or a brand?
If you are selling a product, you need to lead with the attributes of that product. The varieties in the bottle, the alcohol content, the main competition on the shelf or on the wine list. It’s mano a mano, one wine against the others. But if you are selling a brand, it’s a totally different Read More…