Invent your own week

This is for wine retailers and restaurants. It’s an easy way to drive some traffic and get some attention from the local wine community. It’s repeatable and scalable. And it’s a way to train and focus your staff at the same time. And it’s a way to have fun while selling more wine. And yet Read More…

Reinvention

Don’t try reinventing the wheel. The wheel is perfect. And it works great. And any change in the shape of a wheel makes it work less well. There are aspects of your job that are a wheel. Leave them alone. But for all the other parts … maybe a little reinvention is needed. Your intro Read More…

Wine Pros: Attitude

Wine sales amateurs bring their life and emotions into the sales call. The crappy night of sleep. The bills that are piling up. The internal issues at their company. The mud being thrown on the street about competitors (and about them). The dinner they had last night. The fact that sales are down. Wine professionals don’t Read More…

More is not the answer

Don’t fall into the trap that more is better. More accounts means more time pressure to see them all and do a good job. More products to sell in your portfolio means more pressure to sell the whole range, which is difficult because there are only so many minutes in a sales call. Calling on Read More…

Setting the right goals

It isn’t good to say “I’ll sell more wine.” Goals without structure, steps, and accountability are fantasies. And the problem with fantasies is that it’s too easy to walk away from them when it’s obvious you’re not going to achieve them. Setting the right goals in the right way is one of the most powerful Read More…

Social clean up

Here’s a good list of projects for the week. These are important, will take a bit of time, but only need to be done once a year. Linked In Remember that profile you filled out in 2010? Well, your network keeps seeing it and those that search for you will find it. Take the time to Read More…

Taking a stand

All that really matters is the experience of the end consumer. Simple as that. If she pops a bottle of wine with friends, pours the glasses, and loves the experience of drinking that bottle then it really doesn’t matter who the wholesaler was or even who the retailer was. The only two connection points in Read More…

The five percent, and the one percent

95% of all Champagne sold is produced by the largest houses and have the names we all know. 5% of all Champagne sold is Farmer Fizz, i.e. Recoultant Manipulant, stuff from the families and the little producers that ship tiny quantities their wines to the United States. For wine salespeople and marketers, the discussion usually Read More…

Why can’t you?

Why can’t you be the most successful wine sales rep in the state? The region? Why can’t you become the most successful wine retailer in your city, or your state, or even the country? The common answer, the default answer, is competition. “Too many other wholesalers / sales reps / retailers  … that’s why.” But Read More…

High end chocolate

The world of high end, exclusive, limited availability, hand-made chocolate is pretty neat. Where the beans came from, the roasting, the pressing, the sweat involved in every step makes each bar simply taste better. It’s a world where knowledge multiplies the taste experience. And the folks that buy the high-end chocolate have little hesitation to Read More…