Do unto others with your business reputation

Lately, I’ve been seeing the extremes of people in our industry. Maybe it’s the political season stirring the pot and making people squirrely. I don’t know what’s causing it, but many people in our industry (including wine shop owners and salespeople) fall into one of two categories. Either they are a fantastic force of positive Read More…

What is your end-of-year project?

I’m writing this in mid-December, which is unlike any other time of the year in the beverage sales cycle. Retailers and restaurants are too busy for long meetings with their sales reps. Their focus, as it should be, is the customer walking through the door. (Reactive, not proactive, work.) The sales reps are busy getting Read More…

The trap of the in between

It’s easy for a wine shop or a restaurant to be average. Have average products for average people, give average service, and try to compete on price. It’s lazy, but plenty of businesses out there survive with this premise. I also think it’s easy to be genuinely exceptional. To have fantastic wines for amazing customers, Read More…

Calm waters and making waves

Swimming in the calm waters is easy. It’s fun. It’s what everyone wants to do. Swimming in the waves is harder, it’s challenging. It’s demanding. It’s not what everyone seeks out. It takes a special type of person to seek out the waves. And then there are the wave creators. The ones that make the Read More…

Speak three months ahead

This isn’t a sales trick, hack, or tool. It’s just a good habit for a wine sales rep to get into. Talk three months ahead. Not all the time, but at least once during every sales call with a customer. In September: “Let’s start mapping out December’s features for the holiday season.” In November: “I’m Read More…

Wine Inventory as Wine Marketing

Inventory is one of the most mis-understood aspects of the wine world. A wholesaler that commits ten percent of their annual revenue to a single purchase of five thousand cases of Hungarian Viognier is going to run into an inventory problem. A restaurant owner who has a wine buyer that overbuys on Barolo and ties Read More…

What do your wineries want?

What do wineries that you represent really want? “We want to be placed in the right accounts.” “We want to be a category leader.” “We want to grow our direct to consumer business.” “We want less competition in your book.” “We want your sales reps to take more samples out.” “We want your sales reps Read More…

When it’s not working

When you know the uphill battle is not getting easier. When you know the problem account has no solutions and will never become better. When you know that stack of Hungarian Pinot Noir was a bad sell or a bad buy. When you know the organization you are working with or for is getting more Read More…

Tug of War

Watching a tug of war match is great fun. Two individuals or teams, if evenly matched, give it their all. Sweat, power, energy, and eventually a winner. But think about this: tug of war only works if both sides are trying hard. If one side didn’t pull, then what’s the point? If the other didn’t Read More…

Is Wine an Experience Good?

In economics, an experience good is a product that can only be evaluated after experiencing it. The other two categories are a search good, where an item is fully evaluated prior to purchase (think clothing), and credence claims which are difficult to impossible to evaluate or measure accurately even after consumption or purchase (think legal Read More…

Is it really that bad?

Rejection is tough. Hearing NO is difficult for everyone, across all industries and cultures. And too many times hearing NO can wear down the best of us. But why did they say no? If they said no for a specific reason, that is okay. “We have twenty Malbecs right now, we really don’t need another Read More…

Faults vs. Problems

I used to say, rather sarcastically, that there is no such thing as a wine emergency. The idea being that far too many sales reps run around like chickens without heads solving emergencies that don’t qualify as emergencies. And in the big scope of world problems and social issues, a restaurant running out of a Read More…

Articles. Clippings. Proof of concept.

Just sell wines that people want to buy. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But if you have to spend precious selling time rolling the ball uphill to reach the peak of simply convincing someone to think about maybe buying, then you’ve wasted energy and resources. Oh, you’ve never heard of Zweigelt? Well, let’s spend Read More…

You’ve made the choice

If you’re a wine retailer, you’ve made the choice to not have Memorial Day or Labor Day off. You made the choice to work weekends. You’ve made the choice to be in one spot, waiting for customers to come to you. You made the choice to know that every New Year’s Eve, the day before Read More…

Wine prices and pillows

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I bought a new pillow. A fancy one. It came in cool packaging, well designed and unlike other pillows on the market. Being who I am, I also looked online at reviews to help nudge me toward what I wanted to do (buy the pillow). Enough glowing reviews led me Read More…

You can’t, in good conscience

As a wine wholesaler, you can’t, in good conscience, be a supporter of both the boutique hand-selling wine shop and the mega national retailer. You can’t, in good conscience, sell a wine that goes against the core of all of your personal values and the needs of your accounts simply to make a quota or Read More…

A Sales Rep’s Choices

A wine sales rep is in a marvelous and privileged position. You get to choose. Today, are you building a brand or building the market? Tomorrow, are you finding the unknown (wine or customer), or are you learning the known even better? Next week, are you showcasing the new or reinforcing the established? What are Read More…

The irreplaceable placement

Many restaurants have one or two. Every retailer has six to twelve. They are the wines they cannot swap out, cannot consider getting rid of, and cannot possibly imagine life without. They are the wines that customers would riot over losing access to. The wines that sell as regularly as a heartbeat. They are the Read More…

What doesn’t work

It doesn’t work to not show up at an account for weeks. It doesn’t work to forget to tell an account they are overdue on a bill and about to get posted. It doesn’t work to not show new wines during a sales call. It doesn’t work to bad mouth your competition. It doesn’t work Read More…

The 5000 piece puzzle

Lots of people love puzzles. It’s a great way to idle away time on a long weekend at the cabin, or during a family reunion. Why are some 1000 pieces? Why are some only ten inches square while others are huge? Why would someone intentionally choose an incredibly difficult 5000 piece puzzle? Easy: they want Read More…

Fiction perfection.

There is no such thing as a perfect wine. There is no such thing as a perfect sales call. There is no such thing as a perfect customer. And there’s no such thing as a perfect sales rep. Don’t aim for perfection. Aim instead for continuous improvement, personal development, refinement, and betterment. Be better today Read More…

Why did they say “no”?

There are so many reasons an account says no. They said no because they don’t like the wine.They said no because they already have 20 Pinot Grigios around $15.They said no because they read a report that wine of that category and price are slowing in sales.They said no because their budgets are tight that Read More…

Who did better?

Sales rep A and sales rep B have the same account list. They joke about how they should carpool to their accounts. Sales rep A walks in, does the normal discussion and tasting with the buyer, goes through the inventory and starts to take the order. Ten wines get ordered, a case of each. A Read More…

Bowling and Wine Selling

Bowling is easy. If you can consistently deliver the ball, with the same energy, direction, spin, and accuracy, you can win big, and you can crush the competition. And it has to do with math. It’s the difference between a 90% success rate and a 100% success rate. When you’re winning at bowling (consistently throwing strikes) 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…

Thanksgiving week empathy

This is a tricky week for the wine sales rep. Retailers are busy. Too busy for sales calls. But they may need the emergency will call. Displays have to be stocked and looking good. It’s the classic situation of “you can’t sell it if you don’t got it.” Restaurants are historically a bit slow (but 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…

The extra hour

This morning, many of us woke up earlier than we normally do. We woke up with energy at a time that we normally slog. We went to bed a bit earlier last night than we normally would. Daylight savings time is one of the best magic tricks out there. And like any good magic trick, Read More…

The list of quick improvements

This is a good exercise. Grab a piece of paper. Turn off the inputs and interruptions. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Namaste. Now answer the question: “What can I change, improve upon, upgrade, do, or fix in just one or two minutes, that will have a lasting impact on my work?” A Read More…

A seven year (payment) plan

How far forward do you plan? Some very smart people insist that five year and ten-year goal setting is not realistic. That there is no way to project that far and know what will happen with the economy, your industry, or even the state of the world. I see their point, but they are wrong. Read More…

Passions vs. Skills

Two wine sales reps. Two different ways of doing business. Sales rep number one has a passion for what she does. She is so into wine! It’s her life. It’s all about the aromas, the flavors, the food, and the occasional travel. Wine is first and foremost the creator of her energy. A wine sales Read More…

Info power (and wine wholesalers)

I type this post while sitting at a coffee shop. No surprise there. But this coffee shop (Caribou) is trying to compete with Starbucks. Part of their strategy is the new “perks club” (cute name). If I join the club I can slooooooowly build points for a free cookie or a coffee. But in exchange Read More…

The irony of competition

There is a grand irony in the wine business. First, the more wholesalers there are, the better it is for retailers and restaurants. It makes for competition, it makes for more choice, it makes for opportunity to buy wines that nobody else has, it allows for a retailer or restaurant to stand out easier. Second, Read More…

On luxury wine

A luxury wine (as opposed to a great but expensive wine) exists based on scarcity and social proof. It has to be scarce, because the rules of supply and demand not only keep the proposed value sky high, but actually increases the eventual cost of holding a bottle of your own. A luxury wine cannot Read More…

Being relevant

To be relevant in an industry is the simple goal for most workers and most businesses. To be a restaurant that gets mentioned in the “top 10” lists. To be a wine that retailers are asking for, not being loaded upon. To be an employee asked for an opinion on an internal matter. To be somebody Read More…

Recognizing sunk costs

It’s one of the most important lessons you can learn: All that matters is the future. That is the clearest way to describe sunk costs. What happened in the past, what occurred between you and your customers, the efforts and investments you put into your job, the brand building and analysis and yearly reviews, the Read More…

Broken locks

Embarrassing story, but a good lesson to be learned. I was recently at a restaurant. Not just any restaurant, but a well reviewed chef-driven hard to get into place of the moment kinda restaurant. I went to the restroom. Had to go. Happens to everybody. It was a small one room restroom with a crappy lock Read More…

Falling into a hole

You’re cruising. You’re doing great. Your work is firing on all cylinders. Then BAM, you find yourself tripped up. You fell into a hole and now you have to work your way out. First, are you injured? Can you stand back up? Can you shake your head and make a little goofy cartoon noise (with Read More…

You have permission …

… to take the simple path instead of the complicated path. … to take time off to rebalance and think big thoughts. … to find success while others struggle. … to put your own name and identity out there before your company. … to take a break after reaching goals. … to work smarter instead Read More…

Let’s talk email

Efficiency is talked about often, and email is definitely one of the most efficient ways to communicate (in many ways too efficient, which is why it gets overused). In the spirit of efficiency some people use email well. And others do not. And it’s painful to watch (and read). Rules: Learn what BCC: is all Read More…

Tell and Show

When we are young, we have Show and Tell in elementary school. Then we grow up and become wine sales reps. And we continue our version of Show and Tell. We pop the cork, we show the wine, then we tell. Flip it around. Tell and Show. It works better that way. Tell your customer Read More…

The problem with being the first to say it

Sometimes the truth needs to be said. The problem is somebody has to say it first. “This brand really doesn’t fit our portfolio or our company style.” “That customer is not good for our business, even if they buy more and more wine.” “Your technique in selling is too abrasive and confrontational.” “The cigarettes you Read More…

Screwing up (gracefully)

You dropped the ball. Screwed up royally. There are no excuses. Somebody is going to be mad. The owner’s manual on screwing up gracefully reads pretty simply: Own it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t try to hide. Apologize. Hope for the best. Then apologize again. Too bad more people don’t have a copy of the owner’s Read More…

Overwhelmed

Too many commitments. Too many meetings. Too many things on the to do list. Too many emails in the inbox. Too many phone calls to make. Too many customers to see. Too many wines to sell. Too many things to organize. Too many, too many, too many! Many sales reps secretly (or subconsciously) see a Read More…

Proven and tested vs. taking a chance

When taking wine out to show to your accounts, take a moment to think about how you’ll present the wine in the context of the rest of the marketplace. A wine that has been proven and tested can be a big brand, stacked high at all other retailers, on the top ten hot brands list, Read More…

What work should you do today?

The answer is pretty simple, really. Do more of the work that proves to work well for you. Do less of the work that proves to not work well for you. More of what works, less of what doesn’t. Take the time to think about that as you make decisions on how to spend your Read More…

The myth of the overnight wine success

What is this wine and where did it come from?? It’s suddenly everywhere! Who is that sales rep that is mopping up business all over town? Nobody knows anything about her! Overnight successes are found in all industries, including ours. Some brands, from previously unknown wineries and tiny weird distributors, shoot into a city like Read More…

The chemistry of learning something new

Let’s put brain chemistry to work for us in the wine sales industry. No, I’m not talking about even more sampling and drinking. I’m talking about learning. Turns out the release of dopamine in the brain — the trigger that happens when you have the first sip of a really great wine, or hear coins Read More…

The communication quandary

The single biggest problem wine wholesalers have is simple and universal: communication of important information. Nobody does it well. Nobody. What’s new in the portfolio? What’s leaving the portfolio? What is out of stock? What containers just arrived? Which sales rep left? What sales reps just got hired? When is the next portfolio tasting? Who is Read More…

What’s your one great talent?

We all have one. The one talent that we can say with confidence “I’m better at that than most.” When I was selling wine for a local fine wine wholesaler, I learned over time what my great talent was: dealing with problem customers. If somebody was pissed of, if they kicked out their previous sales rep, Read More…

What is focus?

The process of “focus” gets bantered about endlessly, especially at wine distributor sales meetings.  “You have to focus on this line of wines.” “We need focus on this important importer.” “You have to focus better on our number one account.” “We have to focus on getting that wine on that wine list.” In this light, Read More…

The stories you hear

Rarely does a customer tell you a story just for entertainment. In fact, it’s incredibly rare. Stories are told to tell you the reason or justification why an account is doing something. Or, if that’s not the case, they are asking for something without asking it directly. Stories about other sales reps screwing up? It’s an Read More…

When do you ask for help?

Most experienced wine sales reps live an independent life during the day. See the right accounts, keep selling wine, keep the bosses happy (i.e. not being too involved in your sales business), then head home. That naturally leads to an assumption on both sides (management and sales): if the boss isn’t hearing of any problems from Read More…

A simple formula

Here’s the simple formula for success: Exceed expectations. Again and again and again and again and again. There. Done. Simple as that. (Moral of the story: you don’t have to complicate things to achieve success in business.)

Plus five percent

Teachers in West Virginia are back to work this week after a torturous nine day strike that grabbed media attention nationally. Traditionally one of the lowest pay states for teachers, they saw no option other than to walk out on the job to get the attention they deserved. Fighting tooth and nail, they got what Read More…

Spring Training

It’s March, and all the baseball teams are in sunny locations getting ready for opening day, happening in about a month. Spring Training is the time to loosen up the joints, play some casual games, let the coach get a feel for the team, let the team get a feel for each other, all the Read More…

Sometimes, there is no answer

“How can we sell more expensive wine to more retailers?” “How do we break into the hot new restaurant?” “How can I make my sales reps more efficient and responsive?” “How can we get more market share in this increasingly tight and competitive wine scene?” There is no answer to these questions. If there were Read More…

The simple way to do an annual review

With 99% certainty here is what every one of your retail and restaurant customers does NOT know. They don’t know how much wine they bought from you this past year (dollars and cases). They don’t know how much wine they bought from you the year before that (dollars and cases). They don’t know the percentage difference Read More…

Who pulled you up in 2017?

Who singlehandedly made the difference for you this past year? Was it a particular customer? Or a particular buyer? Maybe it was somebody outside of the industry that gave you particularly good advice. Or a winery rep who climbed into your car and made for the perfect day, full of sales, insight, and education? Was Read More…

Selling Champagne

There are a few fundamental differences between selling Champagne (and I’m only talking about real deal Champagne here) and other wine categories. Consumers tend to buy it one bottle at a time. And thus, without another glass next to it for comparison and assuming it’s served quite cold, it’s hard to make a call on Read More…

Why Black Friday works

It works because everybody is involved. Black Friday would be an uneventful day indeed if only a few stores participated. But the collective mass builds the excitement, which leads more to join the mass (both retailers and consumers) making it a self-fulfiling prophecy. So what might happen if wine retailers got together for Local Wine Read More…

What you can’t measure

  Loyalty. Smiles. Thank yous. Dedication. Focus. Positivity. Resilience. Creativity. Innovation. Attitude. Ideas. Friendships. Relationships. Partnerships. Be careful about trying to measure everything. Much of the most important stuff is impossible to quantify. If you ignore something simply because you can’t measure it, then you’ll lose it all. 

Then you have a brand

Two scenarios. A company assembles 100 carefully chosen wine consumers. They enter a room and taste and rank five whites and five reds. Then they leave. The statisticians come in. They analyze the numbers. They discover the one white and one red the crowd liked the most. They speculate why. The scientists come in and Read More…

Some wine buyers …

… are in it for the juice. It’s all about the wine. You have to leave them alone while they taste it, eyes closed and covering one ear, ala Miles in Sideways. … are in it for the story. They want the history, the background, the links to other wineries, the hero’s journey. … are Read More…

The overthinkers

I was once part of a wholesale company that produced the most confusing and convoluted incentive program ever. It involved eighteen wines from four different suppliers. Under one case retail placements counted as a point. Solid case retail counted as five points. Multiple case retailer placements had an added bonus level of points, scaled based Read More…

The importance of seeing sunk costs

As Seth Godin has reminded us, the value of your eclipse sunglasses as of today is zero. Not almost zero. Absolutely zero.  Sunk costs, in economic terms, is money that was spent in the past on projects/people/systems/software/materials/etc. that are no longer needed or have much faster/better/cheaper alternatives on the marketplace. It is money that was spent Read More…

Standing for something

Clean farming. Vineyard worker compensation. Family ownership. Quality and provenance. Wine served at the right temperature. Good stemware. Decent buyers that respect your time and family. Bosses that help instead of hurt. … what do you stand for? When is your line crossed? Stand for something. Speak up. Say what is important. The alternative is just to Read More…

Where is the loyalty?

Is your customer’s loyalty with the brand? If so, you need to keep that loyalty carefully groomed, make sure they have knowledge and access to the gems within the brand, and make sure the brand reaches out to your customer on a regular basis. Is your customer’s loyalty to the importer or distributor? If so, you need to keep that Read More…

How empires topple

Every major wine market in the United States has one dominant distributor and one dominant retailer (or a chain of stores). Sometimes it’s not actually obvious who the dominant players are, but just a little bit of research will easily unlock the secret of who sells the most wine. These are the empires. And just Read More…

Monday Challenge: Smarter, Faster, Better

This week’s Monday Challenge is as easy as can be. Buy a copy of Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg and read it. This book is transformative, and every chapter has incredible relevance to all aspects of our industry. Broken into eight concepts that are discussed with surprising facts and entertaining stories to back up Read More…

Do they know they have a problem?

A retail store that mixes their rosé wine in amongst all the other selections has a problem: their customers can’t simply find the rosé section. A retail store that has twenty Chianti but no Barolo has a problem: their customers can’t find the basic variety that every store should offer. A restaurant that has misspellings, Read More…

The first step after setting goals

Goal setting is the secret key to success, especially in the wine wholesale industry. When goals are carefully outlined and targeted, then momentum is driven in the proper direction and true growth can occur. When goals are met then you have a reason to pop a bottle of Cava (this is the wine industry, after all). Read More…

The Power of Wine Maps

In our business we are lucky because we get to talk about places. Places have history, places have stories, places have culture, and places have identity. And by using a map in your trainings, seminars, sales pitches, and presentations you bring forward the sense of place. Some hints and tips: Purchase and download the iPad Read More…

Putting wine statements in context

The purpose of an in-store tasting at a wine retailer is not to show a ton of choices to the consumer. The purpose of joining a wine club is not the convenience of having four wines delivered every quarter and automatically charged to your credit card. The purpose of using good stemware in your restaurant is Read More…

Company culture and long term employees

The idea of culture building gets bantered about far too much in many corporations, and ironically the ones that talk about it the most are often the ones that have a cultural problem on their hands. Culture is built through actions, not mission statements (see the 9 worst of all time), and thus by definition it starts with Read More…

That’s a wrap!

Good day everybody, and welcome to the last work day of 2016! Thank you for joining the VineThinking community. So far 184 blog posts composed of over 62,000 words since I started this in April, and a readership that has grown by leaps and bounds as the months have gone by. Thank you to all who Read More…

Playing the long game

As a wine sales rep, how far out do you think, plan, organize, and set goals? The answer to that question might very well depend on who you work for. Some wholesalers are notorious for shifting territories around, pulling accounts from one rep and giving them to the other, all under the notion that it Read More…

Goals vs. Expectations

Goals and expectations are frequently confused with each other at many organizations. “Our goal is provide top quality customer service.” … No, top quality customer service should be an expectation with every single interaction with every single customer. Anything less is simply unacceptable. “Our goal is to make great wine.” … No, the wine should Read More…

Sharing vision

Sharing vision is one of the most important aspects of any of our wine jobs. It shapes the meetings, sets the stage, outlines the expectations, and points out the differentiations between you and rest of the world (otherwise known as “them”). To share a vision you first have to have a vision. A vision is different Read More…

The trouble with robots

Robots are kind of awesome and fascinating. They work fast, they work hard, they don’t complain, they are masters of efficiency. The problem with robots is that they do or say the same things over and over (and over and over and over and over). What many people fail to realize is that being a Read More…

The goal of inducing curiosity (via a Coravin)

It’s one of the most effective but overlooked sales techniques. It’s the key to success for many legendary brands, but can easily be replicated into our industries. It’s curiosity. One of my wine consulting contracts is for a successful privately held restaurant group. Three locations, over $1 million in wine sales. They specialize in burgers (really Read More…