It’s easy to be guilted into saying yes. As a salesperson, being liked by your customers is part of the job. So you go out of your way. You do favors. You bring lunch to the store. You say yes to an in-store tasting on Memorial Day weekend. You say yes to another in-store tasting Read More…
Category: Wine Sales
Services, products, scalibility, and your job
A wine sales rep is in a special job with some particular leverage advantages. Service-based businesses trade time for money. A hairstylist cannot make money unless he cuts your hair. A therapist cannot bill the insurance company unless she has a client and an appointment with them. A tree trimmer need to trim a tree Read More…
The best things about wine sales
You get to talk about beautiful places. You get to talk about a delicious and historically important beverage. You get to talk about legendary families and fresh new upstarts. There is always something new. There is competition at all levels and price points (imagine the boredom if there was truly no competition). You get to Read More…
Tell me a (curated) story
Who made the wine? Where did it come from? What does it taste like? What makes it different from the others? These are common questions that get addressed in a sales presentation about a wine. They are what buyers expect to hear, so much so that a sales rep often blindly rattles off the list Read More…
Nobody owes you anything
Sorry to bring you the bad news. But it’s the truth. That extra will call you ran? Looking the other way for a week while a bill was due? The extra in-store tasting you decided to do last week, when your kid’s play was being put on? There are no repayment gods that will ensure 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…
Who is the hero?
Selling, all selling, is storytelling. And every good story has a hero that overcame obstacles, found the path, and achieved (or is working hard toward the goal). Every wine worth talking about has a hero. This is where commodity brands stumble and family-owned wineries have the edge. It’s hard to make a hero out of Read More…
Can you measure it?
As a wine sales rep for a good retailer, you sometimes take your personal time and devote it to the store by standing behind a barrel pouring samples for anybody who wants them. Boring stuff, usually. You might not sell very much wine, but one person connected deeply with one of your wines, and she 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…
Show notes
One more sales call is done. Onto the next one. You throw the wine bag into the trunk, you hustle into the driver’s seat, take a quick look at the time (damn, late again) and throw it into reverse. Not so fast. The moment after a sales call is the one moment you have to 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…
How to make a phone call
When I was a teenager, I had an unnatural shyness about calling people on the phone and asking for information. What time do you open? What time do you close? How much do your karate lessons cost? What time does the movie start? Are you looking to hire a very introverted teenager like me? I Read More…
The intimidation of the Wine Wizards
Every market has them, usually on the wholesaler or retail side. I call them The Wine Wizards, because they often look the part. White hair, a look in their eye, an air of wisdom and voice of knowledge. They have decades of experience. They have traveled the world. They have more stories about meeting great Read More…