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…
Category: Wine Sales
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…
What makes for a truly good wine sales rep?
What makes for a truly good wine sales rep? Is it somebody who can break into an unsold account? Is it somebody who can sell wine that nobody else can? Is it somebody who can get retailers to buy more quantity? Is it somebody who can build more by the glass programs at restaurants? or, Read More…
A short guide to a great (quick) staff training
You’re a wine sales rep and you sell wine to a restaurant. You ask the manager if you can come in for a pre-shift wine training. They say sure, swing by at 4:15 on Friday when all the servers are here but we’re not yet busy. Oh, and you’ll only have ten minutes. The irony 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…
It comes down to telling a story
What makes this wine different from others? What makes this wine similar to others? Why was this winery started? What struggles led to winery success? When did they face failure? Was there one hero in the winery that saved the day? When did all of this happen? How many acts are in this winery’s play? How Read More…
What are you selling? (Maybe it’s not wine)
A wine sales rep’s life, even with lunches, dinners, samples, winemakers, and travel all involved, can be isolating and lonely. When isolated feelings of “me against the competition” and “us vs. them” creep into the sales mindset, you may find yourself running from account to account to account, pulling bottles out of the bag, presenting everything to Read More…
Plans, planners, CRMs, and what is really needed
Tools, pens, calendars, graphs and check lists. Reminders, pings, pokes, and Things. CRM’s, Saleforce, Zoho, Pipedrive, and Hubspot. SevenFifty. Endless inspirational quotes. Internal meetings, sales meetings, performance review meetings. The value of the tools at the wine sales reps disposal can only be measured by the action taken to use them correctly. Thinking about tools and Read More…
Is the wine good? Or is it helpful?
Wine sales reps are hooked on the “good” of wine. “Isn’t that great?” “What do you think? Do you like it?” “Just delicious wine isn’t it?” This is the all too common conversation after pouring a taste for the buyer. It’s based on the quality of the juice, trying hard to make it sound more Read More…
Opening new accounts – the first touch
Opening new accounts is the lifeblood of the wine wholesale business. If you’re not opening new accounts on a regular basis you are beholden to the slicing up of the market by competitors. New business is the only way to stay ahead of that curve. A simple prospecting tool is, of course, email. Make a form Read More…
The number one complaint (you can do better than that)
Let’s start with the truth: retailers and restauranteurs have it tough. They work in a small box, and live a life of interruption. Vendors, customers, sales people, employees with complaints or issues constantly pulling at them. Trying to structure a day for creative thinking, personal development, or with the goal of flow can be difficult Read More…
Be quick to listen and slow to speak
Sage advice, for sure. But it goes against the nature of the sales rep. The sales rep is wired to talk, and talk, and talk. More tech sheets. More maps. More reviews. More scores. Oh and here’s one more thing to prove to you that my wine is good! In the mind of many wine 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…
Your job is not to make it easy for the buyer
As a wine sales rep, the temptation is to make life easier for your buyers. You run that will call. You put up those shelf talkers. You pick up the 10pm phone call, or respond to the 1am email. You train their staff. You figure out the industry trends for them. You do the work, Read More…
The shotgun and the arrow
Two different wine sales reps, from two different companies, with two different ways of presenting wines and ideas to the same restaurant buyer looking for a new Cotes du Rhone by the glass. Sales rep 1: “Thanks for the time today. So I brought five Cotes du Rhone at a range of prices. All are 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…
What are you going to do next year?
This is an important question to ask, because next year is next week. Annual reviews of accounts, territories, personal strengths, personal weaknesses, planned development, goals, outlooks, and ideas are wonderful ways to take a longer view of your wine sales business. It’s also a great way to fall into the sticky mud of too many Read More…
The irony of December
We are in the final stretch of the wine sales year, the last two weeks of December. Christmas music is playing. Your restaurants have gift card promotions galore going on (and I assume you’re buying one, right? You’re going to eat there anyway, might as well write of the purchase on this year’s expenses while 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…
A day to work ON, not be stuck IN
The day before Thanksgiving is a strange one indeed for wine sales reps. It’s kinda like Friday, except it’s not. No retailers want to see you today, they are too busy (unless you are pouring free wine and giving them free labor, then they are happy to see you). It’s a great day to visit Read More…
The flavor of history
As I type this, I’m putting the final touches on a wine class I’ll be teaching tonight called “The Founding Families of Oregon Pinot Noir.” Doing the research and outlining the class has brought up a bit of a philosophical question: in wine, does history really matter? This might sound like a dumb question because Read More…
The easiest way to sell better wine
Note that I’m not talking about more expensive wine. I’m only talking about better than the other choice wine. If the better one happens to be more expensive then so be it. But price is not the main point. Heck maybe it’s less expensive than the other choice. Okay, here it goes. Memorize this line: “You can only Read More…
50 days left
We are about to enter the second half of November, and that means there are about 50 days left in the year. A few thoughts: I assume you know what you are doing each of the next 50 days. Crunch time in the wine business is before us, and on both the wholesale and retail level Read More…
Momentum and the next hill
We all know that a downhill bike ride is pretty easy. It can also be a ton of fun. You can cover lots of distance quickly. You can take your feet off the pedals and keep flying. You can take in the view and enjoy the wind. Momentum in wine sales can sometimes feel like that Read More…
Questions (and important answers)
Wether you just opened an account, just inherited an account, or have an account that you haven’t yet connected deeply with, questions are the simple key to unlocking the buyer and building business. What is the best way to get in touch with you about pricing and deals? When do you make your buying decisions? Read More…
The Order Taker vs. The Sales Leader
The order taker collects orders. The sales leader develops accounts. The order taker reacts to problems when they arise. The sales leaders prevents problems in the first place. The order taker responds to their customers only when prodded. The sales leader is proactive with their customers continuously. The order taker waits for the phone call. The sales leader makes Read More…
How to not sell wine (soft selling the wrong way)
Here is a good example of how to not sell wine. “You let me know when you need something. I’ll stay out of your way until then.” Some reps seem to pride themselves on being “the softest of soft sell reps.” But there is a difference between soft selling and non-selling. The quote above is Read More…
The Uber driver mentality of some wine reps
What makes for a great Uber driver? Somebody who shows up. Somebody who does not crash. Somebody who is not obnoxious. Silence is golden. That’s really it. And some wine sales reps define the job they are doing by defending themselves this way: “Hey, I show up to all my accounts when I’m supposed to!” “Hey, Read More…
Hey wine reps: What do you do on Thursday?
The wine sales cycle on the wholesale end is pretty predictable. See accounts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then maybe have a sales meeting on Friday, run some will calls (that are always disruptive and problematic), and do an in-store tasting that night. Week after week. Month after month. You know who your accounts are Read More…
The portfolio quandary
The problem with having a huge portfolio of great wines is that you have to constantly pop bottles to remind people of your products. But you then risk popping too many, looking desperate or without vision and direction. The problem with a small and finely tuned portfolio is that once you pop a bottle and the buyer 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…
It’s your job
If you are a sales rep, it’s your job: to have a current catalog at hand to have current pricing sheets at the ready to have your phone charged up for the day to have extra time built into your schedule to handle last second needs of your customers to know how best to communicate Read More…
Sales technique vs. Selling structure
There is too much energy put into sales techniques, especially at the largest of wholesalers. How to walk into an account. How to stand in front of the buyers. How to say what you need to say. How to hit all of your bullet points. How to smile and laugh, and mirror. And of course, how Read More…
Like it or not, SOND is here
It’s the day after Labor Day in the United States. For many, the end of summer and the start of a school year. More importantly for us, it’s the start of SOND. The run of September-October-November-December is pretty incredible in our industry. On average well more than one half of restaurant and retail wine business Read More…
Old topic, fresh discussion
In seems that sales people in the wine business are very good at finding ruts and sticking to them. We find the pattern of talking about a particular place, style, or wine brand (especially if we have been selling it for years). Same stories, same analogies, same ways of saying the same sales pitch year after year. We are all Read More…
Out of stocks and auto-shipping
As a sales rep for a wholesaler, here’s an easy way to make your buyers mad. Run out of stock on something. Do little to nothing to acknowledge the out of stock situation. When the product comes back in, ship it automatically without asking. When you can’t ship something because the item is out of Read More…
Guilt is not a sales technique
… or is it? If your business goes down in an account, do you mention it to the buyer? And if so, how? Do you whine, say the bills piling up and that things are tough and you need their help? Or do you say, in a constructive and straightforward way, that you’ve noticed the line Read More…
How to be an average wine rep
Here’s the abridged list of how to be an average wine rep (i.e. you disappear amongst the crowd). The real list is far larger but this is a start. Bring a handful of wines with you, pour them, and ask the buyer what they think of them Avoid sales and leadership training opportunities Sell by Read More…
Choice and control
A wine sales rep that presents one wine at a time will have a hard time indeed. A primary motivator for buyers (and human beings in general) is control. Control of a situation can only come from having choices, and having choices by definition means multiple options. So on one hand your buyers are asking Read More…
Ask, don’t tell
What’s your buying program and schedule? How far out do you plan you wine list changes? How many distributors do you buy from? What percentage from each? What is your markup formula? What margin do you need to hit? How many wines do you taste through before picking one? Do you buy based on quality Read More…
Statistics don’t lie
When trying to open new business, only 25% of sales people follow up a second time. That means 75% make one call, drop off one book, and never try again. Of those that follow up a second time, only 10% of sales reps make more than three follow up calls or visits. And yet … Read More…
Happy (Wine) Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day to all! There are a few readers of this blog that are outside of the United States, so here’s the short version of why July 4th matters in America: this is the day we celebrate the spirit of our country, the founding fathers and what they believed in, the standards by which freedom Read More…
You’re not selling on price
If it’s about the quality of the wine, the story of the winemaker, the place it is from, the history of the region, the consistent accolades about the winemaker over years and decades, then why do we so often start by talking price? If you want price to be less of a consideration in the Read More…
Twelve minutes
If you’re a wine sales rep on the street, visiting accounts every day, dusting off your bottles, showing new products, trying to hit sales goals, running will calls, answering the phone, and putting out fires all day, this is for you. A challenge for one week. When you park your car in front of an account, Read More…
Currency, value, and street cred
Adding income to your bottom line is usually in the form of selling. Sell more stuff, make more money. But currency and value is not just money. There are thousands of instances every day where you can improve your value. The positive interaction you have with a competitor. The attention you pay to a new Read More…
Good vs. Interesting
Two different wines. Two different approaches needed to sell them. Saying a wine is “good” implies ranking and inherent quality. This one is better than the other one. Most wines/brands strive to be sold as good wine, where comparisons and rankings are sought after. It makes for easy selling. A wine that is “interesting” is 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…
When to talk price, and when to not
In a presentation to consumers, there is a simple formula for when to talk price. For more expensive/premium wine ($40 and over retail), talk about price at the forefront of the presentation. For less expensive wine ($20 and under retail), talk about price at the end of the presentation. The logic is simple, but incredibly important. Read More…
Asset Building in the Wine Business
You’re not in the wine sales business. Sorry to burst your bubble. You’re in the asset building business. It’s the only way to survive the future. Here’s why. Across the nation the wine industry is fragmenting in very interesting ways. As large distributors, retailers, and restaurant groups invade more regions and states, a counterculture is Read More…
Archery, Soccer, Weightlifting, and Wine
Competition level archery is all about preparation, zen like calm, focus, detail, equipment, and timing the release of the arrow to nail the target. It’s a solo sport for the most part, thought at the highest level there can be teams of coaches involved. The bullseye is hit often but repeating the feat is the real Read More…
Beware of Averages (and wild variables)
Say a wine shop is chugging along and doing its thing when all of the sudden a new wine comes on the market, and amazingly the wine is only $1 a bottle for the end consumer. Wow! The store buys 50 pallets of the wine and stacks it to the ceiling. Word gets out about 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…
Selling Wine vs. Making Impact
Ask most wine sales reps, owners of wine bars, and owners of wine shops what they do and many will answer “I sell wine.” Selling wine is being an order taker. Selling wine is about making tall stacks and grabbing the end cap. Selling wine is about following benign metrics such as “POD” (points of 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…
High end audio stores (and how they relate to wine)
I love high end audio. I like the older components. I like the texture of a vinyl record, and I love my older speakers. The sound is better, the richness is more complete, and when I take the time to sit down and listen to a favorite album I tend to put other things away and Read More…
You have a duty within the chaos
Welcome to the joyful Christmas season when everybody starts to run around like headless chickens, a panicked look in their eye, insistent on their assumption that one more gift is necessary to buy to show their love (sorry about the cynicism). As wine industry professionals, we have a few duties during this upcoming week of alarms Read More…
A Wine Rep’s Future
There are basically four types of wine sales reps. Brand new, green, inexperienced but excited. Established, productive, successful, and still very much excited about the industry. Established, productive, successful, but pretty entrenched and doesn’t want things to change. Very experienced, continuing to be successful, but complaining about any rumor of anything shifting. You can see 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…
The power of loss over the power of gain (Loss Aversion)
If you’re traveling and looking for a place to eat, where do you turn for advice? Many of us whip out the phone and look at Yelp. And when we look at Yelp, and as scroll through the reviews, what jumps out? It’s not the four and five star reviews, because there are so many Read More…
A day of planning, a day of pause
Welcome to Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is always a strange one. Shoppers pack the stores, movie theaters are busy, many restaurants open early to catch the breakfast and brunch crowd, quite a few people simply stay at home and eat leftovers and watch TV. Wine shops are busy but not overrun (nothing compared Read More…
A great use for Thanksgiving Eve
What are you doing today? If you are a wine sales rep or a wholesale manager, here’s a little secret: today is one of the best days of the year to visit unsold or unopened restaurant accounts. Why? Because today the retailers are so busy they don’t want to see you. And your solid on-premise Read More…
Practice does make perfect
There is no short cut around practice. Simple as that. Does U2 just jump up on stage one day and pull off a perfect show? No way. Does an olympic swimmer casually decide to just swim really fast for that week? Of course not. Does a great restaurant built on customer experience just assume the new Read More…
A new haircut
Yesterday my wife went to a new hair stylist for a haircut. She was tired of her old stylist for no reason other than “it’s time to change things up.” She came back with not only an awesome haircut, but an exceptional story about customer sales and the overall transaction. When most of us go for Read More…
Do you know …
… what you are doing every day of the upcoming week? … who you need to reach out to, listed in an easy format to check them off? … which wines you need to concentrate on, make sure you know the details of, and know a good story to tell about each one? … who Read More…
What Apple (via Samsung) can teach a wine sales rep
Phones are blowing up. Samsung designed a faulty product that is reeking havoc in their company, and more importantly it’s denting their reputation. You can’t have phones blow up. Not good. Then people don’t want to buy your product. The cheap and easy advertisement that Apple could then put out to promote the iPhone7? “Our Read More…
A simple buying strategy for smaller restaurants and wine retailers
Smaller restaurants and smaller wine retailers start off at a competitive disadvantage compared to their larger competitors. They don’t have the buying power, name recognition, attention, press, coverage, and influence of their bigger cousins. But that’s only if you look at the dollars, and especially if you look at the dollars of value per vendor. Read More…
The Little Things
… the way the server picked the dirty knife off your plate, set it down, and took the plate away instead of just giving you a new knife. … the way the manager was being mean to the bartender. … the way the sales rep that just walked in interrupted your meeting “just for a second.” Read More…
The Slow Build vs. The Out of the Blue
Earlier I wrote about how to get into unsold accounts (amongst other things). I said “Show up. Ask questions. Network. Show up. Ask questions. Network. Repeat. Repeat. Don’t stop. It takes work, it takes time, and there are no shortcuts.” A big part of showing up and doing the hard work is about the slow build. Read More…
Once it’s gone, it’s gone
There is only one thing you can’t replace in your life. Only one thing that gets spent continuously and no app, innovation, planning, savings, or checkbook can bring it back. And that’s yesterday. Time spent. Once time is gone, it’s gone. What happened yesterday can’t be changed. The only things that can change are today Read More…
Minimum needed knowledge
Is it better to know a lot about a few things, or a little about a lot of things? It depends on who you are and what you do. A server or bartender at a restaurant better know a little bit about all the wines by the glass. It’s an easy quiz to give them. Read More…
How to be a Wine Leader
There are very few Wine Leaders out there. There are a ton of wine managers, and in the scope of this idea a wine manager is defined as somebody who controls, regulates, checks on, and makes happen the flow of wine through the commercial transactions of our business. Most wholesale reps, retail buyers, restaurant buyers, Read More…
Connect your wine to something bigger and greater
Of course you think the wine you’re selling tastes better than the competition. And guess what? That doesn’t really matter. Playing the game of “mine is better than that” is a fool’s game because the rules can change constantly (via personal opinions). Would you throw money on the table in Vegas if the rules constantly changed based Read More…
Quiz: What are you selling?
Really, what are you selling? Think about this. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not wine. Honestly. It’s also not service. It’s also not your expert advice. So what are you selling? You’re selling the emotion attached to the sale, not the final product. The product is secondary. You’re selling satisfaction. If you approach your day Read More…
And what if the wine sucks?
If you’re in the position of wine sales (which does not just mean wholesale or winery level, but also restaurant and retail … anywhere in the chain of movement toward the end consumer), how do you handle the wine that truly sucks? I’m not talking about a single bottle that is chemically flawed. I’m talking Read More…
Wine Markup, Margin, and Profit
The benefit to learning even the slightest amount about finances and bookkeeping is that is puts you far ahead of the average person in the wine business. The two terms that are used incorrectly most often are markup and margin. I’ve heard them used interchangeably by sales reps, and I’ve heard them mixed up by people Read More…
Why do you buy a new wine?
This one goes out to the buyers at restaurants and retailers everywhere. It’s a simple question with far reaching implications, and one that I want you to think very carefully about. Why do you buy a new wine? The quick and cheap answer is “because it’s good” which means nothing because everybody’s definition of good Read More…
Never leave an unopened bottle
Wholesale wine reps often make a big mistake, usually at the end of the day or with the excuse of ‘being too busy’ or ‘I’m just trying to be efficient.” They leave an unopened bottle with a customer, saying “check it out when you can … it’s awesome.” This doesn’t work. This isn’t selling, it’s giving. Read More…
Fewer choices make for greater sales
Sheena Lyenar’s 2009 book The Art of Choosing is a must read for anybody in the wine business. Her research focuses on the intersection of science and emotion when it comes to decision making. The “Jam Study” is a key part of her research. During this experiment, tables were set up at a busy premium Read More…
Effective staff training: What servers don’t need to know
If you’re training the service staff at a restaurant on your wines, it’s just as important to figure out what they DON’T need to know as what they DO need to know. The amount of information a server needs to know on an average night is pretty daunting and changes constantly. What is out of Read More…
Wine Tax Deductions: Personal Library and Online Subscriptions
As a professional in the wine business, don’t forget about your personal library. All wine magazine subscriptions, books, maps, learning materials, etc. are legitimate tax deductions*. Also add the cost of online subscriptions and professional affiliations (if you’re part of the Guild of Sommeliers, or if you have a WineSearcher account). Save those receipts, make Read More…
Monday challenge: The bottom of your list
This week’s Monday challenge is aimed at wholesale sales reps. One week from today it’s August. That means we’re in the deep part of summer when beer sales are the focus for most retailers, and major wine list changes are low on the priority list for most restaurants. So what to do this week? Aim Read More…
Do you really want the main stage?
Here’s a fabulous story from Moby’s new autobiography Porcelain, talking about playing Lalapalooza in 1995. Lalapalooza in those days ran two stages, with the primary and bigger acts on Stage One and a handful of relative unknowns on Stage Two. Moby was booked for the second stage, which “had made me feel like a techno Read More…
How to conquer Impossible!, How?, and Yeah … Right
It is entirely within the realm of possibility to double your business in the next 12 to 24 months. Honestly. There is a scary side, however, and this scary side brings up excuses and prevents most people from ever thinking they can do this. For wine retailers, the first excuse usually comes down to physical Read More…
Missing the Free Throw
A basketball player steps up to the line. This is no ordinary basketball player. He’s a professional, paid millions of dollars to put the ball through the hoop. There is no defense. Nobody attacking them. It’s a free throw. And how often will they miss? On average in the NBA, over the last two decades, they Read More…
First thing: Tell people about the wine
Time and time again I’m amazed how effective the most basic “system” in wine sales truly is. Tell people what you’re going to pour for them. Pour it for them. Tell people what you poured for them. It’s a simple derivative of a common pattern in communications, but it’s surprising how often it’s not done. Read More…
Welcome to the last half of July
We are entering the deepest part of summer: the six week stretch ahead of SOND (September, October, November, and December … which is traditionally when half of the total wine sales happen in the United States). That means two things: Time to start planning. Get out the calendar. Halloween, the presidential election, Thanksgiving, holiday shopping, Read More…
Bookstores vs. Wine Shops
Similarities: Both have wide selections. Great variety. Both have door-opener, easy point of entry products. Both have higher end, more intellectual, more speciality products. Both have large national retailers that come into a city and seem to crush the competition and put them out of business. Then that gigantic company is suddenly on the ropes Read More…
Why do you buy from ME?
Sometimes the best questions are the easiest to ask. If you’re a wine wholesale rep, during this beer-fueled summer season take the time to dig a bit into your account’s motivations. Ask your customer: “Why do you buy from ME?” By asking this question you’ll break some ice, learn about your wine buyers in a Read More…