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 showing Wine Spectator scores
  • Say yes to every in store tasting request
  • Stand in line (literally) behind other reps to kiss the ring of a buyer
  • Keep lowering your prices because a buyer pushes you to
  • Don’t let your customers know what is in stock, out of stock, or newly arrived
  • Don’t communicate about market visits or big tastings until the week before they happen
  • Dress like everybody else, carry the same bag, and pitch the same way
  • Think that everything will keep flowing as long as you clock in every day
  • Send credits two weeks after picking up wine from an account
  • Don’t ask questions.
  • Don’t push.
  • Don’t innovate.
  • Don’t come with solutions.

Watch your peers. See how they sell. Most of the time you can do better by not doing what they do.