Tools For Wineries
Posted by Paul Mabray on February 7th, 2007We follow in the footsteps of giants and in my opinion, one of the key things that reinforces Robert Mondavis greatness was his sharing of knowledge in order to help all California wineries produce better wine. He would analyze tanks, rootstocks, etc. and report his findings to all his colleagues so they could learn together and improve faster. Part of our REthink Inititiave is to help wineries rethink the way they sell and market wine. We too want to share our knowledge of best practices and even tools that help wineries improve your business. If you read my Unified Symposium presentation I spoke about KPI’s. Here is our spreadsheet that we use internally to measure our partner wineries business and help them plan. We also give it away to our wineries and now we are giving it to you. The only way you can improve your business is by planning, executing, measuring, and recalibrating. This spreadsheet consists of questions about your business (to get you thinking), how you are going to migrate your customer to evangelists (and what that will mean to your bottom line), what KPI’s you should be measuring and setting goals to exceed, and a marketing calendar across channels so you can plan properly. You can download the spreadsheet here:>>>Biz Planning.
These are tried and true items that work to manage your direct sales and marketing efforts. We’ll be releasing more tools in the next two weeks and we hope these help improve your success.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Very cool stuff. The metrics page is especially fun for a data geek like me. Good times.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Paul - nice piece and thanks for sharing the information. While I agree that collaboration is key and in the wine industry, paramount to the continued success/development of quality wines. However, while the few large consortiums of wineries continue to have the lions share of the marketplace…times are changing. Consumers continually are searching for small premium wineries and to purchase their wares. As we all know, direct is the future for many of us and levels the playing field for us little guys against the giants. The biggest issue for little, lesser developed brands is the execution component. Small budgets and small staffs leave little time to chase the broader, more significant executables. Multitasking is our MO. But how are the smaller wineries suppose to have the time to effectively execute an effective direct marketing strategy with the hang-up of day-to-day operations?
All the best,
Lando
February 13th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Sam,
(FYI to the readers - Sam Lando is one of the 10 best consumer direct experts in the wine industry and there is a strong portion of our software that came directly from interactions with Sam).
Thanks for the comments - you were one of the first to teach me that if “you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Small wineries ESPECIALLY need to spend extra time planning their DIRECT sales (both consumer and on-premise accounts). They do not need broad gaping strategies, just regular tactics of customer service and standard metrics so that they can show improvement. Understanding fully that if you devote too much time to the wholesaler tier, you actually lose money vs. devoting more attention and strategy towards direct (both consumer and on premise accounts). I can name 100’s of examples why three-tier focus is a loss for a small winery and why they should reevaluate their focus.
Another key for small wineries is the plan and focus and TOOLS that make the administrative parts of the job easier. With good tools you are able to run circles around the feet of elephants instead of spending all your time compiling data or performing data hygiene. Additionally don’t get mired in the compliance tar pit. There are many victims locked in that black hole or wasting money chasing less than 10% of their audience. There are more than enough customers in the easy states that you can build a great brand instead of wasting time and energy for the 10 customers in West Virginia. The laws are changing so much I recommend supporting legislation and waiting to see how the fall-out occurs. Instead with DTT (or Self Distribution as Steve Gross from the Wine Institute calls it) becoming more prevalent, you should be building plans on how to capitalize on that new opportunity. In fact, if you are a small winery you are already sell direct to trade - both in your local market (driving to see local restaurants and retailers and sell them your wine) and through your three tier sales (having to only stimulate the majority of your sales by market visits and ride alongs). You do DIRECT TO TRADE already, why not recoup the customer and the margin?
I know the challenges of a small winery and experience them every day but the key to success is strong tools and then “plan your work then work your plan” - this is the path to success.
Inertia - Powering the Wine Revolution
—Paul Mabray - CEO