REthink Wine Blog

This past Friday we hosted our annual Direct Symposium at COPIA in downtown Napa. This was our 5th year hosting the event, and the turnout was strong, with an energetic and engaging list of speakers on the agenda.  

Our theme for this years’ Symposium was Innovations for Today’s Wine Marketplace. Ted Jansen, Inertia’s President & CEO, opened up the day with a thought-provoking talk on the concept of “Accidental Innovation”.

Following Ted was Gary Vaynerchuk, of WineLibraryTV fame. For those unfamiliar with Gary and his energetic style, visit his site… you’re sure to be entertained!

Breakout sessions followed the keynotes – and this year we tried something a little different. We asked attendees to vote on their topic of interest. Based on those results, we lined up the following breakout sessions and speakers:

Direct Shipping Compliance
Speakers Matt Mann, Mike Brown and Sheri Hebbeln of Inertia took the audience through the basics of compliance management and how a topic which appears on the surface to be overly complex and confusing, can actually be simple; especially with the right tools to help manage. Compliance is a necessary endeavor for anyone engaged in  Direct Shipping in the U.S.; Inertia’s FREE REThink Compliance tool was designed to provide a solution to help ease the burden of managing a winery’s compliance needs. The audience was walked through REthink Compliance, and lots of conversation was sparked.

Website Merchandising
Inertia’s Carole Loomis and Angela Sanchez led a session on ways to manage and optimize a website for greatest sales. With this years’ holiday season just around the corner, they led participants in a discussion on preparing for OND (October November December).

Marketing Through Online Social Networks
One of the more popular sessions was led by Joel Vincent (Open Wine Constortium) and Gary Vaynerchuk (WineLibraryTV). Paul Mabray sat in on the session, as well, during an extensive question & answer period. The audience – and speakers! – were in no rush to head out for the lunch break, diving into questions on everything from how to engage in social media, through to whether or not there is a place for PR management in the social space.

Selling Direct to Trade
Andrea Johnston of Inertia, moderated a session on the nuances of selling direct to the trade across the U.S. A line up of panelists contributed input from various perspectives; John Hinman, from Hinman & Carmichael, Gillett Johnson, with International Vines, Inc., Cristin “Moxy” Castro from Impressa, and Mitch Schwartz, VP of Sales for Inertia. Conversations touched on everything from how best to engage with, and sell to, the trade, to leveraging Inertia’s Direct-to-Trade program to legally and effectively open new markets and engage with new customers.

Wine Blogging
Tom Wark, of Fermentation, Wark Communications and Specialty Wine Retailers fame, led a very popular session on Wine Blogging. On the heels of the morning session in which Gary V. expounded on the need for all attendees to get into the blogging habit, lots of attendees packed into this session to get more information on how and why. Panelists included Mike Duffy, of the Winery Website Report, Julie Ann Kodmur and Deb Harkness, of Good Wine Under $20.

Website Design
Four speakers brought perspectives on website design to their audience; Ben Chinn of Inertia, Aaron Rutledge & Tom Ajello of POKE/NY, and Dom Moreci of Plumbline Studios. Attendees learned how to design their websites for best user experience, and ultimately the greatest sales. 

Finally, John Hinman wrapped up the day with his Keynote speech on how a dynamic wine marketplace in which consolidation is occurring in nearly all aspects of our industry, is creating a snowball effect for which it’s time to decide whether you batten down or ride the wave.

A special thank you to all of our sponsors:
Platinum Sponsors: Wine Tasting Network & Copper Peak Logistics.
Gold Sponsor: Card in the Box
Silver Sponsors: Wark Communications, Open Wine Consortium, Plug n’ Pay, POS Resources, & Payment Logistics, LLC

Thank you as well to all those who attended. Your participation and engagement in lively conversation with the speakers was appreciated by all. We look forward to seeing you all again next year – in the meantime, Inertia is continuing to expand on the workshops and training sessions that we hold throughout the year. If there are topics you are most interested in discussing, or speakers you’re interested in hearing from, let us know. Contact us at marketing@inertiabev.com.
 
Cheers!

At Inertia we believe that we’ve built the most complete online solution for selling direct to the consumer (and to the trade)—and we’re constantly dreaming up new ideas to enhance that solution even further. We’ve been busy building the next generation of our software platform, and so this is an exciting time for our company and its future.

However, as good as our solution is (and will continue to be in the future) we recognize that the typical winery has employed a variety of other technologies to help them run their business. These include solutions for vineyard, production and warehouse management, tasting room point of sale, and accounting/financial reporting, among others. Throw in the need to manage a wine club, perform state compliance, and send order ship notices to a third party logistics company (like WTN or Copper Peak Logistics) or a common shipping carrier (like FedEx or UPS), and you have a complicated web of data and processes. Each system has its own set of data and operational processes to manage.

Given the complexities of the individual systems, and the underlying data required to support them, many wineries are forced to resort to systems integrations patched together by the various software vendors—or even worse, manual processes to move the data from one system to the other. It’s quite a dilemma for most wineries, but it’s something Inertia has dedicated itself to helping our clients manage. My job is to live and breathe integration—to facilitate connecting our core systems with the technology of as many other partners as possible. Our goal is to reduce the burden wineries face in managing their technology—to allow them to focus more time on their core business—making and selling wine.

The dilemma of technology integration reminds me of something I’ve recently encountered in a hobby of mine, astronomy. While I’ve owned telescopes for many years, all of my experience has been in visual astronomy—out under the stars, looking through the eyepiece of the telescope. Until recently, taking pictures through a telescope was a difficult and daunting task, often requiring years of experience and dedication to produce acceptable results. The introduction of digital cameras (and CCD cameras specially designed for astronomy) has changed all that. Now, fantastic results can be obtained more quickly, and with a less steep learning curve.

My journey down the road to astrophotography began when I started renting telescope time via a network of remotely operated telescopes called Global Rent a Scope (GRAS), www.global-rent-a-scope.com. These telescopes, housed in remote desert locations in New Mexico, Israel, and Australia, are controlled completely via the Internet. This is very similar to the process professional astronomers use to control the world’s most powerful telescopes, like the University of California’s Keck Observatory in Hawaii, or the Hubble Space Telescope.

It’s simple. Buy telescope time with your credit card, select the appropriate telescope, choose the celestial object you want to image, provide parameters on the length and types of exposures—and poof, within a few minutes you have a series of raw images you can turn into a beautiful photograph. It’s amazing. Specialized software, like Photoshop, is required to process the raw images—but the techniques for doing that are within reach of the amateur astronomer. And despite their relatively small size, valuable science can be performed with these telescopes, and some ambitious amateurs are assisting professional astronomers with their projects. The most obvious example is searching for NEO’s (near earth objects) which one day might collide with the earth.

After using the GRAS system for awhile I was completely hooked.  Thinking it would be more fun to do my own CCD imaging, I quickly decided to buy the equipment necessary to do it in my own backyard. It’s certainly been an adventure. While I recognized this going in, I quickly encountered first-hand the complexities of the entire process that the GRAS system had hidden from the end-user.  Those complexities are many, including pointing a telescope at a very small patch of sky, focusing the CCD camera (which is much more sensitive than the human eye), accurately tracking the celestial object for minutes (or hours) as the earth rotates, managing an array of colored filters, dealing with a mess of wires and cables, etc. Whew!

The folks at GRAS have done what we at Inertia are striving to help our clients do—reduce the complexities of managing an interconnected set of technologies. They have stitched together into a seamless interface an amazing array of astronomical hardware and software. The “manual” processes that I must do now with my own CCD imaging rig, e.g. pointing the telescope, focusing the camera, etc, are akin to those manual business processes that many wineries now must do to operate their own array of systems.

My own personal goal is to help Inertia build a technology infrastructure that can help hide the complexities of the needed system integration from the winery—and to forge strong and cooperative relationships with other like-minded companies. We know that the wine industry in general and our own clients specifically, have been asking for solutions to connect their systems, and believe me, Inertia is listening!

Yup, you betcha! Here’s the deal, if you’re learning to play golf, have played in the past, or play regularly, you’ll understand. Maybe! Recall how frustrating the game can be? Not to mention humbling? How inconsistent your swing is? Or, my favorite, you “think” from time to time that you’ve figured it out because you shot at or below your handicap. And then, the very next time out, you shoot 20 strokes worse!! Yeah, you get it. Sorry for the bad memories!

Now how about those direct wine sales of yours, great brand, good purple, and little or no direct sales. Hmmm, you try and try, sometimes too hard, just like your golf swing. You thought you had all the pieces in place. You try harder and it gets worse right? Back in my college baseball days, one of our coaches had a little saying, he’d say “Try easier”!

Well, let’s see, do we try easier, work smarter, do we keep our head down longer? I’d say we try and do all the above. It has to do with the approach, attention to detail, proper equipment and most of all, consistency! Like in golf you have equipment or “tools” available to sell wine direct online. The equipment you use in golf can make or break your swing, or at least your swing potential and the tools or equipment you use to sell wine direct can also make or break your potential!

At Inertia we Humbly recommend a custom (club) fitting to The ReThink Engine, your very own tool box full of “Best Practice” gems to help increase your direct sales online. Yeah, that was a plug, but I am part of the sales team after all!

No practice and your swing will be inconsistent, and you can expect poor scores. Same for Direct Sales. Poor setup and a weak foundation, and your sales will be inconsistent and possibly nonexistent.

On the golf side it’s your grip, your stance and your setup to the ball. Then, it’s a smooth take away and backswing, a nice transition and a smooth downswing through impact. For Direct sales it’s the same, your grip on the reality of the industry, your stance on how you’d like to manage your Direct Sales, and then your setup to help create more Direct Sales. And remember, all of this requires the proper tools, right? For reference it’s tod@inertiabev.com.

Selling wine direct is like when you first learn to play golf. The biggest mistake new golfers make is not keeping their head down, they tend to look up and see where the ball has gone before they hit it. When wineries first start selling wine direct they have the same problem. They want to see how much wine they’ve sold, before they actually build the foundation, remember grip, stance and setup? Later, as a golfer develops, he/she tends to focus too more on their score, and not on the swing. If you concentrate on making a good swing every time you strike the ball, the good scores will come.

By the way, if you happen to be a golfer and also have an interest in our help with your Direct Sales, feel free to sign up for our annual symposium, party and golf tournament. It’s coming soon, this Friday is the symposium and party at Copia and Saturday, at the Chardonnay Golf Club is when we “grip em and rip em”! Interested? Go here rsvp@inertiabev.com and let us know. I hope to see you there!

Happy Direct Selling and “Keep em on the short grass”!

Inertia’s 5th Annual Direct Symposium will take place on July 11th, from 9-3:30pm at COPIA in Napa. This year, we’ve expanded our agenda to include interactive sessions on topics chosen by attendees. Last month, we released a survey on what we were hearing from our clients and industry partners as the ‘hottest’ topics in the direct industry. Topics included:

• Website Design
• Website Merchandising
• Selling Direct to Trade 
• Direct Shipping Compliance
• Allocation Program Management 
• Wine Club Management
• Wine Blogging
• Online Social Networks

We asked attendees to ‘vote’ on their topics of choice for breakout sessions at our July Symposium. The results were tallied, and we have our winners… 

• Selling Direct to Trade: Access. Control. Sales. 
• Direct Shipping Compliance: A Dynamic Marketplace. Your Options.
• Wine Blogging: Brand Building, Customer Loyalty and Sales
• Online Social Networks: Consumer- to-Consumer, Peer-to-Peer Engagement
• Website Design: Designing for Best User Experience & Greatest Sales
• Website Merchandising:  Sell More Online 

Our Symposium agenda will allow attendees to participate in two breakout sessions of their choice: One in the morning, one in the early afternoon. During each of these sessions, panelists will lead an interactive discussion with the audience around a designated topic. Based on several workshops which we led earlier in the year, we know our clients are eager to engage and look forward to some good interaction.

Because of limited space in each of our breakout sessions, we request that attendees reserve their spot in the session of their choice as soon as possible. Signups will be taken the day of the Symposium, at check in, but to ensure you get a seat in the topic of your choice, send your request through today (along with your RSVP if you haven’t already!) to rsvp@inertiabev.com.

See you in July!

With the holidays right around the corner, we would like to present every opportunity for you to catch your customer’s eye. It’s still busy in the tasting room, harvest is still going strong and there are many other things tearing you away from updating your website.

We are here to help. One of our partners, Givens and Company, creates gift baskets centered around wine. You can place your wines in a lovely holiday basket and increase the chance of a holiday purchase. Remember, the sooner you prepare for holiday traffic the faster you can make those holiday sales. Not to mention the value you provide your customers by making it possible to share the wine they love with others. The best part of the Givens and Company gift basket option - you have someone to help you all along the way. All of the details will be worked out for you, contact patty@givegivens.com for more details. You can also visit http://ibg.givensandhalpern.com for a full selection of the gift baskets that are available.

Gift items are attractive items for corporate gifting! If you’d like more ideas for holiday promotion or are interested in hearing more about gift options, please contact your Client Development Manager.

Summer always brings wineries a multitude of visitors, making it no problem getting people to visit the tasting room. And of course, by adding these happy vacationers to your online database you can market to them again after they’ve returned home. But, what about your online store? Usually the chaotic ebb and flow of the tasting room leaves the winery website on the back burner. There is an easy way to continue to build your online business throughout the summer (and all year around), without compromising your time. Find affiliates that are willing to send you business, in return for a portion of the sales they help you generate. These third party businesses (business development partners) are out there just waiting to join with a winery like you. The only challenge – making sure they’re the right fit!

Do they bring you new customers?
One of the most valuable services that a new affiliate can bring to you is a new customer. This can be collected in a number of ways. Some partners will direct customers through their site and onto yours to purchase wine. This is usually in return for a fee for both a new customer and a new sale. Other partners are equally valuable, but may only be able to pass you customer information without the sale. This requires your follow-up to verify contact information so that you can market to them again in the future.

Do they bring you increased revenue?
Your number one priority is your bottom line. Any business development partner should be evaluated on the amount of revenue they can bring your business. If they’re not making you money outright or via new customers – what’s in it for you? Be sure to evaluate their sustainability over time. Beware of affiliates who have not thought out their business model beyond the first 90 days.

What value-added services do they provide?
Does your new partner provide you benefits other than customer information or increased revenue? If the answer is yes, and you receive these benefits in addition to one or both of the above, there is a good chance this can be a very fruitful partnership. If they are providing value-added services instead of revenue or customers, you need to weigh the cost of the partnership against your return on investment.

Do they increase your brand exposure?
For a relatively new wine brand, or maybe just relatively new to the online world, increasing your brand exposure will be key. Getting your name and your message out to the masses is going to be essential in increasing the amount of traffic to your website.

Stay in tune with the sales channel over the busy summer months by allowing the Internet to work for you. Build relationships that will last and can continue to grow and benefit both parties. There are many budding entrepreneurs out there who are affiliates just waiting to be discovered.

We are pleased to announce our two newest wine club partners - VinoAmigo and MamaCork - who handpick wines and process wine club shipments from our collection of brands every month.

VinoAmigo is a Total Access Wine Club that is as much about the wineries as it is about the wines.  Their mission is to deliver you the EXPERIENCE of the wine country and give you a taste of what it’s like to be the guest of honor at a NEW winery every month…lucky for you, they’ve got wineries lining up to give VINOAMIGOS Total Access to the Vino Experience.

MamaCork is a new wine club for women focused on discovering boutique wines, sharing opinions, learning about the nuances of wine, and helping all of us identify our own palate through the opinions of six sassy, wine loving “mamas” who write compelling tasting notes online every month to compliment the wine shipments.

VinoAmigo is officially kicking off with a launch party next week at The Stave Wine Lounge and will feature the Dutcher Crossing Winery as well as a few cameos from the ladies at MAMACORK.  Join us at 6 p.m. on May 4th ~ 1149 First Street in Napa.  We hope to see you there.

At IBG we use the word ‘partnership’ frequently. The most obvious occurrence of the word comes from our business development team which has a host of partnerships in place or in the works in an effort to bring more opportunities for our clients to increase their direct sales channel.

A more unique application of the word comes when we refer to our winery partners. We talk about our clients in such a way since we do consider our relationship to be a partnership in selling direct and in building and enhancing our own offering.

I recently got to see this dynamic at work with some terrific results. Michael Coffey, one of our Account Managers, hosted a wine club symposium. He invited several of our wine club clients from different types of wineries to get together and talk about the challenges of running their clubs and how our tools help, as well as where they can be improved. Ideas were shared and we gained invaluable insights which will inform our next significant software upgrade.

Additionally, as one particular idea was tossed out and discussed during the session, those of us participating from IBG all took note and immediately determined that we wanted to address the enhancement sooner rather than later. Our technical team worked hard to sneak in the item into the release that we had coming out in just a few days. We hope that the feature makes the next club runs for many of our winery partners just a little bit smoother.

I want to thank those who attended and generously gave their time and shared their experiences in the spirit of cooperation and true partnership: Ed Gomez from Russian Hill, Emily Barouch at Titus Vineyards, Anne Matson from Vino Con Brio, and Tristan Fairbanks of Bourassa Vineyards.

Also, my thanks go out to the many clients who were unable to join us but who took the time to send in their thoughts and requests ahead of time. I appreciate all our partners’ on-going participation and sense of ownership of what we are creating together. Please keep the ideas coming!

We’re happy to announce the launch of our newest business development partner, BoutiqueWineCellar.com. Its founders have created a social marketplace for consumers to browse, review, and buy boutique wines. BoutiqueWineCellar.com has chosen to partner with IBG to provide users with not only great service, but fabulous wine. The Marketplace provides consumers with one web address for browsing, reviewing, and buying boutique wines directly from the wineries that produce them.

Our clients were given the opportunity to be featured on the boutiquewinecellar.com site for its commencement. An intense screening of the wines yielded many small-lot wines with limited quantities to be sourced on the Marketplace. Just try to find them somewhere else! Membership is free, and allows registered users to write reviews and share wine recommendations with friends, the wineries, and one another. In addition to buying wine, and voicing their opinions about wines they have tasted, the Marketplace provides wine-makers and consumers the chance to interact virtually, where distance may have otherwise prevented the opportunity.

BoutiqueWineCellar.com provides Member Wineries with increased sales in their direct-sales channel, as well as escalated brand awareness. Member Wineries will have the ability to add wines at any time allowing for real-time inventory display to the Marketplace. After a wine is submitted to the Marketplace, it goes on display for consumers to discover, review, recommend, or buy. All sales are transacted within each winery’s online store, so all customer information is captured and stored with the winery.

To see the site in action, please visit http://www.boutiquewinecellar.com

Cheers!
IBG & The Boutique Wine Cellar Team

One business wine blog unfortunately leaves the blogosphere but fortunately one comes to replace it. Our preferred fulfillment partner, Wine Tasting Network has chosen to enter the public arena to give tips about fulfillment and direct sales (much I am sure comes from their parent company, 1-800-FLOWERS). Knowing how smart Chris Edwards and Greg Christoff are, I know this will be a blog for wineries to check. You can find it at:

http://blog.wtnservices.com/