REthink Wine Blog

This is the time of year when our need to make the sale is ever pressing.  How do I convert all the traffic in my tasting room to become club members?  How do I get my distributor to feature my latest vintage? How do I get the restaurant to add me to their list?  You might be surprised to know that the steps to making the sale is the same in all of these scenarios.

Step 1 - Curiosity

To make a sale you must have the customer’s attention.  To get their attention, they need to be curious.  How do you build curiosity?  It can be as simple as asking a tasting room visitor if they would like to have access to select wines.  Or you could ask the distributor if he was aware of the great press your new vintage has gotten, or even if he has tasted it.  All you are trying to accomplish here is to get the customer’s ear.

Step 2 - Trust

They are now ready to listen, but are they ready to believe.  This is the most important, and hardest step in the process.  You must build trust quickly.  If you are dealing with a long term relationship, trust has already been built.  But if you are standing in front of a trade account for the first time, you need to do something on the spot.  One technique I use is to show an authoritative grasp of pertinent information.  As an example, you are calling on a restaurant, hoping they will buy your 2005 Howell Mountain Cabernet.  You might say something like “You might have heard that 2005 was a difficult year, especially in Northern Napa (I’m not saying it was, just an example).  In our vineyard we decided to drop 50% of the fruit….”.  You then go on to explain how these actions created this exemplary product.

Step 3 - Need Assessment

Their listening, they trust you, but what do they want/need.  This is where the questions come in.  If you are talking to a tasting room visitor, questions like; where do you live, are you able to get a good selection of wine there, what is your favorite wines, do you like to entertain, do you like to try new wines, what influences the wines you generally buy, etc.  Only ask questions that you have a solution for.  “Do you like to entertain” “yes I do” “one benefit of belonging to our club is that you get great wines that aren’t available in your market, which makes for a real conversation starter. We also send food pairings and recipes with every wine”.

Step 4 - Need Addressing

I touched on this at the end of the previous section.  Here is where you make a recommendation to the customer.  You’ve uncovered through your questions that the distributor is feeling a lot of pressure from his big suppliers.  So you recommend a fun program, designed at  getting a small goal achieved, say placements in five high end restaurants, and offer to do a wine maker’s dinner.  You’ve addressed his need to not let your objectives get in the way of his corporate goals, and presented a win win solution.

Step 5 - Agreement

You’re feeling good.  You’ve developed rapport, you listened to what the customer needed, you offered a solution.  Now comes the dreaded close, ask for the order.  The trade account has tasted the wine, they love it.  You’ve established that the wine is a nice complement to the list.  Now you have to ask, “Can I send you a case to be here next Tuesday”.  If you don’t ask for the order, you won’t get it.  Do not expect the customer to offer one up, i.e. “this wine is great, send me some”.  It happens sometimes, but not often.  There are a number of closing techniques, and next month I will blog on some of them.

Remember and practice these steps, and I’m confident they will lead you to greater sales.

With hundreds of wine blogs, websites and social networking sites now concentrating on wine, one could spend an infinite amount of time trying to soak up all the wine information and intelligence needed to give you a head start and a foot up on the competition. It’s important to have a manageable collection of websites that can keep you informed and keep you learning about wine the industry without getting buried in information.

Here are a few of the resources we recommend to stay in touch with what’s happening in wine, while not getting buried:

Wine Business Monthly

This is a great site that is updated daily with articles, links to important news items, and links to blogs that focus on the wine industry. You just might want to make it your first stop on the Net on a daily basis. You can also sign up for their daily email of top news items here

Wines and Vines

Wines & Vines is America’s old trade publication for the wine industry, but nothing about it is old fashioned. The site is constantly updated with new articles and resources.

Wine and Spirits Daily

Daily Reporting on the wine and spirits market is this organization’s forte and they do it well - often breaking stories, offering analysis of important stories, conducting interviews with key industry figures and alerting readers to new research. You can go to their site daily or sign up for their daily email and have the info sent right to your inbox.

Wine News at Topix

This is an interesting aggregation site for both consumer and trade-oriented wine news. You are likely to find constantly changing articles culled from wine blogs, major wine websites, recently issued press releases and articles in major newspapers and magazines.

Inertia News

Of course, you can always keep up with the latest Inertia news by heading to our press page. There you’ll find links to recent announcements and press coverage of Inertia.

If you haven’t already found it, Ablegrape is one of the best new Web 2.0 wine tools - it is the ONLY vertical search engine for the wine industry with a very cool methodology of searching for wine information (check it out - we at Inertia are very impressed).  Please go visit the site and fill out their survey to make it better.

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”!

I have been watching and planning for what we will do for .mobi - when do we create a tool that replicates all our winery partner sites with a mobi extension? I am still not sure the answer to that question but I am thinking about it. I am also an avid Iphone user (though I hate the email delivery and can’t wait for the next version). I like to the tools that are useful on this platform in mobi format or more. Fortunately we have a new partner that extends us to the mobi side of the fence. Culination has a great model of matching food and wine and more importantly, putting it on a mobile platform to view and search easily. Kudos to Rick for leading this charge and we are pleased to be his partner.

On another note, I will be doing a theme for a few weeks and taking questions from twitter (http://twitter.com/pmabray) or from the OWC post and then taking them to the team to answer every Wednesday. Please send questions about selling or marketing wine or major industry challenges (in regards to direct) and we will put our thinking caps on and try to bring a good answer. The questions that I will try to answer before next Wednesday mostly came from Twitter:

http://twitter.com/kathleenlisson asks:
Could wineries partner/contract with a personal chef to develop recipes, answer questions on a forum on the wineries website?

Is giving customers ideas / new reasons to drink wine a part of their sales strategy?

If wineries have a mailing list, can they encourage direct sales by providing an e-recipe book of 5 - 6 wine and food pairings?

http://twitter.com/israeliwine asks:

maybe some formulas for determining your best shipping discount strategy (maybe it varies by state even)

http://twitter.com/ColeDavid asks:

How do you better sell DTT? What are the best practices?

http://twitter.com/domaine547 asks:

Do wineries get value from sponsoring celebrity events and if so do you know any who’d be interested in sponsoring wine at an LA/Celeb event on july 4?

Stay tuned next week (or hopefully sooner) for the answers and more questions. Now off to get the team to do some brainstorming.

I recently enrolled in a WSET class to try and expand my wine knowledge, and I am quickly finding out that I am not the wine novice that I once thought I was! As we breezed through the regions of Burgundy, Rhone, the Loire and Bordeaux last week I began to feel like I needed a lot more time to really start to take all of this in. Feeling overwhelmed already, I realize that we haven’t even started covering any regions outside of France! The class will cover everything from winemaking processes, soil types, weather patterns, and regional history all in the course of 6 weeks. The exam even includes a blind tasting as part of the certification process.

One thing I am finding is that you can never educate yourself enough. As much as you may think you know about wine, there is a lot out there and it is an ever evolving and expanding industry. I think that anyone who works at a winery or restaurant or consistently interacts with wineries should take the time to sign up for a class. Not only is this a great way to help educate yourself and gain credentials, but it is also a great way to meet other people who work in the industry, especially up and coming sommeliers! Not such a bad place to pitch your winery brand.

The most internationally recognized programs include Wine Spirits and Education Trust, The Court of Master Sommeliers, International Sommelier Guild, American Sommelier Association, also Society of Wine Educators, and Institute of Masters of Wine. I suggest you look into programs in your area and think about signing up for classes soon!

It’s that time of year again when students are looking for summer work and we could all use the extra help. But really, how much effort is it to manage a summer intern? It shouldn’t be too challenging if you structure it right and plan it now. Considering that I have worked as an intern and have managed many interns, I thought I would share some of my observations to help prepare for the summer. I’d love any other suggestions that you may have.

First off, what does a potential intern want?

• Experience that they can put on their resume
• The opportunity to learn new skills
• The satisfaction of having contributed to something meaningful
• Some form of compensation whether a stipend, in kind goods (rent/meals/wine), or an hourly rate. Not everyone can afford an unpaid summer and there are enough companies willing to pay, that you may miss out on a superstar if you can’t provide some type of incentive.

With this in mind, think through what you need help with and then create a “program” for your intern(s). Below are a few tips and questions to consider:

• Who will manage the intern? I’d recommend one point of contact so the intern isn’t the “catch all” for everyone. With that said, you could structure a rotation program where a different department/function manages the intern for a 2 week period. In our situation, we may have our interns rotate from Client Services to Client Development to Channel Development and then Product Management.
• Interns definitely need structure. Discrete projects are a great way to keep them interested and challenged. When I was a college intern, all too often I was asked to do filing. Woohoo! The key is creating projects that balance what needs to get done (filing or data entry) and projects that are more compelling (research on potential trade prospects or establishing an online presence for you within wine 2.0 communities). Also, ask your interns to craft a project of interest to them and have them continuously work on that and then have them write up the results at the end of the summer.
• Definitely create an evaluation mechanism to assess your interns and have them assess your internship “program.” Your written evaluation of the intern will provide a great recommendation for future jobs or internships. Their assessment of your program will help you better structure future programs if you decide to continue.

In my mind, interns are a fabulous way to offset resource constraints because they can make strong contributions and their rates are discounted. More importantly though, hosting an intern is a great way to excite someone about our industry and teach them tangible skills that will accelerate their learning. Who knows, your former intern could one day become your future employee or partner or boss! Stranger things have happened.

P.S. I almost forgot, if there are any readers out there interested in an internship @ Inertia, feel free to email me directly.

Cheers,

With the warmer weather approaching, the music festivals and summer concert series are just around the corner and the wineries in Sonoma and Napa are getting ready for the season.

Last year, I had the opportunity to sample some of the local wines along with tasteful music. It was a wonderful experience and the genre of music spanned the spectrum from classical to blues. I was pleased to find out that some of the festivals donated their proceeds to a non-profit organization that benefited charitable causes or assisted local communities. Other ongoing concerts were held weekly at the winery to help sponsor and showcase the local talent.

If you’re a winery with upcoming events, take the time to promote them not only on your website, but list them with the local entertainment guide as well. It’s a great way to reach out to prospective consumers looking for music based events. The potential to grow your customer database or club memberships from a concert series is an opportunity to develop your business and sell more wine.

Whether it is Mozart with Merlot, Chris Isaak with Cabernet, Diana Krall with a Sangiovese or BB King with a Pinot, listed below are a few upcoming events for this year that are worth checking out:

Sonoma Valley Jazz Festival
http://www.sonomajazz.org/

Music In The Vineyards
http://www.napavalleymusic.com/music/index.htm

Festival del Sole
http://www.imgartists.com/?page=festivals/napa.html

Rodney Strong Vineyards - Jazz in the Vineyard
http://www.rodneystrong.com/rodneystrong/page/concerts.jsp

Bookwalter Winery – Summer Music Café http://www.bookwalterwines.com/bookwalter/news/events.jsp

Robert Mondavi Summer Music Festival
http://www.robertmondaviwinery.com/flash/index.cfm?month=5&day=2&year=1968&x=38&y=19

Calistoga Downtown Jazz & Blues
http://www.calistogajazz.com/index_files/Page398.htm

Hey - it’s Friday and it’s time for a little business speculation. So how would high gas prices and Federal Tax rebates affect online wine sales? Can’t read the tea leaves yet, but there’s an interesting study from Harris Interactive for iCongo that provides some clues.

According to the study: “One third (33 percent) of online U.S. adults indicated they are more likely to shop online rather than in-person at a store due to the high price of gasoline.”

Sounds like good news for online wine sales to me. If sales are steady, this would translate to a shift of channels, from off-line to on-line retail. However, given wine’s relatively high shipping costs, this perceived effect may be moot. The study provides another highlight that suggests a way for wineries to take advantage of the potential shift: “57 percent of online adults said free shipping is a reason they are more likely to shop online as opposed to in a physical store”. This would confirm that running free shipping discount promos (or rather $0.01 shipping to be safe) make for a smart email campaign. Free shipping on half case order are always very effective promos in my experience.

Another heartening tidbit of this study is that “61 percent cited the ability to shop at any time as a reason they are more likely to shop online instead of in a store.” That’s really no surprise, but it confirms the steady trend of shifting consumer purchasing behaviors. The shift to online purchasing continues and for wineries to maintain strong direct sales, they must apply laser-like focus on their online sales&marketing skills. Your website really is the extension of your tasting room and can bring in more sales if leveraged effectively.

Oh, and the iCongo guys behind this study also say that rebate checks will have an effect on shopping attitudes. They found that roughly half of consumers plan on spending their upcoming Federal tax rebate on retail purchases. I personally think that buying a case of good age-worthy cabernet (or a stellar Kabinett) would be a good long term investment for those rebate dollars.