Buying motivations
A critical question when selling wine to restaurants and retailers is this: who is really making the decisions? The wine buyer might be making 100% of…
The irony of competition
There is a grand irony in the wine business. First, the more wholesalers there are, the better it is for retailers and restaurants. It makes…
Broken locks
Embarrassing story, but a good lesson to be learned. I was recently at a restaurant. Not just any restaurant, but a well reviewed chef-driven hard to…
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…
Trust
Trust can’t be measured, so as a result it’s rarely discussed in a performance or account review. There are few numbers we can attach to…
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 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…
Natural Wines, Something Different, and Group Categorization
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the ‘natural wines’ movement lately (highly recommended is Isabelle Legeron’s new book). Not so much about how they…
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…
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…