Thursday was the last day of the Wineries Unlimited Trade Show & Conference 2012. The morning marketing session dealt with the advantages of using eWinery Solutions, a program that helps wineries with dealing with shipping wines and many other winery necessities. A few of the advantages included keeping track of customer orders and separating the list of customers into separate groups including those who attend events, those who drive red cars, or whatever the winery chooses.

In the afternoon, Paul Wagner from Balzac Communications & Marketing, presented the marketing session, “How to Sell Wine and How You Can Tell if You’re Doing it Right.” He presented two scenarios. The first was the “Home Game” and Wagner described how to create sales in the winery tasting room. Wagner noted that anything can be sold to anyone at the right time. He detailed how to greet customers to a winery suggesting that each visitor should be greeted within 10 seconds. Then he suggested questions to ask that would make the customer comfortable. Attention needs to be devoted to the customer and a rapport achieved.

During his presentation Wagner noted that millennials do not want to know about the wine, they want the stories that they can take home with them and share with others. I imagine many others would enjoy the stories.

Wagner discussed what he called the “Away Game.” This is selling wine outside of the winery to businesses. Start by making sure it’s a good time for them to talk about your wines. Let them know you will help them sell your wines.

Wagner’s presentation ended with “How do we measure success?” Wagner stressed not to just count the number of cases sold but also look at the number of meetings held, the number of appointments made and the number of repeat business. Paul Wagner has much to offer wineries to help them sell their wines.

Cheers! Kathy