Areas of Practice
Distributor / Broker vetting and selection
Distributors come in all shapes and sizes across the US. Do you need a large full service distributor or would your brand(s) be better suited with a small specialty distributor? Knowing what competitors are in their book, the accounts that they service as well as their ability to train and retain their people are where we can help.
PRICING STRATEGY AND TACTICS
How much money are you making per case of wine sold? How about my distributor partner? What is the profit requirement of various retailers as well as restaurants? Are these benchmarks different around the country? These are not answers to guess at. Having a well structured pricing strategy is critical to your companies success. This is the foundation that everything flows from.
Content / sales tool creation
The last thing that you want your sales team, internal or distributor to use is price as the only toll available to sell your valuable product. Can you arm them with the sales tools that allow them to create a sense of place and personality that justifies the price you are commanding? Are you keeping this material fresh and relevant?
SALES FORCE TRAINING
Training is not an event but a journey. You need to ensure that your sales people are educated both in the business of beverage alcohol as well as product knowledge. You need a staff that can work both a cork screw as well as a calculator. Having a sales process that your team follows can ensure success for you in the market.
DATA AND ANALYTICS GUIDED SALES MANAGEMENT
Do you know what you are selling, to whom, when and for how much? It is critical that you know the answers to all of these questions. This should be a seamless exercise that can be racked up at any time. This should not be considered a project. Knowing everything about how your sales occur will ensure that you are fueling the most profitable activities.
Promotional planning and Strategy
Is your wine being sold in a similar fashion from one market to the next? There is a benefit to having harmonized pricing and promotion on both depth and frequency. If your products will be sold by national accounts that are in multiple states the expectation is that you have pricing and promotional calendars that are aligned. While they need not be “spot on” duplicates they do need to be similar and defensible.
SALES STRUCTURE OPTIMIZATION
Having too many sales people is as big an issue as having too few. Knowing when to add to an organization as well as where and with what skills can pay huge dividends down the road. We can create the metrics that you would use to make those evaluations to ensure that additions to your organization are profit positive as soon as possible.
NATIONAL ACCOUNT SALES STRATEGY
More and more of the industries growth is coming out of national retailers and restaurant companies. Do you know how you are going to get your products in front of those buyers? Do you want to get your products in front of those buyers? These are decisions that you as the brand owner need to make as part of your overall route to market strategy.
Interim National Sales Management
Are you in need of a solid, experience National Sales Manager (NSM)? Is it taking you longer than expected to find that perfect person and fill that role? You may benefit from an interim NSM. Have you promoted from within only to discover that your NSM needs an experienced mentor? We can fill both of those needs. We have the experience that you can draw from to ensure that you succession in leadership is indeed a success.