Wine And Spirit Sales Skills Do Your Customer Know More About Composite Promotions Than You?

When I was a young, rookie drinks industry salesman

, I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman by the name of Terry Wiseman, who as I recall was head of marketing at Mansfield Brewery in Nottinghamshire.

I trundled into his office to present my set-in-stone Christmas promotion proposal.

There were some very respectable brands which were available on a bakers dozen, I had some top of the range spirits on a Buy Five get One FOC and I had some others which nobody really knew what to do with but had given me a budget just in case the opportunity ever arose.

Terry told me they wouldnt work.

He warned me they would have a negative effect on sales.

He told me that most of the pubs would be paying cash for deliveries, they couldnt afford big orders, he also pointed out that if we rearranged and tweaked the promotional mechanics ever so slightly, I would benefit a great deal.

But what did Terry know.

I had been given these promotions from one of the largest wine and spirit businesses on the planet, how could they be wrong. If Mansfield Brewery didnt get the business, I would surely pick it up from another local wholesaler anyway.

In Mansfield that year I sold a pathetic seventeen cases, while the competition sold hundreds.

I didnt count on the fact that the pubs were loyal to their brewery; they bought what the brewery supplied and only what they could afford.

They werent bothered whether my brands were essentials of the festive season or not, they didnt shop around or go elsewhere they bought what they could and enjoyed an incredibly successful Christmas.

Over the next six months I learnt to listen to my customers a lot more.

I realised my role was to understand their problems and present mutually beneficial solutions.

It was to act as a business partner, not just a representative of a faceless brand owner.

The next Christmas I worked with Terry and his team to create a promotional mechanic that worked for everyone involved.

We worked out that a mixed case of all my brands would accumulate a promotional budget of just under ten pounds per case.

That meant that the landlords could order my mixed case of essentials without becoming overstocked.

When they did, they received a high street gift voucher to help buy their good lady wife a Christmas present.

Which meant that when the sales team from the brewery went to sell in the promotion to the landlords, they did so knowing it was a real benefit.

The premium spirit brands also got their own six bottle case (which included a couple of back bar optic essentials) and the customer received a free bottle of wine when they purchased it, which helped the volume of those rather awkward, slow movers in my portfolio.

In January when I went to evaluate the promotion with Terry, I found that we had sold hundreds and hundreds of cases at the expense of some rather pompous, unwavering competition.

I thanked him then and Ive never forgotten the lesson or the advice.

So this year when you count up the cost and results of your busiest promotional period ask yourself these questions;

Did we just go on promotion because everyone else did?

Did the chosen mechanic actually cause a detrimental effect to possible sales?

Could it have been more successful if we had listened to our customers?

by: Chris Murray

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