Raising the bar: direct sales ideas at the WAWGG convention

Direct-to-Consumer is a winery's biggest profit margin. Find out how to take your Direct-to-Consumer sales to the next at the upcoming Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers (WAWGG) Annual Convention during the hands-on session: Raising the Bar for Direct to Consumer Sales in the Tasting Room.

This session, a three-part workshop, will be held on Wednesday, February 5, at 8 a.m. To attend you do not need to be a WAWGG member or a convention attendee. The cost for this session is $55.

From leveraging your brand, to your guests, to your data, this session will teach how you can get the biggest bang for your dollar. Sometimes, the simplest way to make more money, out of the resources you have, is just by looking at things from a different perspective. Think of the 'why' not the how; shift from monologue to dialog, and focus on the data that makes the most sense; these can affect your bottom line.

The session, presented in cooperation with the WISE Academy (Wine Industry Sales Education), will help you find easy ways to improve your sales, brand awareness and customer loyalty with the resources you already have. WISE Academy Co-Founder and Chairman Lesley Berglund will instruct how to find out what your brand really means and explore key ideas to get your brand message out. Other topics include identifying customer types and how to target your sales, understanding the metrics required for managing the various Direct-to-Consumer channels, and drivers for success and challenges.

In the first part of this workshop you will learn how to use your Direct-To-Consumer channels, tasting room, wine club, website and social media, phone sales, and events, as key touch points for better brands communications. Session Leader Lesley Berglund will explore where the wine industry is missing the boat on how to better leverage brands to drive more Direct-To-Consumer sales.

Not everyone is created equal, according to Berglund. When you understand your customer through wine buyer profiles and how your guests relate to your winery, you can identify your customers' needs and motivations and tailor your presentation accordingly. Figuring out who you are communicating with changes how you do so. The second part of this session is designed to help you understand the power of "positive profiling" which leads to more natural, helpful sales while at the same time increasing customer satisfaction.

The third part of this session focuses on making sure you are inspecting the metrics that really matter. This session is designed to help you understand the complete Direct-To-Consumer sales picture - you will know where to focus for improvements and understand what levers you can change to affect your bottom line.

Growers, viticulture staff, wineries, enologists, tasting room staff and marketers are invited to attend the 31st Annual Meeting and Conference, the premier educational opportunity for the Northwest grape and wine industry.