You can put grapes into a bucket and set it in the sun and eventually you will have fermented grape juice, but is that artisanal wine? No. You have a winemaking plan. You grow or purchase high quality grapes, have a clean production facility with people who help do sorting, punchdowns, pump overs, racking and bottling, along with hundreds of other decisions you make to create your wine.
If you have a plan for making your wine, why wouldn't you have a plan for selling it? You can put your bottles of wine on display in a store or tasting room and someone might walk in and pay money for it. But to ensure success, it is best to have a strategy for marketing and selling your wine.
A strategic plan for marketing and sales gives you a roadmap to work towards. You likely got into the wine business because you love wine or love making wine. But most winery owners didn't start a wine brand to market and sell it. Just as you love to make wine, others love to to create marketing and sales strategies, execute marketing and sales tactics, develop websites or print collateral or make products that tasting rooms need.
At Selling Wine Strategies, our mission is to assist wineries to meet their sales goals by helping them network, collaborate and learn from one another, and by providing strategic sales and marketing coaching. To that end, we created an online community for wine industry professionals, The Wine Pro Grapevine. It is free to join and we encourage everyone to participate in discussion threads and online events. We have also created an online Marketplace to help winery owners and managers find wine sales and marketing service providers, tasting room products, and other professionals who specialize in providing goods and services to the wine industry.
We offer Strategic Coaching to assist wineries in creating their own sales and marketing strategies. Developing a business strategy helps you outline what you want your wine business to be and where you want it to go. Within it you can define your brand, set goals and create timelines. From a strategy, you can develop an actionable marketing and sales plan. That plan will hold you and your staff accountable and commits you to achieving your goals. A strategy and a plan will help you collaborate with service providers or other industry businesses and associations by giving you something to show them and work from.
Whether you want to engage with Selling Wine Strategies, scan the Marketplace for consultants and other service providers or network in The Wine Pro Grapevine community to learn from others, having a strategy is the best way to ensure success.
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