Labor Day has come and gone, which means the SOND holiday selling season is upon us! Now is the time of year to kick your holiday sales into gear. There is little doubt your neighboring wineries will be calling their customers this time of year, but will you? If not, you’re passing up the potential to really grow your holiday sales this year. It’s not too late to start getting organized to call, but the sooner you start the better. Here are a few key steps you must take to get your holiday calling campaign off the ground.

Who will do the calling?

Ideally, you already have staff that is comfortable on the phones and interested in doing some calling for you. Don’t forget, you can always incentivize them with some wine! But in the case that you need to hire some part time help to get it done, look for reps with sales experience who preferably have a passion for wine. If they love wine, they should have no problem calling your customers and getting them excited about your winery.

Building a Script

When calling your customers, start with and introduction and then, you should always have a reason for the call. It can be something simple like checking to make sure you’ve got the right customer info for holiday wine club shipments, or letting them know about a new vintage. The goal is always to open up the conversation and get the customer talking. Ask some probing questions and if you have customer data–perhaps wines they last purchased, this can help reps to tailor the offer to the customer. For more detail on scripting, take a look at our blog on how to build a wine telesales script.

Who to Call

Call all of your customers that have purchased from you in the last 18 months that you can ship to. Your best bet is calling your customers in the evening their time. While you may catch them at dinner, this is really a good thing because their is a good chance they’re drinking wine and need more. Only dial three times and on the third call, leave a message if they don’t pick up.

Reporting

Ideally you have a CRM to help keep customer info up to date and track the calls made. But reps can keep track of calls by hand too. Have reps track calls made and the size of their orders in $. Make sure to set goals as well. 15 calls (dials) per hour and $1000 per day is a great start. See our blog on telesales reporting for more depth on the metrics you need to be tracking.

Aside from that, just make sure your calling is TCPA compliant and that you maintain a do not call list. Only call customers that have purchased from you in the last 18 months and only call customers between 8am and 9 pm. That’s it! Good luck kicking off your 2018 holiday sales year.