October, November and December, it’s the holiday season to sell wine. When I first entered the wine industry, OND was the standard. As I started to do calling for my clients, I quickly realized that customers were very responsive the day after Labor Day. And so it was, OND became SOND.
September / Labor Day is less than a week away! Here is why you need to start your calling now:
Summer vacation is over…
We found that our contact rate (the rate at which people answer the phone) goes up the day after Labor Day. Why? Kids are back in school, people are back at work and vacation is over. Receiving a call at work after your vacation has ended is a great feeling, taking you back for a moment to the vacation you just came away from. Wine has a way of doing that; and the thought of ordering your favorite wines and having them in the next month is a great feeling. It’s also nice to start getting excited about the upcoming holidays.
Cooling down starts…
If you start calling September 8th (the day after Labor Day), October is less than 30 days away. Depending on where you are in the country, it will start to cool down and meaning that it’s tie for you to start shipping. You may have been holding orders for customers all summer, but before you send them, give them a call and a change to add onto their existing order. If they buy and add to the order, you sell more wine and they save money on shipping. Everyone wins!!!
The sooner they get it the sooner they will drink it… run out… and order more!
Getting the wine out to the people early will allow them to try some of the wines they haven’t had a chance to try. Plus, there’s plenty of time to order more before the holidays actually get here. If they call back in and order more, there is a great opportunity to ask the customer a very important question. “Mr/rs. Customer, have you done all your Holiday shopping?” Would you like to do some now and send some special bottles to family and friends? Or better yet, are you traveling for the holidays and would you like us to send it in advance of your trip so you don’t have to carry it? There are a lot of opportunities to help your customers and calling now will allow you to take advantage of them.
Other wineries are calling their customers, are they calling yours too?
When people visit wine country, they don’t just go to your winery. I know this isn’t a surprise, but what’s maybe a surprise is most wineries are calling their customers and chances are, their customers are also your customers. Getting those calls in early will give you a head start, because usually the winery that makes contact with the customer first gets the order.
Don’t miss out, the sooner you get on it the better customer service you are providing. Let us know if you need help getting things set up!
Cheers!