Sales reps: Tips for importers and distributors on how to retain them

Sales reps are often the only point of contact a retail customer, or on-trade operator will ever have with a wine importer and distributor. But how much care and attention is given to their well being?

You may have the best sourced and priced wines available and the most competitive and well thought through wine list in the country, but where would you be without the sales people to go out and sell them to your customers? Yet, the turnover of sales reps in an average wine business would suggest that more time and trouble needs to be taken to keep them as well cared for as the wines they are selling.

It’s all about the money, money money…

It might be obvious, but ultimately the whole purpose of being a sales person it to sell, hit targets and bring in money for the business. Those who sell the most, receive more money. That’s the way the world goes round. But does it? How well are you paying your sales teams? Do you know how your payment terms compare to your competition? Do you benchmark your salaries and benefits against the competition? Do you only get round to paying an employee more once they threaten to leave? Don’t let it get to that stage. Pay them what they are worth.

My visit to meet my distiller of QUOKKA, a DTC Gin brand that I am working on launching in UK drinks market. It is aimed to be a 100% Direct to consumer brand.

For distilleries and brands interested to learn more about how to create a DTC brand, you can email me at sid@beveragetradenetwork.com. Happy to share my journey. I did create a retail brands business of building my brands from zero to 100,000 cases and now I feel the urge to try DTC. I plan to document the journey and share with brand owners what worked and what did not work in DTC marketing. The launch is planned for mid-June in London.

Handcuffs behind the back

That said it is one thing having attractive and industry-leading salaries and bonuses, it is another delivering on them. The quickest way to demotivate a sales rep is to offer them the world, and then put in so many hurdles in the way that bonuses end up becoming unfulfilled dreams. Very soon your sales reps will behave like they have millstones around their necks, which will only help drag your own business down with them.

It’s all about the leads

“Just give me some good leads,” is what the legendary Jack Lemmon pleads for in the classic Glengarry Glenn Ross, a film that tells you all you need to know about the mentality of a sales rep down on their luck. For Lemmon it was all about persuading Kevin Spacey to give him some good leads to go and try to persuade home owners to buy aluminum sidings for their house. For a wine sales rep it is about giving them enough good accounts that will give them the easy sales on which they can rely on and build the confidence and foundations to go out and pin down the more elusive customers.

It’s the wine stupid

When a wine sales person starts having trouble selling wine, the immediate response is to start questioning how good they are at selling wine. But what if it is the wine range, and the individual wines that are actually the problem? Just looking at the bottom line sales figures does not always tell the full story. Wines ranges can become unfashionable in just a matter of months if they don’t have enough of the go to, on trend wines on there. It probably would not have mattered three years ago if you did not have an Albarino, a Picpoul de Pinet or a Falanghina on your list. But pity the poor sales rep trying to sell in a range without them today.  

Part of the family

How involved are the sales reps in the big decisions being made about what wines are being kept or dropped in your next wine list review? After all they are the ones talking to customers day in day out about how well individual wines on that list are being tasted and what is in favour or not. It is surprising how far down the pecking order an average sales reps’ views are. Being out on the road can get lonely, and any steps that the main business can take to make their sales people feel involved, and included in the wider business will go a long way to keeping them happy.

Header Image: Co-Founder of the distillery Matthew Destombes (that makes Quokka) and myself at the distillery in UK. Inspired by The Quokka, the world’s happiest animal. Our goal is to bring to you a gin especially curated to celebrate, foster and share happiness.