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Wine telemarketers want to be vintners’ sales force

SILICON VALLEY VC, TELEMARKETER FORM PROVINO PREMIUM

SANTA ROSA – A Silicon Valley venture capitalist turned North Coast vintner and a top wine telemarketer have formed a new firm targeted at helping boutique winemakers reach out and wow high-net-worth wine lovers.

Jeff Stevenson, 44, and Richard Brucker, 54, launched Provino Premium Wines earlier this month with a dozen small-production artisan wineries and plans to double those offerings in the first three months.

But that won’t be all. They’ve brought on wine buyer Garrett Day, formerly the buyer for Michigan-based fine wine online retailer WineBuys.com and Napa’s Ambrosia Catalogue of Fine Wine, now called The Winetast-ing Network. He’s lining up not only winery clients but also providing the Provino sales force with the ability to “spot buy” whatever wines the consumer wants to keep the relationship open.

“Once you have gained the customers’ trust after sending them a half-dozen wines, they know they do not have to worry about the wines you’re suggesting,” Mr. Brucker said.

Provino plans to start with six contract salespeople who will be able to earn a stake in the firm – a motivational tool Mr. Stevenson learned in the tech world. The firm wants to attract salespeople who are passionate about wine and want to work full or part time convincing others.

Wine telemarketing has been around for years, popularized by Sonoma County’s Windsor Vineyards. However with direct-to-consumer sales becoming more of a legal option nationwide since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2005, small and mid-sized vintners are pursuing direct sales vigorously for the higher profits and closer consumer connections possible.

However, wineries also have been realizing that creating an Internet store or opening a tasting room, if the latter is even possible, doesn’t automatically translate into a surge in direct sales.

Telemarketing is gaining greater recognition as a tool in direct-to-consumer sales. The Napa-based Coalition for Free Trade, which has been a key advocacy group for opening up the U.S. to direct-to-consumer sales, will be featuring a panel discussion on telemarketing at its Direct to Consumer Symposium on May 1 and 2 at the Meritage Resort in south Napa. “Wine is too much of a visceral experience,” Mr. Stevenson said. “You have to tell people about it. It is still a person-to-person business.”

Mr. Brucker started in direct wine telemarketing at Windsor Vineyards in 1995. He left to join Ambrosia Wine Co. in Napa as sales manager and turned the company from taking catalog phone orders to contacting prospects. He left Ambrosia in 2000 for direct wine sales jobs at Jakob Gerhardt and The Wine Spectrum.

Provino acquires a client vintner’s wines and sells them. The firm plans to use a major wine logistics company to store bottles, handle regulatory compliance and fulfill orders.

Starting in sales in the early days of Netscape, Mr. Stevenson was general partner of Alcatel Ventures and continues to operate Venture Crossing for consulting and investing. He’s been a partner in the 800-case-a-year Herrarias Cellars brand since 1987 and is developing a 13-townhome development in Santa Rosa.

For more information on Provino, call 707-490-9099 or visit www.provinowines.com.

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