Sonoma County’s VinoPRO wins North Bay Wine, Beer & Spirits Industry Awards in supplier category
Rohnert Park-based outbound marketing firm VinoPRO is recognized by North Bay Business Journal for the way it partners with wineries to help them grow their direct-to-consumer sales.
Describe your company: VinoPRO partners with wineries to grow their Direct to Consumer Wine Sales and Wine Club Sign Ups over the phone. We build deep long term relationships with our customers while on the phone and have sold over $100 Million dollars since 2008 for our winery partners.
What is something about your company that people would be surprised to learn?
Most would think we get told “take me off the list” a lot when we make phone calls, but people LOVE to talk about wine and hear from their winery. Our DNC (do-not-call) rate is one-half of 1%.
This can often be less than a winery’s email unsubscribe rate!
How have requirements of your customers changed in the last five years, and what has your company done to meet those requirements?
Most wineries have continued to invest in technology over the last five years in upgrading their ecommerce systems. With three full time programmers we invested and built integrations to better manage our telesales programs with the major ecommerce systems including: Ecellar, WineDirect, AMS and VinSuite just to name a few.
What are two or three projects your company is in the midst of or planning to begin within the next year?
Since COVID-19 our growth has been astronomical. We are heavily focused on hiring and training our growing sales team while building tools, systems and training to support our remote workforce.
How has the pandemic affected the business, and how has it been responding?
In March 2020 we closed our physical locations, transitioned to a permanent work from home company and never looked back. Wineries are leaning heavily on other Direct to Consumer Channels (such as the phone, online, etc) to help make up for short falls in pre-pandemic activities including events, wine tastings and restaurant sales.
How does this challenge compare with others it has been facing in recent years?
This was unprecedented. Most wineries have a few different channels where they can sell wine. With most wineries and events closed or limited, restaurants closed or limited, wineries need to have additional channels to sell wine. Once they have these additional channels setup, like telesales - they will pay off long after the pandemic is over!
How does phone-based outbound marketing play into vintners' new strategies?
Online sales will continue to grow alongside the phone channel. The average age of our buyer over the phone is over the age of 50. That number has not budged since we started this company in 2008. So while online sales are great for building a brand and capturing the millennial audience, phone sales are incremental and should be IN ADDITION to online efforts. They are targeting completely different buyers.
In addition, the phone channel will sell higher-margin and higher-priced wines since every bottle is hand sold and will not be discount focused.
