Selling Wine Club Memberships
The majority of wineries now focus their business model on growing their direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. At the core of that strategy is converting winery visitors to club members, where they will receive extra care, focus and attention, to retain as loyal customers. Selling wine club memberships, in addition to on-the-spot wine purchases, may be at the core of your job duties.
That makes you one of the most important people in your winery since you have the closest contact with visitors. Your employer may or may not provide incentives to sign up new club members.
Regardless of the financial arrangement, if you have the goal to convert visitors to club or allocation members, consider it your daily challenge to do what it takes to successfully grow your employers club.
Understanding Sales Motivation
Why join the winery club? Many will offer the club’s deep discounts on winery purchases as the primary incentive for customers to join the club. But evidence suggest customer motivation for doing so goes much deeper.
No one buys goods just because it’s less expensive through a loyalty club. First, they must love the product and brand to be motivated to make the purchase. Loving a product or service involves myriad emotions: the wine makes them happy. It may also make them feel proud to be a member if they perceive the club as being exclusive and trendy. Clubs also offer a sense of belonging, a powerful motivator to anyone. A discount is merely a nudge in the right direction as a tactic.
Second, if your winery has limited production that is allocated for club or list members, scarcity can be a powerful motivator. Your winery may offer a few of its top wines on an exclusive basis to club members as a tactic to motivate buyers.
Another motivator may be the winery’s twice-yearly pickup parties in a stunning location. Club members may feel like they’ve discovered a hidden gem that gives them a sense of accomplishment. Others may be motivated by other goodies available for sale only to club members.
Motivation to buy is most often a combination of many appeals, from the scarcity of the goods to the perks of various loyalty programs. Being treated well is a powerful motivator, which is where your exemplary hospitality skills come into play. Now for some strategies you can employ…
Welcome to the Family!
Wine club members are made to feel like part of the family when winery owners, winemakers and staff get to know them and greet them like old friends at the various club events throughout the year. It’s great fun for wine lovers to be “insiders” who get a look at the Great and Powerful Oz behind the curtain! Inclusivity is a powerful motivator!
At the small, farm-like Tres Sabores winery in the Napa Valley, members of the “Wine Society of Tres Sabores” are treated like close friends. I watched the owner/winemaker, Julie Johnson, greet a group of club members as they arrived to pick up their allotments. She stopped what she was doing and came out to hug them and chat about news of the wine year.
Spin tales of club events that you’ve attended, and make them sound irresistible. I recall stories of how a winery owner played the saxophone with the jazz band, and how a Wild West party involved everyone wearing cowboy boots and hats. Some wine clubs offer wine-themed cruises, and farm-to-table feasts right in the vineyards.
Questions and concerns you may get from guests who are considering the wine club:
- “Can I choose what wines I want in the (monthly, semi-annual) shipment?”
- “Do wine club members get additional case discounts?”
- “Can I bring guests to the club events?”
- “We already belong to three other wine clubs. I’m not sure we’ll be back here to go to the member events.”
Making membership available is one of the nicest things you could do for your visitors. By letting them know about the benefits of your wine club, you are doing them a favor. As they taste through your wines, they will be weighing the value benefit to joining your club. They can’t make that evaluation unless you let them know about their options.
Simply placing a card in front of them with the club benefits printed on it isn’t enough. Many come to visit to decompress from the stresses of daily worklife, and they may not want to be reading winery written material. Tips to smooth over your offering:
- Don’t just hand a wine club brochure to your guests. Offer a special invitation to join your winery family!
- Make this a personal invitation that will make your guests feel important, cared about, and included in an exclusive group. Always make the offer, saying, “I invite you to join our family of wine lovers! You are a perfect fit.”
- If all else fails and your guest(s) decide not to sign up for the club, ask for their contact information anyway, so that you can follow up with an email or a postcard. Offer your business card, so they can call you later for questions and for shipping.
- Wine club members may make private appointments for wine tasting. Before they arrive, be sure to research their wine-buying history. Your club members will love it when you already know what they like, and especially when you offer a chance for them to purchase the last few bottles of a particular vintage that is not available to the general public.
Increasing Member Retention
One of the main concerns at many wineries is the tendency for people to cancel their club memberships.
Keeping members in the winery family is much like how we keep our personal relationships healthy and growing. Pay attention to them! Treat them like they are special and important. Wine club managers, and often hospitality hosts and other winery employees, keep their member relationships alive and well with ongoing contact through emails, phone conversations, direct mail, and invitations.
When visiting with Ellen Reich Luchtel, co-founder of Fortunati Vineyards and Winery, I learned some ways to keep wine club relationships alive and well. Besides all their electronic and phone communications, they include a gift with every club shipment, such as lovely decanters and wine accessories. Some of the gifts are one-in-a-kind, creating a lasting impression, and the thank-you cards are hand-written! The high-end members get extra-special gifts such as large-format, dummy bottles with etched logos. for display in wine cellars. Ellen told me that this personal touch has been well worth it, making her members feel like they are her number one priority.
St. Francis Winery in the Sonoma Valley sent me a “We miss you” email offering 30% off on my next shipment if I agreed to return to the club! Discounts can work, especially if they are in hand-written notes or a personal phone call. Also, Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles sends their members very nice, unique Christmas gifts.
The club manager at Francis Ford Coppola Winery made a personal phone call to me, saying, “You can’t be leaving us!” They also send gifts with every shipment.
When you invite people into your wine club “family,” treat them like family! Stay in touch. Give them a call, a gift, and a sense of importance. When they come into your winery, treat them like the very special people they are. Remember, it’s showtime! You’re on.
Selling Joining the Mailing List
Many visitors can be reticent about joining wine clubs for some of the reasons outlined above. If you find your customers resisting club membership, it’s time to explore their interest in joining the mailing list. Your winery likely maintains a mailing list of prospective club members whom they hope to entice to buy and/or join the club through periodic emails. It’s an opportunity to connect with visitors long after they have visited the winery.
Here are a few approaches to enticing visitors to sign up for the mailing list:
- “I know you indicated that you’re already a member of too many wine clubs. But since you’ve said you really enjoy our wines, would you like me to add you to our mailing list?”
- “Did you know you can opt out of our email list at any time?”
- “Even though you’re not ready to join the club, joining our email list is a great way to stay in the loop about our wine releases and upcoming events. Would you like me to add your email to the list?”
Remember, adding someone to a mailing list without their consent is a violation of the ICANN-SPAM ACT. Always respect your guests’ wishes and privacy.
Action Steps for Wine Club Sales
- Make a list of all the questions you have ever received about joining your wine club or allocation list.
- Review your responses to all of those questions. Which responses could be improved by tweaking your vocabulary in your reply?
- Which questions from customers do you NOT have good replies to? Work out answers with your tasting room manager or wine club manager.
- Practice your new, tweaked wording to answers about club membership before you test your new replies with customers. It’s easy to fall back into verbiage habits and may take a few “dry runs” to make your new answers roll off the tongue naturally.
- Are you tracking your conversion rate? (Number of new sign ups divided by the number of potential sign ups you’ve served.) Is that conversion rate improving?
This article is part of the email Relationship Sales Success Series. It provides a step-by-step guide to improving wine sales and wine club sign ups. While it focuses upon techniques for those working winery tasting rooms, the principles of great sales skills can apply to any industry. Sign up for the series here.
