Blog

Let’s begin by thinking about the growing competition in the wine industry. How many wineries would you say are located within a 30-mile radius of your winery? 30, 50, 100+?!? We are living in the most competitive wine market in history, and it’s only going to continue to get tougher. Not only are we competing... View Article

The 3rd annual VingForum took place April 12, 2018 and drew another sold-out group of winery owners, managers, and other key players in the wine industry. This year’s theme “Becoming Unforgettable” produced stellar panels addressing marketing beyond the basics, wine club retention, and 5-Star Culture. Paul Mabray kicked off the day as the surprise guest,... View Article

Why VingDirect? At VingDirect, we exist to help family wineries achieve their direct to consumer goals. Whether your focus is to grow sales and wine club members, to train and educate your staff, to polish up your brand, or to take a look at your overall DTC business, we can help. We take time to... View Article

It’s that time again…resolutions and goals for ourselves and businesses. If you are the leader of your winery you have hopefully set your financial goals, national sales goals and direct to consumer goals for 2018. Done and dusted. If you’re like other winery owners, you’re going to spend some time in the first two weeks... View Article

Setting good goals is the first step on your path to success. Without a target, excellent performance and poor performance may both go unrecognized. Here are six components of a good goal. 1 – Be Specific About the Goal What do you want to accomplish? Example: Increase tasting room traffic by 50% over prior year, from... View Article

“Why are wine club members so important to your winery?” This is a popular question we like to ask at the beginning of our Converting Guests to Wine Club training. (We spend about 3.5 hours talking about it in that training, so we want to make sure our students understand why it’s such a big... View Article

Tasting Room traffic… we all want it, but do bigger crowds equal more sales and club sign ups?  How do you manage traffic and coach your team members to build relationships on the busiest days in the tasting room? We all want guests...without them we couldn't exist! We hear from our clients who are often... View Article

It’s that time again…. the curtain is about to rise on another busy summer season. Wine lovers are planning their summer trips and winery destinations are top of the list! Will you be ready for your curtain call? Are all your roles filled, the right actors in place and the stage set for a successful... View Article

We hear it just about every day. You’re in the market for tasting room employees. And not just any employees, but hospitable, motivated, and reliable employees. The market is slim, because the competition is thick. You’ve heard the stats, there are over 9,000 wineries in the United States, and that number is growing every single... View Article

We’re often asked to help a winery set up their tasting room and guest experiences or we are asked to evaluate the tasting room setup to determine if it is detracting from or contributing to a great guest experience. As more wineries pop up across the U.S., winery owners realize that they must set themselves... View Article