In vino, veritas

David Rosen. Photo: Stephanie KrellHigh-end clients, a huge universe of prospective buyers, an 80 percent referral rate and a half million in sales. Oh, and lots of wine.

Sound good? It should – David Rosen is a personal wine broker, and he’s built a solid database of clients across the country by sticking to the fundamentals of solid sales: taking good notes, listening and always looking for an opportunity.

“Most people don’t know that such a thing exists,” he says of his lofty title. “It’s about as pretentious a job title as anybody could actually have.”

In fact, he doesn’t drive a Bentley or wear expensive suits. He lives in Cleveland and spends most of his day on the phone, selling. He flips wrong numbers, pursues celebrities for fun and even successfully sold to a guy in the locker room at the gym while they were both au naturel. He was recently featured in Inc. magazine, which has helped his sales, too.

“There’s people in any industry who complain they don’t have any clients, but then they don’t work on getting new clients,” Rosen says. “The phone’s not ringing, I don’t understand!”

Lawn & Landscape caught up with Rosen (for coffee) to learn more about how he sets up his cold calls, how he got such a high referral rate and if he really closed a deal in the buff.


What’s your process for an initial cold call?
Each call is very different. I don’t do as many of those these days, even though I love them. Some cold calls for example, I would target someone I think would be fun to call. More often than not, you can find lots of publications on our industry – bulletin boards and forums and blogs and stuff. Do a little Google research and track them down.

The cool thing about cold calling that way is, if you know a little bit about them – you can find out if they’re members of a local wine club, Rotary. But there’s always that balance between how much time to spend on research, which can sometimes be a good excuse for people to not get on the phone – planning to plan. Stop preparing at some point and just get on the phone. 
 

Then what?
Keep notes of objections. Find out what people are saying that makes you stumble and fall down, that makes a call unsuccessful, so each time it keeps happening, you have something to come back to.

Do you record your calls?
Earlier, I would. That way I could hear what I really sounded like. People would be amazed what they actually sound like. Part of the problem, though, is, depending on your personality some people hear what they sound like and they get so self conscious that it messes them up. The main thing you want to do is make sure you’re speaking slowly.
The biggest thing people do is talk really fast. I’m also saying the same thing 10, 20 times a day. How do you do that and not sound like a robot, or sound bored with yourself? One way is to use your hands – I just put pauses in the middle of nowhere. Because, when you say something over and over again, you tend to forget that someone’s hearing you for the first time.

I suggest people call their own voicemail, give your own pitch and see what it sounds like.

Sometimes a new broker will come on and they’re all technically oriented, but sometimes technology will get in your way. Cell phones for sales calls? Bad, bad, bad.


OK, so now you’re on the phone and talking …
I advise people, make a list of salient points: What are your differentiators? Why would someone buy from you? Why would they want to work with you? Why should they?

In the beginning, make sure you have that list available to you. Literally, right in front of you.

You want to make sure during the conversation that you hit those things, but the other is, it’s also a very good vehicle for when you get objections on the phone – you want to really hear the objection, find a little nugget in there that will allow you to then take it back over to one of these points. Let them know, ‘Yeah, I hear what you’re saying about this. As a matter of fact ...’ Now you’re back driving the conversation, but you’ve also hit some of your salient points.

I have a pitch that I use, and I’ve said it eight bazillion times. When you’re young, you need to write it down. You have to know your personality. If you’re reading that thing, you have to really make sure you don’t sound like you’re reading it. That just takes practice.

Sometimes I would advise people to make bullet lists, instead of a paragraph. Learn the pitch, then throw it away.Find a way to describe it like you’re having a conversation, like you’re talking.


I would imagine your universe of potential clients is smaller than in other industries.
No, it’s huge. It’s almost limitless, because when we’re dealing with individual folks, and wines that can go from ten bucks to hundreds of dollars. The trick really is just reaching people, just finding them, because people don’t know such a thing exists. And if I have one client at a law firm who likes what I do, there are 10 other lawyers at that firm.

How do you work referrals?
A significant number of my sales are from referrals. The trick is finding the right point, an appropriate point to ask for referrals. I tend to think – and it’s not a cold hard rule – generally when they’re about ready to buy for the third time.
I’m not shy, but at the same time, I look at the long-term strategy, and I also look at their comfort level. I tend to deal with a fairly educated, well-to-do clientele – not everybody’s wealthy by any means – but they’re pretty smart people and they’re getting bombarded all the time.

I’m a coin-operated sales guy; that’s my living. But I’m in it for other stuff. I believe very strongly in the beauty of establishing a relationship, letting these people know, ‘If you don’t do business with me, I won’t survive, and I appreciate that you’re doing it.’

I’ll ask for referrals constantly in bazillions of different ways. But someone who’s brand new, I think after the second order, you know they really like it, you know they’re in. That’s the time you ask. And you keep lots of notes. Make sure you keep good notes, so you know when you asked. Because if you ask too often, you’re going to be a completely annoying pest. If you don’t ask enough, you’re missing opportunities.

What’s your advice on how to best set up a sales system?
One thing I do advise against is getting contact management software. They tend to be massively overkill, and can be more intimidating to run and set up than they are a benefit. I’ve not been an early adopter of technology, but I kind of like setting up my own thing.

What’s really critical is keeping track. You can always do the 3-by-5 card file if technology is daunting to you. Otherwise, you can fairly easily work out of Excel, but you really want to know who you’re prospecting and your customers.

The cool thing about data, whether you’re writing it on a 3-by-5 card or putting it in a computer is you can create a field, when you last spoke to someone. When’s a time to call them again, and keep them on cycles so you don’t miss opportunities. Then dedicate x number of hours in a day to talk to clients. It doesn’t matter what the system is. Have a system. 
 

What’s your system of managing all that information? It’s one thing to collect all these data, but how do you analyze it and use it?
Keeping track of it is the key. How you parse it and break it down, part of that is intuition and part science. What I did is create a database in Microsoft Access. It’s very easy for someone with a little bit of geek in them. Some people start with Excel and put contact information in there. Every data field can port pretty easily over to Access. Each field – name address phone – will then become a database field. Access has a database table with different categories and records, you can then take a blank screen and drag different fields in there. There’s lots of room for notes from conversations and calls. I categorize and break down different wine varietals that people tend to like or buy, and their thoughts on those. There are categories on favorites. Just right there, I have conversational notes, I have varietal notes, I have specific winery names.

I use keywords for myself that I use for search terms. If they throw out a word – like a chardonnay is yummy. Yummy is not a technical term, but it applies, so when I’m talking to them six months from now, talk about yummy chardonnays. I won’t talk about oak and butter and cream – this one is just totally yummy.


Did you really pitch a guy in the locker room?
Oh, yeah. That’s absolutely true.
 

The author is editor of Lawn & Landscape. Send him your best sales stories at cbowen@gie.net.

Want to hear more from Rosen on his sales approach – or want to pick up a mixed case? You can reach him at  877-CAL-WINE (877-225-9463) or David@GroveStreetBrokers.com.