Tomorrow, Karen and I head back to the States after a wonderful time in Italy. It was nice to share the trip with you, and before we leave, I want to tell you one more story with tips you can apply to your business that’ll almost instantly increase your profits.
Last night Mattia Montanari, the owner of Opera 02, the vineyard at which we stayed, took us on a private tour. He explained with great passion how real Lambrusco is made. And, by the way, it tastes completely different than the sugary stuff we get back home.
After that, we went into a beautiful room where they made balsamic vinegar. Mattia told us how this art was passed down from generation to generation and that it’s not a business for him but a passion. We tasted six-year-old to thirty-six-year old balsamic which, again, was like no balsamic I’ve ever had.
Then we all sat down, had some wine – check that – a lot of wine – and the conversation turned to business.
Mattia has started a wine club and had done many things correctly. He had three different levels. (You can guess which one we joined.) He had benefits listed and not just features and had done some other smart things. The problem was that he had very few people in the club.
I asked him how he was selling the wine club and he said that it was on his website. I explained that having it on your website is not the same thing as selling it and then gave him three different ideas for easily increasing his sales:
- Train your entire team to pitch the wine club to everyone who visits. He needs to create a sales presentation and then make sure his employees rehearse it and, most importantly use it. If you have a team, when is the last time you checked to make sure they were following your scripts? Do you even have scripts?
- Put the beautiful brochure he had made in all the rooms. He only had it on the bar. (Do you have marketing materials you’ve already created that you’re under-utilizing? Here’s a better question: Do you have marketing materials that were working but for some reason, you stopped using them?
- (This is the biggy.) Send an email at least once a week to his list. He has 25,000 people on his list, but he only emails them once a year. I went on to explain how to write DEEmails that people look forward to reading and how to weave in a pitch for his wine club in every email. If he does this, his wine club profits will explode. No doubt about it.
Are you sending a cool email to your list at least once a week? If not, then this should be a top priority regardless of the business you’re in. It is so easy and profitable it’s a business sin if you’re not doing it. It’s one of the simplest and effective forms of one-to-many selling you can do.
Speaking of profit-producing strategies, the Dave Dee Inner Sanctum VIP program is opening doors to new members soon. Get on the early-bird announcement list and get a charter member discount if you decide to join by going here:
Talk to you tomorrow from 30,000 feet.
Dave “Addio, Italy” Dee