Tupperware heeft het natuurlijk uitgevonden, de home parties. Je ziet ze nu ook met lingerie en zo. Allemaal erg spannend!
In Amerika is een bedrijf, The Traveling Vineyard, met maar liefst 1500 consultants die wijnproef parties a la Tupperware geven van anderhalf uur. Vorige jaar hebben ze maar liefst 20.000 van die feestjes gegeven met 150.000 feestgangers!!!
Super! Waarom hebben we dat nog niet in Nederland? Wie begint?
Wine selling takes a tip from Tupperware as independent consultants for The Traveling Vineyard conduct in-home tastings-over 20,000 last year.
Bron: Wine Business Monthly, 06/15/2006
Modeled after the Tupperware home marketing concept, The Traveling Vineyard, an in-home wine marketing and tasting division of Geerlings & Wade, relies on a network of about 1,500 independent consultants who conduct 90 minute in-home wine tastings. The wines are sold exclusively through Geerlings & Wade, a direct wine marketer. The company operates in 25 states and said it reached 150,000 potential customers through 20,000 tastings in 2005. The Traveling Vineyard division brought in almost 50 percent of Geerlings & Wade’s total 2005 sales, according to Gordon Romer, Geerlings & Wade’s CEO.
Strengthened with a three-year, $5-million line of credit it received from Wells Fargo Business Credit last November, Geerlings & Wade plans to bolster operations for the in-home wine marketing and tasting division. The Traveling Vineyard was launched by the Canton, Massachusetts-based company in 2001, and has yet to make a profit but has high hopes this year.
The credit line will be used to upgrade the corporate telephone system to enable and record conference calls among consultants, create wine training DVDs, furnish streaming videos on the Internet, as well as for consultant training. New software will allow consultants to track the sales and activity progress of other consultants they have recruited, known as a "downline," via the company’s website. The money will also be used to buy more wine inventory and restructure outstanding debt.
Anyone attending a tasting who wants to buy wines completes an interest form, which the consultant sends to corporate headquarters. Once interested customers are established and orders are placed from these leads, wines get shipped from Geerlings & Wade or through a wine retailer in the customer’s area. "In some states, we are able to ship direct to the consumer; in some states we are legally obliged to go through the three tier system. Some states impose quantity limits. We comply with all state-specific regulations in states where we do business," according to Denise Kotopoulos, Geerlings & Wade’s marketing director. "Geerlings & Wade or a retail affiliate holds the license to sell wine in each of the states where we ship wine," she added.
Consultants are paid only for leads that become sales, according to Nancy Cassano, a consultant in Franklin, Massachusetts, who’s reached executive director level and has a downline of 134 consultants under her, plus another 844 consultants under that team. Although some consultants can earn a lot of money, "the typical person works part-time about two hours a month and earns $300 to $1,000," said Richard Libby, former president of The Traveling Vineyard. He did note one consultant who earned $20,000 last November but emphasizes this is not common. A new consultant must buy a starter kit for $129. They also buy about six bottles of wine for each tasting, but this is reimbursed if the event generates wine sales. The person hosting the tasting is also given a gift, such as stemware, a screw pull or other wine-related item, that is, if enough participants purchase wine.
"As far as producers or brands, virtually every wine sold by the company is made or bottled exclusively for Geerlings & Wade," said Kotopoulos. "We sell many boutique wines made in limited quantities. We also offer a signature Selections Series of wines that are considered our house brands. These are wines we consistently stock from vintners and winemakers with whom we have developed partnerships. These wines represent real bargains and are marketed under the brands: Bentgate Cabernet Sauvignon, Pedretti Pinot Grigio, Steeple Street Chardonnay and Mangrove Merlot."
The system is a multilevel compensation plan. "My income depends on how many people I recruit and how successful they are in converting interest forms to sales," said Libby. All consultants are paid directly by The Traveling Vineyard from the sale of wine and wine accessories at tastings, as well as a share of sales made by those below them. "If I’m at the highest level, I earn 20 percent of all income I generate. If someone under me sells as my recruit, I get 6 percent of their income," Libby said. The next level down earns 3 percent, then 2, then 1 percent, he says. In addition, the top person also receives a bonus of half a percent of the group’s total sales. Upper level consultants earn more because they train and recruit those below them, essentially acting as marketing and sales managers.
How much a person earns depends on the number of wine tastings they conduct, how much wine and related products they sell, and how many people they recruit. "You have people at all levels. Some want to buy wine at a discount and sell once in a while. Others want to make a car payment. Then we have the career people who recruit others. If you want to make $100,000, you have to have a downline," said Romer. Both Romer and Libby stress The Traveling Vineyard is not a pyramid scheme because consultants are not pressured to buy and offload high levels of inventory. Also, they say, consultants are free to earn as much as they wish, depending on how hard they want to work.
"All consultants earn a certain amount of wine sales. Nothing is taken from their income," said Mellonie Sorensen, a Traveling Vineyard consultant in Orange County, California, for the past two years. "Some people go into it with a real desire to have a team. I’m a team leader and have 12 people under me. I get a small percentage of their wine sales. I’m compensated that way because I’m expected to do training and customer service support." While there is no sales quota, Sorensen says each consultant is expected to give one to two tastings each month. "At minimum, I do four or five a month," she said, adding that she likes the work because it is a non-traditional job that lets her supplement her regular income.
"It’s a perfect business for those who are not afraid to work. It’s up to you to book tastings and recruit consultants," said Cassano. At the end of each month, consultants are paid "commissionable points" based on how much business they bring in from interest forms. "We do not get paid if no one buys wine from a tasting," she said.
As far as success, Sorensen says she and her husband have renovated their home, taken trips to Europe with their children and bought a new car with income she earned through The Traveling Vineyard. Still, it’s not only for people looking to make money, she says. Many consultants work because they enjoy wine and view their jobs as a good way to improve their wine knowledge.
"The credit from Wells Fargo will allow us to invest in systems and infrastructure to feed our projected growth in 2006 and beyond," predicts Robert Stringer, sales director with The Traveling Vineyard. "We have been able to capture some efficiencies thanks to the Supreme Court’s knocking down a state’s right to discriminate against out-of-state wineries. Going forward, as more states open up to direct shipping, more consumers will be able to taste and learn about wine in the comfort of their own homes." This position differs from the one Geerlings & Wade took in 1999 when it publicly supported national legislation to empower states to use federal courts to enjoin out-of-state shippers from what the company termed "illegal" wine shipments.
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