Our Goodie Process
We call them goodies. They're allocations. These are very small inventory wines that we get a handful of from our wineries. They do very little for our top line / bottom line. What they do do is make our clients, and our client's customers, very happy.
To be clear, a deplore the red rope mentality. If I see a line, I typically head the other way. If I have to be sized up as being 'cool' enough, I'm turning and walking the other way. Yet I know FOMO selling is a time-honored tactic. "Being in the club" is a tried and tested business plan. It's just not for me- I failed high school click politics.
So, with that said, we get these allocations, these 'goodies', and by the very nature of their inventory, we are pushed into a place where we don't have enough inventory against the market demand. It's very difficult for us- or for any importer/distributor- to handle these well.
All good things come from getting yelled at. And a long time ago, man, did I get yelled at. I received my first allocation way back in the day- some California, 99,000pt super duper thing, and I got like 6 bottles for my entire marketplace. I needed 60cs. It was a no-win scenario. And after getting yelled at, I developed a system which we now use at Indie to process these goodies as fairly as possible. Here it is below...
Priority is given against rounds of time in descending order to:
Historic (2yr trailing) buyers of the wines being offered (as ranked against the quantities they bought).
Historic (2yr trailing) buyers of the winery who's wines are being offered (as ranked against the quantities they bought).
Historic (2yr trailing) buyers of the Indie Wineries portfolio (as ranked against the total amount of business done per year).
Requests for the wines being offered.
Requests for wines from the winery who's wines are being offered from account's without any of the above histories.
Then the stock goes to open inventory.
2. There are 3 rounds of offers to allow for flow down the priority line:
Round 1 sees the As/Bs/Cs offered the ability to accept allocation reservations (and or the ability to ask for more, or to pass). A no response is considered a pass.
Round 2 sees any increase requests from the As/Bs/Cs, plus offerd to Ds/Es.
Then the wine is received into stock. Shipments happen against the reservations from the above process.
And then what is not shipped is open stock for all.
I believe in this system as it gives control back to the buyers. Effectively, it allows any buyer, and client, to be important, all they have to do is buy the wines when they are offered, and then continue buying them consistently. They have to support the winery. If they do, by logical default, they must get the wines. It also defends them as we grow. It puts their loyalty to the winery first in our sales process, and honors that relationship.
And for those who feel they should get what they want without supporting the winery historically and consistently, it still creates a possibility that they could indeed just come and buy exactly what they want...if, the historical supporters decide they do not want the wines. And if that is the case, these new buyers enter the system as the new historical supporters. Etc etc...
Are their flaws or cracks in this system? Probably, but it's served me and Indie Wineries well for over 20 years and most importantly, when I get yelled at (which I still do), I can defend it.
Cheers!
CT