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ADD TO RYAN LOOPER
  • Blog
    • THE REORDER (Sales)
      the salesperson experience
    • SPLASH DECANT (Market)
      streetwise stories of the beverage marketplace
    • FIVE QUESTIONS (People)
      insider questions and answers
    • TASTE (Gastronomy)
      a view from the table
  • About Ryan
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SPLASH DECANT 05/15/21

Rosé, Uninterrupted

3 Minute read

File Under: Tradecraft

Rosé is clearly not dead, on pause, or challenged by the orange wave – no matter what some hackneyed publication will tempt you to click sometime soon.

Rosé as a broad category is so expanded compared to more than a decade ago that it is truly shocking to consider how varied and wonderful it is now. Real Rosé is much easier to find by the day.

However, the Rosé season is the nut that the industry has been trying to crack for more than a decade and I am not sure we ever will. In early 2019, I wrote about the explosion of Rosé as a category and that we as an industry have a Rosé situation. We still have meaningful work to do to prove that we think of Rosé as an all year wine.

Exactly like ten years ago, some Rosés will sell through and echo into the marketplace and some won’t this year. Some will get famous and others will fade quietly away into the next season. Does that mean that the Rosé that doesn’t fly is going to be DOA next season? Nope. Famously, López de Heredia Rosé (Rosado) hardly sold at all on first release in the US and had to be closed out.  

The current market drivers today are still allocation (scarcity), seasonality (warmer days, higher sales), name recognition (fame), same as it ever was (habitually bought), color (light pink for the big sales), and price (sub $14.99 is the high volume). 

We still have a ways to go to get to where we want to be as an industry with Rosé, but any news of the death of Rosé will be greatly exaggerated. This will be (and in many ways, already is) a raucous Rosé season.

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THE REORDER 05/01/21

The One Month Wonder

2 minute read

File Under: Salescraft

Anyone can be a one month wonder. Anyone. If you have the right product, the right demand and the right moment, the number at the end of the month can be a whopper.
Unfortunately, one of the most pervasive and destructive modes of thinking in the beverage business is the month to month mentality. “We had a great month” is thrown about casually and almost exclusively without context.

To state the obvious: one month does not make a career. Consistent performance is actually a much bigger game and has nearly nothing to do with that one month. High performance in the sales game is how you consistently create/cultivate connection and demand. 

What guided me was to think in larger blocks. Try to tune in to what is driving demand in the marketplace. Engage in thinking that is creative and empathetic. And learn to accept the impermanence of what we do. 

It’s amazing to have a whopper month. It is a thrill. But most importantly, if you know why and how to do it again, then you are beginning to see the craft of an artisan. The fluency of knowing how to do it becomes one of the many building blocks of a foundation of consistency. And once you achieve that, the game gets a lot more fun and you can really make waves. 

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