Fun, Food and Remembrance

by Steve on May 25, 2009

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Since today is the actual Memorial Day I feel the need to remind everyone to take a moment of silence to reflect upon the sacrifices made by our Service men and women in defense of our country. Last night I had dinner with three other ex-Navy men where we reminiscenced about the old days and friends we knew who had been killed in the line of duty. Since our combined service lives covered all the wars and police actions since WWII none of our lives were untouched.

The wine flowed and toasts were made all around. I feel they were honored. Now on to selling.

Selling and Marketing in Wine Country

Wine is big business, especially in California . As you know I have been touring the wine country in Santa Barbara for the past couple days. I’ve drank some great wines. met some awesome people and enjoyed California’s great weather. No matter how much fun I’m having I always make it a point to look at things from a salesman’s perspective. Is there anything I can learn from this that I can use to my advantage?

But first a slight detour, I want to respond to some of yesterday’s comments -

Rob, April and JJ - Anytime you want to go wine tasting let me know. It is great fun and I’d love to share it with you guys.

John – I have spent time in two of Australia’s wine regions, the Hunter Valley north of Sydney and the Swan River Valley outside Perth. I had an enormous amount of fun in both place (too much fun in Perth, and I highly recommend the Wine Cruise there.) Australian wine is world class and the Australians are some of the best people in the world to go drinking with, along with the Royal Marines but that’s another story.

The center of the Santa Barbara wine country is not Santa Barbara, it is the town of Los Olivos. Wine Tasting rooms line Grand Avenue…there must be 20 of them one next to the other. This makes it convenient for the visitor, although I personally prefer to visit the actual winery itself and have never visited one of the Los Olivos tasting rooms, and helps you avoid the dreaded DUI (Driving Under Intoxication).

Grand Ave, Los Olivos, CA

If you’ve ever been wine tasting you know how hungry it can make you. It is also a good idea to eat something if your going to be drinking a lot of wine. Helps you handle all the great wines your exposed to. In addition to the wine tasting rooms there is a market/deli in the middle of town that sells wonderful Tri-Tip Sandwiches on weekends and holidays. Now it isn’t the only restaurant or deli in town but it consistently gets the most business. Why is this?

They use a simple marketing technique reminiscent of Glacier Marketing Mark Mallen’s 420 trick. (What the hell ever happened to him anyway?) They sell the “Sizzle” to you long before you get into the store. Rather than cook the Tri-tip inside or in the back of the store they but it right out front. You can see it cooking and the smell waifs down the entire street.

Selling the "Sizzle" in Los Olivos

Tempting, and once your in the store they deliver on the promise. The sandwiches rock and are very affordable. On top of that the seats and tables are situated such that you can people watch while planning your next wine tasting move.