WineTalent Classifieds: California Sales Manager to Grow Brands

WineTalent is working with our confidential winery client on a California Sales Manager role. The winery is a boutique, family-owned winery based in the Sierra Foothills with a growing brand and identity. The winery currently has two brands and is selling wine in California. With a flexible production plan, excellent fruit sources and access to premium bulk wine, the winery is looking to increase the presence of the brands in the market and increase production as sales warrant. The California Sales Manager will be working with current buyers while establishing a relationship with a distributor partner to sell the wines throughout California and into other states as production increases. This is an excellent opportunity for someone to make their mark as a California Sales Manager and to be responsible for the growth of the winery. 

Job Description: We are searching for a top sales professional to manage the sales of the wine brands in the California market. The Sales Manager will be responsible for managing the current direct-to-trade sales channels while developing the wholesale program to partner with a strategic distributor. This person will be tasked with first focusing the sales effort in the local metropolitan markets and then will expand the territory to encompass the state of California. The Sales Manager will be focusing on off-premise accounts with specialty retailers as well as managing chain sales in the state. Once the off-premise sales are established, the Sales Manager will be working to also build on-premise sales in the state. The Sales Manager will be responsible for establishing and managing the brands’ pricing and programming with the distributor.  

Responsibilities: The California Sales Manager is responsible for managing the current direct distribution model while developing a partnership with a distributor in California. This person will also be responsible for managing the market through routine market visits and the development of new accounts. Going forward, the Sales Manager will be working in conjunction with the distributor to build brand awareness and build new accounts in the major metropolitan markets of California and other key states. The Sales Manager will be responsible for tracking account progress and depletions. Additionally the Sales Manager will be managing the distributor’s performance monthly, quarterly and yearly.

Qualifications:  
•  A minimum of 5 years of wine sales experience, preferably with experience in brand building. 
•  Currently have relationships with the brokers, off-premise, on-premise and chain accounts in the market to provide adequate support of current and future customers.  
•  Strong chain sales experience desirable. 
•  Familiarity with sales in a large territory within California. 
•  Experience with pricing, programming and distributor management.
•  Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Enology, or related. Relevant work experience in lieu of a degree will also be considered.
•  Must be able to effectively manage work schedule to meet needs of customers, distributors and management.
•  Self-motivated, professional and strategically focused on building sales.

Interested in Applying?  Email resumes to amy@winetalent.net.  All inquiries will be kept strictly confidential.

UPDATED California Wildfires: Ways to Help

What a fortnight we have had here in California Wine Country.  Just two weeks ago I was going about my business and saw a couple of news posts on my Wine Business Monthly Daily Update about fires in Sonoma and Napa counties.  From there I came to learn how extensive, powerful and destructive those fires would be.  Many people have lost their homes, their businesses, their jobs and some have even lost loved ones.  With the devastation there has been an outpouring of support and donations to disaster relief efforts.  If you are looking for ways to help, please consider one of these options:

Visit the Wine Country:  The Northern California wine country is known for its beauty and excellent wine country hospitality.  It is just as vibrant as always, and they need you visiting, staying overnight, touring the wineries, and dining in the restaurants.  If you are thinking the wine country is destroyed, think again.  I visited last Wednesday and it was a beautiful fall day and wine country was definitely open for business.  

American Red Cross:  The Red Cross is currently asking for donations, which you can give online at www.redcross.org/donate/donation, call 800-RED-CROSS or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  For information on how they are assisting during the wildfires, please click here.  

Volunteers are also needed, and becoming a trained American Red Cross volunteer can be useful today and into the future.  I completed my introductory courses and now am learning about ways I can help.  To learn about becoming a Red Cross volunteer, click here. 

Salvation Army:   I also recommend considering giving donations to the Salvation Army, which has been supporting many of the evacuation centers and recovery efforts,  http://www.salvationarmyusa.org 

While I posted earlier about immediate ways to help (visit my past blog post here), we are luckily in the recovery stage, where the needs are different.  

Many articles have been written about ways to help, and I believe Alder Yarrow at Vinography did an excellent job this past weekend of creating a thorough list of fundraising efforts.  To view his posting, please visit the Vinography blog.  Here's a copy of his list:

DIRECT MONETARY SUPPORT
In the days since the fires began, numerous fundraising efforts sprang up using sites such as GoFundMe.Com, enough so that these giving sites created pages collecting these efforts into a single spot. I've been supporting one created by my friend Kimberly Charles, who runs a wine PR firm. She's been collecting money and then either buying goods and bringing them to shelters, or buying amazon and target gift cards to bring to aid organizations in Sonoma and Napa. One note of caution with regards to this method of giving: anyone can set up a GoFundMe page, so please do some checking to make sure that the organizer is above board and a legitimate victim of the fire or a responsible individual that will put your donation to good use. 

Here's the page that aggregates all the GoFundMe efforts.

In addition to these individual campaigns, several large organizations have set up funds for fire relief, many of which are well positioned to have a great impact, as this kind of community support is what they do all day long.

Olehealth.Org is a nonprofit focused on community health care. They are on the front lines of providing help to victims of the fire and could use your donation.

The Napa Community Fund provides monetary aid to the Napa Community and is gathering funds for fire relief.

The Redwood Credit Union has started a fire relief fund for Sonoma County.

The Sonoma County Resilience Fund is a nonprofit that will direct aid to the areas of Sonoma in greatest need.

The Community Foundation of Mendocino has a disaster relief fund for Mendocino.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal disaster relief. That's why UndocuFund exists. 

COMMUNITY EFFORTS
The wine community has rallied, as they always do, with an amazing sense of solidarity. Several events have been organized to raise funds, perhaps the most impressive of which is a collection of winemakers and sommeliers who are putting on events in California and New York that I highly encourage you to attend. They are also looking for donations of wine that they will sell at the event with 100% of the proceeds going to fire relief.

The various regional wine associations of California have banded together to create #CAWINESTRONG, a campaign for supporting the wine industry in recovery efforts. In addition to taking donations directly, they have also signed up many of their member wineries to donate portions of their sales to relief efforts.

Various Sonoma Breweries are offering support to their wine industry brethren.

Many Livermore Valley wineries are raising funds, as are many wineries from Paso Robles.

The Howell Mountain Harvest Tasting on November 4th in Yountville will have a silent auction benefitting the Angwin Fire Department, who heavily contributed to firefighting efforts in the past few weeks.

HALL Wines is soliciting donations for aid AND matching those donations up to an impressive $100,000.

The Vineyards to Villages Wine Safari Event on November 10th through the 12th will be raising funds.

Flora Springs is holding a benefit concert on October 29th.

AirBNB is mobilizing its hosts to provide free housing for fire victims.

Santa Barbara Vintners association is raising funds to help.

Wine critic Jancis Robinson has organized a California wine tasting in London on December 2 to raise funds. Details will be forthcoming.

Naked Wines has raised money from its immense customer base and has donated $50k already to the Napa Valley Community Fund.

The Willamette Valley charity Oregon Cares is holding a fundraising dinner event on Sunday October 22nd with proceeds going to benefit California. 

Brooks Winery in Oregon is hosting a two day holiday market November 11th and 12th and 50% of admission proceeds will be donated to relief funds. Details will be posted soon.

Retailer Flatiron Wine and Spirits in San Francisco is holding a wine tasting of wines out of Magnum on Monday October 23, with proceeds going to charities supporting relief efforts. 

The San Francisco Vintners Market on November 5 will donate 50% of its ticket sales proceeds to fire relief. 

The Taste of Anderson Valley tasting in San Francisco on November 9th will donate 50% of its auction proceeds to fire relief charities.

Brutocao's Mendocino Harvest Party on November 3rd will donate 100% of ticket sales to the Disaster Relief Fund for Mendocino.

Jack Winery designed T-shirts -- the proceeds from which will go to help first responders who lost their homes.

Limerick Lane is donating 100% of the proceeds from one of its wines to fire relief.

Raymond Vineyards is donating proceeds from the sale of its Honoris wine to fire relief.

Tiny producer Reeve Wines is donating money by holding a raffle with some pretty cool prizes.

Red Car Wine Company is donating 50% of tasting room sales of the 2016 rose and 100% of the profit sold to wholesale for the balance of the year.

Many tasting rooms in Rutherford are donating fees from this weekend's tastings (October 21st and 22nd) to charity.

Iron Horse Vineyards is releasing their Gratitude Cuvee and some of its proceeds will go to the Redwood Empire Food Bank.

On October 28th, Peterson Winery in Healdsburg will be having a party and raffle and wine sales event benefitting the Redwood Credit Union North Bay Fire Relief fund. 

Occasio winery in Livermore Valley is donating 15% of their proceeds to fire relief for all the weekends in October. 

J. Lohr winery is donating a portion of all its proceeds in tasting rooms and online sales to help. 

Far Niente and Nickel & Nickel wineries are donating all tasting room fees to relief funds for an open-ended period of time. Apparently so are Miner and Alpha Omega.

During the month of November, Charles Krug winery is donating 20% of all proceeds to the Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund.

Truett Hurst Winery will donate 100% of ticket sales and 10% of wine sales during their holiday open house on October 28th.

20% of Blackbird Rosé sold online will be donated.

Grassini Family Vineyards in Santa Barbara is donating $1 for every bottle of wine sold through November 15 to the Direct Relief Fund.

Flying Goat Cellars in Santa Barbara is donating $10 for every bottle of Pinot Noir Salisbury Vineyard 2011 sold through October 31 to the Direct Relief fund.

Chappellet is donating 10 percent of their wine proceeds in October.

Thank you Alder for that comprehensive list.  A big thank you to all of the firefighters, emergency responders, and volunteers.  And THANK YOU for helping out in any way you can.  

Quick Update: If you lost work due to the wildfires, read this post

Just got this information from a fellow Facebook friend. Unemployment Benefits for those affected by #cawildfires

KSRO 1350/103.5 Sonoma County’s News Talk
FOR ALL THOSE MISSING WORK DUE TO THE NORTH BAY FIRES:
EDD is waiving the waiting week period for all new unemployment insurance claims. This means if you call by this Saturday you are paid for this week. Usually the first two weeks of a new claim pays only one of the weeks.
Call 1-800-300-5616. These are the selections so you don’t have to wait forever listening to all the options.
1-3-2-6.

If you do go to the site and can share anything about this, please let me know at amy@winetalent.net

In case you were evacuated during the #cawildfires, please visit the CA Department of Insurance for a note about reimbursement. Link below

Wildfire victims could tap insurance for evacuation cost reimbursement

California Wildfires: Ways to Help

What a horrific few days we are going through.  Monday morning I got my first news report of the wildfires ravaging the Northern California wine country.  A couple of days have gone by, but the very real threat of disaster has not.  Wanting to help out,  I've learned a lot about what we can do to offer assistance and support to the victims of the fires and to those helping fight the fires and assisting evacuees.

I started by asking my CalFire Chief neighbor.  He recommended checking with Red Cross and local faith based charities near the evacuation areas.  The Red Cross is currently asking for donations, which you can give online at www.redcross.org/donate/donation, call 800-RED-CROSS or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  I also recommend considering giving donations to the Salvation Army, which is supporting many of the evacuation centers,  http://www.salvationarmyusa.org.  

NVCC Donation Board from 10/11/17 around 10:30 AM

Evacuation Centers:  Yesterday I headed to the Solano Community College evacuation center to deliver supplies and volunteer.  They were in good shape with donations, and at this time are only requesting monetary donations.  For more information, please visit the KROC Center Suisun City Facebook page.   This morning a good friend brought needed supplies to the Napa Valley Community College evacuation site.  To find out what needs they currently have, please visit the NV College Facebook page.  They are updating it regularly.  For information for the The Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds Evacuation Center, visit the Office of Emergency Services Facebook Page. Many shelters are in need of Spanish language translators.   If you can translate, please check in with a local evacuation shelter to find out that sites needs.  

Getting Current Information:  With things changing both with the fires and with the needs at evacuation centers, it can be tough to know what to do.  First of all, Petaluma has a google doc which is kept up to date.  For information on needs there, and resources for residents, please visit the google doc here.  

Facebook has been a lifeline to hearing about how friends are doing.  You can keep up to date about the needs of many volunteer organizations there.  

• Visit the Tubbs Fire (Lake/Sonoma/Mendo) Facebook group to get involved in community discussion, find lost pets and offer services, along with the Tubbs Fire Safety Check-inFacebook page, which has a support link. You can post services you have to offer. Search for other community groups on Facebook to open the conversation and get up-to-date needs.
• Visit the Atlas Fire (Napa and Solano Counties) Facebook group for ways to offer and receive help from the community.  
• The Sonoma Humane Society is sharing lost and found pets on its Facebook page. 
• Yesterday I also brought donations so the Solano SPCA, who are accepting donation of pet food and supplies.  Please visit the Solano SPCA Facebook page for current information. 

Fundraising sites:  Knowing we want to make our contributions count and go to the right organizations, please find additional information about ways to help here:

• Many local fundraising efforts are on the GoFundMe pages.  Here is a list of GoFundMe pages dedicated to California fire relief: www.gofundme.com/raise-funds/CAfirerelief.
• Napa Valley Community Foundation (NVCF) has mobilized its Disaster Relief Fund. Make a gift here. 
• The Community Foundation of Sonoma County supports local Sonoma County charities, getting funds where they are needed most, quickly and effectively.  https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1431417

Keeping up the fight:

I haven't nailed down a way to help the firefighters directly, but if you can, I am sure they love a thank you and a hot meal, coffee, cool water, etc.  I know many of the evacuation centers are coordinating catering for the staff.  Check with your local evacuation center for ways to assist. 

Thank you firefighters, volunteers and emergency responders.  And thank YOU for helping out in any way you can.