Hilarious rant from Wholesale rep

http://dearwinebuyer.com/

It might be hilarious if so much of the animosities weren’t true.

We are very lucky with the few States we have that we have not run into this attitude too often. It is the larger distributor reps that I’ve found that have the God’s Gift to Human Kind attitude and lack of wanting to sell more than their portfolio that has to be sold and that I am just a pest that should go away. I found the suppliers answer better than the Rep’s rant.

Yep, saw this the other day after a work-with. Happily, I don’t do any of the bad things he (I actually think it’s a she) lists his Suppliers do.

I kept expecting Honey Badger to make an appearance.

That was actually quite entertaining to read. Sounds like a tough job. It reminds me of drug reps trying to pimp their shitty medication or medical equipment when even they know it’s inferior to the competition. I think that’s why drug reps are usually hot…to distract you from the fact that their product sucks…and that approach works more often than not.

I see you get distracted at your drug rep meetings huh . . . tsk tsk tsk . . . =D

It works in the wine business too.

Are you suggesting that this is the reason for your success?

It works in any business.

Over the last three years I would estimate that 85% of our vendors reps are now female, and most are a 8 out of 10. Quite the contrast to 5 years ago.

Always interesting to hear the reps vs. supplier rants. I’ve gone out with reps who never sold a bottle of our wine and didn’t know jack about it. Then we end up selling 15-20 cases that day (of a wine they would have never sold in the first place!) and their response is “wow…that was cool!”

Ya think?

I love this blog. As the young, probably sometimes douchey, newly-appointed Wine Buyer, it has helped me curb some bad habits I think. Sometimes I want to show the Cattle Call posts to my reps, though.

I had mixed feelings about work with’s. Some were great experiences with very talented winemaker’s, Mark Vlossak stands out, while I viewed others as a disruption to my normal route for the day.

I knew better than to have a crappy day lined up for the supplier. I put on a happy face and give it my best shot so no bad reports were made to my manager. At least I could count on a decent lunch and hopefully get some good orders and new placements.

One work with stands out as kind of comical. I guess he was still green and unsure of the usual procedure.

The winemaker/owner was given very detailed instruction by me on which train to catch out of Penn Station. He calls me that morning and states he will be early as he got a very good rate on a taxi from NYC to New Brunswick, NJ. I asked him how much later that day-$120!

At lunch he wanted to know if we should split the bill, when the norm was for the supplier to pick up the tab.

This same guy had to smoke a cigarette every time he stopped for another appointment.

Dr. Wu invited some reps to a party last time. Good looking girls they are.