I am hearing more talk these days about the importance of soft skills in the workplace, especially for those in supervisory capacities or those employees who deal with customers.
“Hard skills are those...
Research is an important part of any business, marketing or customer relations plan. Even when a plan has been completed for a while it doesn’t hurt to do more research to find out what has changed...
Ah the ubiquitous email. Let me ask you a question, “How many of you don’t get enough email?” Okay I know the answer, none of you. Everyone gets more emails than they know what to do with. Well we do really...
As everyone is extra busy today, working hard and thinking about what has to be done to make this year’s Thanksgiving the best ever, I am going to keep things short today.
Happy Thanksgiving…enjoy your...
Are you ready for holiday sales? It is only a week until Thanksgiving (where does the time go?) so Black Friday is almost upon us. After that December is looming. So far in my email inbox I have...
I have been teaching a Wine Business class at my local Junior College in Sonoma County. This eight-week class, which has students ranging in age from 20 to 60 is about wine clubs. A couple of weeks ago...
There was an interesting article in a Marketing Profs email a month or so ago about customer service and what customer service issues annoy customers the most. I am sure that most of us can guess what...
I work with wineries throughout North America and have been amazed at the growth in the industry over the past decade or so. The growth is in all states and provinces and in some areas the number of wineries...
Nature has a way shaking us up when we least expect it. Strong winds whipped up huge fires in Napa and Sonoma counties on Sunday night, which led to unthinkable devastation in the early hours of Monday...
While distributing information to your customers and potential customers through social media is important, it’s also important to know how the people that you are reaching are reacting to what you have...
A few weeks ago, Rob McMillan an EVP with Silicon Valley Bank and founder of their wine division wrote, as part of his blog about his prediction for the slowdown of growth in wine sales starting around...
If you want to increase your sales quickly and simply, good customer service is your biggest asset. It will increase customer good will, willingness to buy and return visits. We talk a lot about sales...
One of the things I like most about the work I do is that it involves a fair amount of research on different topics. I use the information I find to create handouts at seminars and for my weekly blogs....
I have been catching up on my reading lately and have come across some great articles. Today’s blog is all about.
“Why the Modern World Is Bad for Your Brain” which is an article by neuroscientist, Dr...
I found a great article in the Guardian online with information from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. The article is all about how showing warmth to co-workers, employees, etc. is an important...
We all know that part of a good business survival plan is a well-researched competitive analysis. Before you start a business, investigating your competition, their products, prices, marketing and public...
