Modern wine sales techniques

The aim of the course is to prepare students to understand and use modern techniques in wine sales. Students will be able to understand their target consumer and understand how to use the best sales approach to sell your wine to this target consumer. Students need to understand all aspects of the sale of wines offered by the modern business environment, business models and technology.
They will develop the selling skills of understanding the customer, preparation of effective sales argument for himself, and the estate wine.

Basic knowledge in the field of wine marketing
Communication skils

Basics of project management
Basic presentation skills - presentation of the wine, winegrower, estates
Legal restrictions and ethical aspects of wine promotion
Basics of business communication
Efficient sales argumentation of own wines
Indirect sales channels wines (importers, dealers, distributors, web shops ...)
Direct sales channels (personal selling, testing, clubs, fairs ...)
Key elements of sales through various online channels (own website, clubs, online shops ...)

Knowledge and understanding of:
- buyers of wine, their needs, expectations
- persuasion,
- presentation of the wine, the vineyard and the cellar itself
- preparing the sales meeting, acting at the fair with the use of basic techniques of project management
- modern sales techniques
- the available distribution channels for the sale of wine
- the use of various forms of direct and indirect sales
- all aspects of a comprehensive web presence
- key elements of their own web pages, online shops ...

• Bruce McGechan: Wine Marketing Online: How to Use the Newest Tools of Marketing to Boost Profits and Build Brands, 2013 Catalogue E-version
• Paul Wagner, Janeen Olsen, Liz Thach: Wine Marketing & Sales, 2011 Catalogue

• Slides and notes from lectures and exercises
• Selected articles

Exam Seminar Interactive tutorials Performance/presentation 50% 20% 20% 10%

Iztok Sila is a graduate of the first generation MBA school from Brdo pri Kranju (in 1991), the predecessor to today’s IEDC-Bled School of Management.
At the start of his professional career he gained his professional experiences in leading marketing agencies in Slovenia and Croatia. He has worked with international networks of advertising and media agencies and cared for great clients and brands – domestic, regional and global – with a wide variety of areas, ranging from automotive, wine cellars, telecommunications and tourism to fashion, sports, culture and bookselling.
Throughout his career, Iztok Sila has been active in various professional associations and institutions, helping shape the marketing profession and steer its development. He is a mentor for programmes run by the Slovenian Marketing Association and the IEDC-Bled School of Management, President of the Supervisory Committee of the Slovenian Advertising Chamber, exPresident of the Board of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, and a long-standing member of the Management Board of the Slovenian Marketing Association and the Marketing Council of the Slovenian Olympic Committee.
He has been legurary invited as guest lecturer at various academic institutions and in the academic year 2013/14 he joined Gea College, where he teaches Basics of marketing and market analysis, and at VŠVV he teaches Marketing and Promotion of wine. GEA College awarded him the habilitation of senior lecturer.
He moderated several discussions, conferences and professional meetings.
Prior to the establishment of the Sila Consulting has was the head of marketing and public relations in the Mladinska knjiga publisher and also a head of Marketing of Telekom Slovenia.
He has been named “Marketing Manager of the Year” by the Slovenian Marketing Association.