Business: Dialing up wine sales over the phone
Business: Dialing up wine sales over the phone
Apr 21, 2013 6(PressDemocrat) - In an age when most people have cellphones, caller ID and and a healthy disdain for unsolicited phone calls, a telemarketing company would seem an unlikely place to find growth.
But while the telemarketing industry is shrinking, there’s a growing use of phone sales in the wine industry, especially after the recession changed the buying habits of luxury wine drinkers.
VinoPRO, a Santa Rosa company that handles phone sales for 50 wineries including Jackson Family Wines, Constellation Brands and Treasury Wine Estates, brought in $8 million in revenue last year. It has grown 1,800 percent over the last three years, and has been notified that it qualified for the Inc. 500, which lists the fastest-growing companies in the nation, according to Jeff Stevenson, the company’s president and CEO.
“There are several people making six figures in Sonoma County selling wine, using the most antiquated technology on the planet, the telephone,” Stevenson said.
Comments