Don't Market Wine Before Its Time With Kate Troc, Managing Director at WineShop At Home
Kate Troc is Managing Director at WineShop At Home, a boutique winery in Napa Valley. Kate leads, supports, and grows a national sales team of more than 300 independent direct-to-consumer wine sales representatives. She has over 20 years of experience in the service industry and offers a fun and memorable wine-tasting experience for guests in their homes. Kate specializes in both live and virtual events that include team appreciation, client acquisition, fundraisers, and more.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Kate Troc reveals her favorite bottle of wine
What makes WineShop At Home unique
How WineShop At Home navigated the pandemic
Kate explains how virtual wine tasting works
Where WineShop At Home wineries source some of their fruit internationally
How WineShop At Home has changed as a result of the pandemic
What WineShop At Home is doing to prep for the impact of inflation
The best and worst advice Kate has ever received
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Did the pandemic force you to radically change your operation so you could stay in business? Now that it’s largely behind us, has your business reverted to its previous mode of operation, or is your “new normal” standard operating procedure?
In 2020, the world changed with the onset of the pandemic. In the subsequent months, many businesses and industries were forced to adapt to stay afloat. Many businesses found these changes difficult but ended up discovering more efficient operations and additional revenue streams. According to Kate Troc, Managing Director at WineShop At Home, that was certainly the case for her business. She adjusted their business model, which opened up new opportunities, including virtual corporate events and fundraisers, and they have come out on top much stronger than they were before.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Kate Troc, Managing Director at WineShop At Home, to discuss the enjoyment of drinking wine with others. Kate’s role includes holding private guided wine tastings inside homes and small businesses. During the pandemic, she switched to virtual events. Now she’s incorporated all the changes into their business model, and she explains how the company is more robust than ever before. They talk about personalizing wine for the consumer, bracing for inflation, challenges she faces, and their favorite wines.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Kate Troc mobile 630-337-7645
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:31
Hello, everyone. I am Roger Hurni, the host of this show where I get to speak with top leaders in food and beverage. I have a wonderful person today. But before I get to her, today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand success. Today, I have with me Kate Troc who is an Independent wine marketer with WineShop At Home. Kate has more than 20 years of experience in the service industry. She offers fun and memorable wine tasting experience for guests in their home. She specializes in both live and virtual events that include team appreciation, client acquisition, fundraisers, and more. Kate, welcome to the show.
Kate Troc 1:37
Thanks so much, Roger. Happy to be here.
Roger Hurni 1:40
Well, I'm very happy that you're here too, because we get to talk about one of my favorite subjects, wine.
Kate Troc 1:45
Mine too.
Roger Hurni 1:48
The first question is always easy. What is your favorite bottle of wine?
Kate Troc 1:53
The open one.
Roger Hurni 1:55
Oh my god, that was gonna be my answer.
Kate Troc 1:59
But I do love a nice big cab. But if something else is open. I'm open-minded.
Roger Hurni 2:04
Oh, you stole my joke. Seriously, I was waiting for you to say Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I was waiting for your response. But what is your favorite bottle of wine? Not sure that's gonna be the one that's open. Thank you very much.
Kate Troc 2:17
So now we'll know your real favorite bottle of wine. What is it?
Roger Hurni 2:20
It is Chateauneuf-du-Pape actually, there you go. No. Yeah, and you know, I'm actually not great with wine. I know what I like. And somebody had given me a bottle of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape a long time ago, and actuals in 1988. And this is in the late 90s that I finally opened it up. And it was so smooth and it was so good. Like oh, so this is what really great wine is supposed to taste like and ever since that has been my favorite bottle but I've had lots of wines that I really like and so I but I generally liked them more when I'm traveling than I do in the United States. I think it's like the soul pipe thing.
Kate Troc 2:59
So, interestingly, our winemaker we're boutique winery in Napa Valley and our winemaker is French born and actually learned how to make wine and made wine the first 15 years of his career in France. So we follow, we strictly follow European winemaking standards. So our wines are all considered low sulfite.
Roger Hurni 3:21
Nice, nice. So but how did now you know what, forget the interview. We're off on a tangent now. Even asking questions I'm personally interested in what is, doesn't the FDA need to regulate that sulfite content?
Kate Troc 3:36
Yes, yes, yes. And America actually allows exactly twice the amount of sulfites per 750 ml bottle that Europe does. So our sulfites are half and oftentimes under half of what you'll find in typical American made wines.
Roger Hurni 3:55
Oh, wow, that's awesome, because I think that's the thing that gives me headaches. All right.
Let's get on to some real questions. Let's learn more about WineShop At Home. Why don't you start by explaining to the audience, what WineShop At Home is and how that works?
Kate Troc 4:10
Yeah, happy to absolutely. So as I said, We're a boutique winery operating out of Napa Valley. But amongst the roughly 4,700 wineries in the great state of California, there are a number of things that are unique only to us. And first and foremost, it's all of our wines. So we make all of our wines in house. They are all small production wines. So if you go to wine country, and you go to one of the big wineries that you see their wine in the stores all the time, they also make boutique non-distributed small production wines, but you have to go to the winery to taste those wines and entry level price point on those wines is usually $60 and upwards from there. Our average price point is $26. So we win a ton of metals. We've got more than 360 metals, to our credit and we're able to keep our prices down because of how we distribute, which is also what creates a really unique opportunity in terms of customer experience. So we only sell our wines through independent reps such as myself. There's a couple 1,000 of us across the country. And yes, we did in my info you, said that we do tastings in homes. And we do do private guided wine tastings in homes, and in small businesses, but I also do a lot of virtual events. And those can be much larger format in terms of people and geography. So essentially, I'm kind of your gift with purchase, right? So you book a wine tasting with me. And really, my job is to go in and make it a fun, engaging, memorable experience with wine. The wine does a lot of the hard work quite honestly, because it's delicious, as I said, but you know, the events are very entertaining. So I do all kinds of different corporate events as well as the independent tastings.
Roger Hurni 5:58
Excellent. You know, most people do not realize how good those smaller, independent wineries are. I used to live in San Francisco and my wife and I would go up to St. Halina every like, every couple of months or so we would rent mountain bikes. And here's a plug St. Paul, Rena Cyclery. And we would hand the wine bottle baskets on the back the little bags, and we would go up and down Silverado road, and we would just go to these little tiny wineries and the wines were, were always so much better. So like, yours are are absolutely amazing.
Kate Troc 6:34
That just sounds like a fun trip. Waking up the Silverado trail. I mean,
Roger Hurni 6:38
It makes for a really fun weekend. I have to I have to admit, though. Well, the business model sounds awesome. So that leads to the question that everyone probably asked you all the time when you do these sorts of things? How did WineShop At Home navigate the pandemic? And what were the challenges there that the organization faced?
Kate Troc 6:59
Yeah, that's a that's a great question. And I will tell you, the challenges were many, especially our main business, but I will say, in the final analysis, we came out much stronger, but our main business going into the pandemic was getting 10 or 15 people in a room. That's what we did. So a lot of us kind of stopped in our tracks and said, How are we going to manage this? What are we going to do? And, of course, necessity is the mother of invention. So, you know, we adjusted our business model and actually opened up a huge new opportunity in terms of these virtual corporate events and fundraisers. And so you know, it took a bit to figure out, you know, what's the right price point? What should our range be, who is our client? How do we reach out to that person. So there was certainly a learning curve in terms of how to adjust. But we ended up with a really robust virtual strategy, that I don't think any of us are, have any interest in walking away from now that we can get 10 people in a room again. You know, I love my live tastings. But I will tell you, I also really love my virtual tastings and what they provide.
Roger Hurni 8:09
So I'm curious, how does the virtual tastings work? I know we've all done crazy zoom meetings. And we I know that I've been on like a cooking one with my own staff at one point, how does your virtual wine tastings work?
Kate Troc 8:21
Well, we do that too. We do cooking classes and cocktail classes and charcuterie board making classes. And we can incorporate all of those things into whatever kind of event my client is looking for. Right? Whether it's client appreciation, or team builder, acquisition, all of those things. But the way that it works is I work with my clients and we choose wind flights. Whether it's a three bottle flight, a four bottle flight, we choose those. And again, depending most of my clients are actually purchasing those flights for their attendees. In most situations, and fundraising situations, it's a bit different than that. So they probably pick the flights out. Either the quiet purchases now shipped directly to each guest. And we usually recommend that each attendee invite one or two or three wine loving friends to enjoy the experience with them. And then we do it. We all have a predetermined date and time and we all meet on zoom. And it's really quite a lot of fun. You know, we might or might not have scavenger hunts for snacks, because of course, snacks are the most important part of a wine tasting next to the wine, right? Yeah. And I usually give awards because, you know, inevitably somebody shows up with their beautiful charcuterie board and cured meats and all these lovely things and someone else has Cheez Whiz and some Ritz crackers. So we usually, you know, give out some prizes for the best door or the best snacks or the worst snacks, that kind of thing. So, there's a lot of different ways that we engage via Zoom and we taste the wines all together via zoom. People have an opportunity to share their opinions and what they think that they're tasting. I even do blind wine tastings, which are super fun. Those are a little bit harder to do in the virtual format, because they're gonna see their wines. But those are a lot of fun when when you do something live.
Roger Hurni 10:13
All right, well, there's two comments, one, don't just invite people who enjoy wine, invite the people who don't like wine, because I'm sure your wines will give them a better introduction than the restaurant they're going to where they convert them, right. And for snacks. The only snack I want with my wine is chocolate.
Kate Troc 10:32
Oh, I agree. Some nice, dark chocolate with some beautiful, rich red that works for me. But you might be surprised a lot of what we do is food wine pairings. So I do a lot of education on, you know what things in food change the flavor of wine. Yeah. And it doesn't mean you should like this with that. I don't believe in that at all. I think the heart wants what the heart wants. But you'll know what you want. And it's really interesting when people taste the same wine and they pair it with a fat or sugar or salt or something acidic really changes the flavor of the wine. People really love that.
Roger Hurni 11:04
Yeah, I’ve heard and seen that a lot. I will have the second wine recommendation for you. And for all the listeners out there because you just reminded me of it. There's a wine out of South Africa. I'm gonna butcher the name because my African is horrible. Called Boekenhoutskloof, and they make a wine called Chocolate Block. And it is spectacular.
Kate Troc 11:29
Is there actual chocolate in it?
Roger Hurni 11:32
Supposedly. Well there's a chocolate aftertaste. But it's after you swallow the wine, you get a little bit of that flavor, I got to imagine that there actually is. Africans Boekenhoutskloof stands for Seven Chairs, evidently. So there are so many partners in it anyway, again, off on the tangent.
Kate Troc 11:51
Well, actually, your tangent made me think of something else that I'd like to share is that even though our Napa our wineries in Napa, we source fruit from all over the world. So all wineries source some of their fruit, right? Because if you have a vineyard, you can only grow two or three different kinds of wine two or three varietals. So everyone sources, some we source all, we don't grow vines, we're winery not a vineyard, but we source from all over. So right now I've got a South African cab on my menu, I've got two different wines from Spain, two different wines from France, including a beautiful gold winning Bordeaux for $29 bucks a bottle, which is great. So yeah, so it's truly a Global Wine Experience. The wines are from all over the world, and more are all made in Napa and our winery in Napa.
Roger Hurni 12:35
Not well, let's get let's get back to the emphasis of the show. Because I go down this road with you all afternoon, we should actually be having wine during this this interview. When you talked about the pandemic, and you talked about having to pivot the business, lots of businesses had to do that. And with my background in consumer behavior, behavior design, how we look at shifting those behaviors and those experiences. You did instinctively, what I that coaching companies do is your motivation has shifted? How do you recalibrate the business to a new set of motivations, you couldn't do things in person you shifted, because those motivations are driven down into, well we were very motivated to stay together. So let's find a way to make that happen. And you you gave them the ability you gave all your customers the ability to make that happen. So now are those behavior shifts become habits to, the old behaviors are no longer present? Or are you seeing new behaviors emerge in your customers that might make you offer other products or extensions?
Kate Troc 13:48
I would say they both exist. So, what my business was before, pre-pandemic, has come back in largely, not comeltly but largely the same format that existed before the pandemic. So, certainly my corporate business is still there, there’s no reason, now that we’re out of the pandemic that companies still don’t need a solution. Post pandemic companies still need a solution in terms of dealing with remote workforces. Right and so that is something that is certainly more prevalent now than it was before the pandemic happened is there's a lot of people working remotely. So the need to bring those people together and relationship build, team build, recognize amongst their peers is is not only still there, it's probably more critical than it was before because you don't have that day to day in office experience. So I don't see this whole segment of our business that really virtually did on there, virtually to that existed before, I don't see it doing anything but continuing to grow. And more and more of us as reps are getting into this, this part of the business.
Roger Hurni 14:45
So the business has become bifurcated. And and now there's another challenge coming down the road. And that's going to be inflation. And, you know, there’s businesses where I, I've spoken to, you know, owners and directors, marketing people like yourself who said, hey, you know, inflation doesn't affect our business, because of the way our business model works, we actually do better, we're an affordable luxury, yada, yada, yada. And then there's other businesses that can get severely impacted by inflation. Where do you sit along that continuum? And what are you doing to prep for it?
Kate Troc 15:20
Yeah, I think we have always been incredibly focused on value. So I think if you go into these times, with a really strong value proposition, you're probably less than I'm not saying not impacted, but I am saying you're probably less impacted. Because it's difficult to find our category of product at a lower price point. Really difficult to find it. So I think we're well positioned in that regard. And I think companies have, you know, tighter budgets than what they had in the past in terms of employee engagement. And we can do for companies, what would otherwise probably cost them three and three and four times the price, to be able to hold an event in a physical space, which is typically going to be a restaurant, and you're going to have a higher minimum that you're going to have to pay in that regard than you would in doing a virtual event with us. So I actually think we're in a pretty good place. I don't I don't I think that inflation always pushes people down in terms of where can I get this for less? And with my particular product, the answer is nowhere for the caliber. So we just have to continue to do a really good job of articulating why our wine is different and why it’s, you know, frankly, worth more than what we charge for it.
Roger Hurni 16:47
That's an excellent point. I see this a lot with clients that when when inflation hits, it's not that people are cutting budgets, what they're trying to do is stop wasting money, they look for value, there's not that they're not willing to spend, they're just willing to spend when you can demonstrate value with your model. You've got that? I mean, yes, no one seems like it's a step back in time to 2021 2020 because it's a virtual thing. And maybe that increases a little bit more. But yeah, if you're able to drive value inside the business, and that's the learning for listeners, when you can drive value, you generally don't see a decline in sales, you see a shift.
Kate Troc 17:29
Absolutely. And I think the experiential piece of this adds significant value. So it's not only the fact that you know, the wine that we sell for the price, we sell it as an excellent intrinsic value, but then creating something memorable. That is a one of a kind event certainly increases value as well.
Roger Hurni 17:51
I love how you you tap into the motivations of your your customers and your audiences and then provide them that experience that aligns with with those motivations. How do you, I imagine personalization is a very big deal. And people sometimes either try to personalize marketing in a generic kind of way, like let's put your name on an email, or they can really do a great job of understanding wants and desires, and then adjusting their messaging, sometimes down to an individual level. The other side of that coin has to be the operations has to be the experience. So I imagine that you're personalizing the actual experience itself, because they're they're choosing the wines and the charcuterie boards and everything else. Are you able to also personalize any marketing outreach that you make? Absolutely, absolutely. So.
Kate Troc 18:48
So for me, the event itself is the marketing for my client, and I collaborate with my client. And I have all sorts of different requests. So you know, there's varying degrees of willingness to present and be a public speaker. So I have some clients who give me talking points, but I always start with: What are your objectives? What do you want to walk away from this with? Why are you holding this event? So I always find that to be critically important to start. And it's almost cliche, but there's a reason for that, I suppose to start with the end in mind, What do you want to achieve? And I consider it my responsibility to ensure that I facilitate that that happens. So I start there and then you know, some of my clients will give me talking points and will want me to go through and kind of you know, to share whatever information you'd like me to share, other clients want the open and the close, other clients will say something in between each wine, you know, so there's all different ways. And it's to me, it really, this isn't even mass customization, this is true customization. So I'm on the phone with my client working through, and I can work through it pretty quickly. It's not, you know, some laborious project to try to figure out how to do this, I have a set template that I use for, you know, the different events, and then I just plug in, whatever my client is looking to make their event.
Roger Hurni 20:07
That's perfect. So many people don't realize that there's a lot of independent contractors out there. There's a lot of small businesses out there who think that that kind of customization is unattainable. And it just takes a little bit of thought to personalize experiences, personalize communications, and honestly, because we are talking about human behavior, it can be done by anyone at any time, this is not exclusive to the huge conglomerates of the world with massive marketing budgets, this is a way any individual can take it even the smallest and most modest of budgets and, and really connect with customers on that one to one level.
Kate Troc 20:53
One could argue the opportunity is more prevalent in those smaller budget more flexible, you know, more startup, if you will, type of businesses, that's where you really have the opportunity. I mean, me, I'm a one man show, and, you know, I'm careful about how I distort my time and what I work on. But that's one of the most important things, I feel like I have to know my business so that I can make my business do what you need it to do for you.
Roger Hurni 21:19
Very true, very true. What kind of challenges then are you facing now?
Kate Troc 21:27
Um, you know, obviously, I'm facing what what a lot of people face, which is staffing shortages, you know, I mean, that's not necessarily attached to the virtual world, frankly, because that can be pretty much anywhere, right? That's right. But, you know, there, we have a lot of markets that are very underserved, certainly in a live tasting category, because we simply have no one there. So continuing to find people who are interested in doing this is a challenge, getting the word out that I do these types of events. Because, you know, for me, it's pretty new, it's I've only been doing it a couple of years now, these these corporate events, these virtual events. So that's the challenge is, you know, making sure that I spend the time I need to spend networking to people and helping them to understand what this is.
Roger Hurni 22:16
Wonderful, wonderful. I get the finding people they really, like that's the patented answer from everybody. Recruitment is really, really hard these days.
Kate Troc 22:26
You know, it's always been hard. I come out of 30 years of corporate retail. Oh, yeah. And it's and it's always been hard. We just talk about it more now. And with the whole, quote, unquote, great resignation, you know, it's got kind of a different feel to it. But, you know, good people, if you were to ask me, 10 years ago, when I was still doing my corporate do what my biggest challenges that I would have told your talent.
Roger Hurni 22:49
I, I faced the same thing. And in my own business, you know, you'll get, again, smaller business, but you'll get 40-50 applicants literally for a single job in on paper only 10% look good. And you know, that 10% dwindles very quickly. Okay, I guess we have this one person has got a sale.
Kate Troc 23:09
Yeah, all you need is one, just tell yourself, but a lot of times one is not all you need.
Roger Hurni 23:15
I know. It's just the effort of getting her sorted. And then obviously, anyone who's looking at apply it anyone like companies that, yes, there are people who are wonderful and would make great candidates, they just don't fit in with our culture, and realize that they don't get hired, not because they lack skills. They're just not a cultural fit.
Kate Troc 23:38
That's usually the reason I teach the skills, right? You can teach the skills to the right person, but the right person has to be the right person.
Roger Hurni 23:46
Very very true. Well, what is happening that gets you excited now? What's it what's like getting you out of bed in the morning be like, I can't wait to get the day started because of this thing.
Kate Troc 23:56
Oh, gosh, right now, they might be a little myopic in that answer, but I'm doing a big fundraiser on Sunday for 100 people, it's live. And it's for a homeschool association, really in the town that I live in, actually. So I'm excited about that for a lot of reasons. I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm excited to be working with an association in my own town just outside of Chicago, so that's cool. And there's a lot of great things happening with the winery. You know, I've got a lot of news believe it or not, I just said staffing is the hardest thing but I've got a handful if you will, of really great new people on my team. So watching them build their businesses and grow and enjoy it, most importantly, is a lot of fun. And that kind of um, that's kind of where I get my energy from is watching them do well and enjoy themselves.
Roger Hurni 24:49
Wonderful, wonderful. Well, here's my last question to wrap up the show, you have provided some really great advice to the listeners, What's the best advice you have ever gotten?
Kate Troc 25:04
Gosh, I've got a lot of good gotten a lot of good advice. I've gotten some not so good advice as well. But I think what's timeless for me and always always important is to mind your mindset. I think we have to be deliberate about our thought processes, I think we have to be deliberate through what lens we view what's happening around us. Especially when you're you're in the marketing the sales you get, you have to be careful not to be focused on the results, but rather be efforts. So if I don't get what I want out of the day, I could at least say, You know what, I did everything that I set out to do today. And eventually whatever I did is going to pay off. I know. I just you know don't know when or how so I'm deliberate about my mindset, mind your mindset, know what you're saying to yourself. Because that's going to also greatly affect, in my opinion, how you say what you say to others.
Roger Hurni 25:59
All right. Fair enough. You knew when you were when you were thinking through the answer before you gave it you, you prompted something you need maybe shift my question to what's the worst advice you've ever gotten?
Kate Troc 26:27
This isn't a popularity contest is the worst advice I ever got. And I got it many many years ago and it was wrong, then. And it's wrong now this is absolutely a popularity contest. So people have to not, not that you should, you know, throw away your values and your ethics. I'm certainly not saying that. But it's important that people want to be around us want to do business with us. It's life is it life is like high school. In many ways. We don't want to admit that but it truly is. So I think saying that it doesn't matter if people like you is short sighted in the extreme.
Roger Hurni 26:56
Well, I'm gonna have to thank you because there's a solid chance I literally may end every show now with what's the worst advice you've ever gotten? Because I don't think anyone ever asked that question.
Kate Troc 27:10
It's easier to answer than the best advice. What does that say?
Roger Hurni 27:15
A lot of people are telling you some dumb shit. That's what I don't know if my editors will bleep out that one, but we're not going to. All right thank you. Okay, I had been speaking with Kate Troc of WineShop At Home. Kate, please tell everybody where they can learn more about you and WineShop At Home?
Kate Troc 27:33
Absolutely. So you can visit my website at kateswineroad.com, a road like you drive down, kateswineroad.com or you can reach me directly at my cell phone, which is 630-337-7645.
Roger Hurni 27:49
Excellent. Well, again, thank you, Kate. I'm Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal and I will see you next time.
Outro 27:57
Thanks for listening to from Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
