Sandra Beals


About Sandra Beals

Sandra Beals, founder of DTC Wine Workshops and the DTC Consultant Network, is a subject matter specialist and public speaker on the topics of direct to consumer wine sales and consumer engagement strategies.

GOOD TO GREAT “Tasting Room Sales Training Webinars” Announced!

[August 29, 2024 – Sandra Beals] Winery owners in the US are experiencing the most competitive time in history to sell wine direct to consumer. Wine consumers are being a bit more conservative with how they spend their time and finances as we wrap up this summer season. Today, every […]


Tasting Room “Things to Do When Slow” Checklist

[July 31, 2024 – Sandra Beals] High performing hospitality teams actively care for the tasting room, even on the slowest days. Guests should see the staff polishing glassware in between visits to their table, tasting bar space, etc. Guests should not see staff sitting with their cell phone, making personal […]


Direct Wine: It’s Time to Return to the Basics with these Top 5 Tips

[June 27, 2024 – Sandra Beals] The US Wine Industry is certainly experiencing some shifts as distributor consolidation and increased direct wine competition continues to play out. There are 11,691 wine brands across the nation today, representing about 400 more than in 2021, according to the Wines Vines Analytics Winery […]


Direct Wine Sales 101: Key Questions to Thrive 

[April 23, 2024 – Sandra Beals] In today’s competitive direct wine space, successful wine brands must have a laser-focused sales and marketing strategy in place to remain relevant. It pains me to hear winery leadership teams share that they simply don’t need a direct sales strategic plan. That sentiment may […]


Direct Wine Sales – Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid

[March 28, 2024 – Sandra Beals] In 2023, I shared a “Good to Great Blog Series” to showcase how our top-performing winery clients leverage the ideal blends of talent, tools, and technologies to grow their direct business. In today’s blog article, I share “Direct Wine Sales – Top 10 Mistakes […]


Get to the 2nd Direct Wine Sale with these Top Three Tools

[February 29, 2024 – Sandra Beals] How do high-performing winery teams across the nation, increase visitation, grow consumer contact lists and build brand loyalists year after year? At DTC Wine Workshops, we teach every member of the direct to consumer team to focus on the second sale and beyond to […]


Direct Wine Sales Specialists – 2024 Web Trainings

[January 24, 2024 – Sandra Beals] A group of Direct Wine Sales Specialists with the DTC Consultant Network have teamed up to provide live web training sessions in 2024. Winery owners, stakeholders, managers, and frontline staff will obtain much needed skills to remain relevant and grow consumer contact lists. Winery […]


2023 Direct Wine Sales Key Learnings & 2024 Training Tools

[December 27, 2023 – Sandra Beals] Our clients have much to celebrate as we wind down a year focused on strengthening and building in the direct wine space. I am pleased to share these 2023 Direct Wine Sales Key Learnings. We worked together to build “Wine Consumer Journey Maps” in […]


DTCWW Good to Great Series #8 – Rethink Winery Events

[November 29, 2023 – Sandra Beals] As our clients prepare for 2024 visitation, now is the time to rethink the WHY behind winery events. Today, most wine brands don’t have the luxury of hosting the same event five years in a row as loyalists want to be intrigued and inspired […]


Winery Talent Retention in the New Normal

[February 10, 2022] Sandra Hess, founder of DTC Wine Workshops spoke at the Wine Industry Leadership Conference yesterday. This online program was sponsored by Wine Business Network and panelists included Joel A. Miller, Owner & Principal / Chateau HR Consulting; and Karen Alary, Managing Partner / The Personnel Perspective. Stace […]


The Top DTC Wine Sales Tools of 2021

[Sandra Hess – December 30, 2021] ✓ Updated Communication Tools to Better Connect with Wine Brand Loyalists On December 9th, Constant Contact published a report detailing the average email open rates by industry type. The Retail/Direct Selling category shows an average open rate of 18.7% with a click-through rate of […]


How WELCOMING is your DTC Wine Brand?

As we prepare our Thanksgiving tables for time with family and friends, we also have an opportunity to thank long-term loyalists and top consumers. When we analyze key data points for a variety of winery clients across the nation, we identify key measures of success as well as areas for […]


Top 5 Tools for Developing Effective DTC Wine Compensation Plans

[Sandra Hess – October 12, 2021 – DTC Wine Sales Blog] Tool #1 – Start at the Top The January 2020 Pandemic taught us a lot about being nimble and adjusting. During this time of pandemic recovery, most wine regions throughout the US have suffered from staff shortages. We have […]


Ready to Offer Winery Concierge Services? Key Questions to Consider…

[Sandra Hess – August 19, 2021 – San Francisco, CA] With about 65% of US wineries falling into the “small (up to 5000 cases produce annually)” and “very small (up to 2500 cases produced annually)” categories, wine enthusiasts want more intimacy with brands they reinvest with. Over the past four […]