Sales capabilities in the wine industry: an analysis of the current scenario and emerging trends

Purpose – Although sales activities in the wine industry are becoming increasingly important, there has been little research on the sales capabilities in wine businesses. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by examining the most important salesperson and sales management capabilities and emerging trends related to the management of sales capabilities in the wine industry. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical analysis based on an explorative research design was conducted in the Italian wine industry. Sales directors from 4 of the 30 largest Italian wine producers were interviewed. Textual data were analysed using template analysis. Findings – Analysis of the findings revealed the most important capabilities of salespeople and sales managers and identified four emerging trends related to sales capability management in the wine industry – capabilities enrichment, capabilities balance, capabilities specialisation and capabilities acquisition process. Research limitations/implications – Given that only large wine producers in the Old World were interviewed, caution should be exercised before extending the findings to small and medium-sized players and to those in the New World. Practical implications – The trends identified in this study provide actionable insights for designing strategies to manage sales capabilities in wine businesses. Originality/value – This was one of the first studies to address the capabilities of salespeople and sales managers and to provide an in-depth examination of sales capability management trends in the wine industry.