How new technologies allowed me to go to Vinexpo in Bordeaux.
It was Tuesday. Vinexpo had started on Sunday and ended on Thursday and I had no reservation in a hotel in Bordeaux. There are 700 kilometers from Madrid to Bordeaux.
I decided to go by car if I got a room in a hotel at good price. I got into booking.com, but I couldn’t find anything in Bordeaux below 200 euros per night.
Then I looked in San Sebastian and Irun which are cities halfway from Madrid to Bordeaux. I found a hotel, The Ibys at 60 euros per night. I booked it and decided that if I didn’t get a room at good price in Bordeaux I would use the same hotel in this same city on the way back.
But what was the exact address of the fair in Bordeaux? I got into vinexpo.com , but … would I know how get to the show? I grabbed the iPhone mapping application that accurately showed the number of miles and how to get to the fair.
I went home and made my suitcase and started my 700 kilometer journey. To keep me entertained I had transferred to my Iphone all the conferences that I had attended the previous week in “La red innova”. After having listened to all of them on this journey I think I could recite them by heart. They were pretty interesting!
After having slept in Irun I went to the fair arriving at 2PM, without having to ask anyone directions (and without getting lost). At 4 PM I decided to look again at booking.com, I found a tiny hotel in the center at 85 euros per night. I grinned because I knew I was staying this night in Bordeaux.
I arrived at the hotel. To get there, was not an easy task, but with the help of my Iphone I had the impression I could go any place in the world. They gave me the key and the code to enter to the hotel wifi. I read my email , and went to the Vinexpo website again to prepare some of the visits to certain stands that I wanted to schedule. I also visited several websites of potential clients in order to have a clearer idea of what was their positioning, image, products, awards, who was behind them, their facilities, and their history.
How simple it is to prepare an appointment if you have good information about the people you are going to meet!
As I left the hotel in the evening I asked for good places for dinner in Bordeaux. The answer I had was something like… “you go right, and then you take left and after right…. No Sir! Tell me the name of the street and I will find it on my Iphone. ¿Is it an 8 minute walk? Ok. I felt as comfortable as if I was at home.
On the next day I returned to Vinexpo with no hesitation. I paid a fee to have wifi on my laptop which allowed me to show to my contacts several demos and emails that I thought could be helpful on the visit.
Is everything I am talking about here “High tech”? I wouldn’t say so. What have I done? Just the same things I would have done 20 years ago. But now, thanks to the new technologies I can do many more things, and particularly in this case I would not have made the trip without them.
Will I sell or not because of this trip? I still don’t know, but I do know is that I have done all I could do to get results. Helped and complemented by the new technologies. And for sure I would not have sold anything if I had not gone.
Now I am talking directly to the wineries.
Do you think you’re taking advantage of new technologies to sell? Allow me to answer for you. I’m sure you don’t. How do wineries sell wine? For the most part in front of the buyer physically the first time. You could take advantage of the Internet a lot more than you do, to find interesting prospects, or allow these prospects to find you. You could take advantage of much of the new technology to keep in touch with the people you’ve come to know in the real world
Do you want to sell more? Get with it!
This post in Spanish: Cómo las nuevas tecnologías me permitieron ir a Vinexpo en Burdeos.











