Internship - touton

Jean-Augustin Touton
Internship report
June 6, 2016

Internship report at Monsieur
Touton Selection LTD

By Jean-Agustin Touton

Length of internship: Four days from May 31st to July 3rd

Company name: Company Logo:
Monsieur Touton Selection LTD

Postal Address:
129 West 27th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001

School name: School Logo:
Lycée Français de New York

School Postal address:
505 EAST 75TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021

Person in charge of internship:
Maxime Touton - Contact details: email: [email protected]

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Index

Acknowledgment………………………………………………………………………Page 4
Monsieur Touton Selection LTD………………………………………………………Page 5
The Future of the company ……………………………………………………………Page 9
My internship ………………………………………………………………………….Page 10
Conclusion ..……………………………………………………………………………Page 13

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Acknowledgement

Thank you to:
Maxime Touton ( NY sales manager) , Greg d’Agostino (salesman/ sales rep), William

Raskin (salesman/ sales rep), Ruth Donohue (salesman/ sales rep), and Domenico Bentivenga
(salesman/ sales rep).

I would like to officially thank all of these people for helping me with not only my internship but
with my common knowledge of businesses. These people have helped me make my decisions for
the future decisions.

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Monsieur Touton Selection LTD

Monsieur Touton selection LTD is a wine importing company founded in 1983 by
Guillaume Touton. The company represents over 3500 different wines from all over the world. It
buys wine from the Vineyard, also known as the supplier, imports it from the vineyard either in
containers in ships or in trucks. The wine is shipped in cases of 6 or 12 on a pallet. The wine
does not go directly to the buyer; it goes to a warehouse where it is stored until it is sold. The
company headquarters is situated on the lower east side of manhattan. It has an importing and
distributing license in fourteen states :Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts , Maine,
Vermont, New Hampshire. This means that the company can import wine into the state and then
sell it to retail who sells it to consumers. It then has another fourteen states who only have an
importing license: Kansas Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North and south Carolina,
Georgia, Utah, Colorado, indianan, Texas, Washington, Nevada. In these states the company can
only import wine, this means that it cannot sale to retail with it’s own salesmen. The company
sells to another distributor who has a distribution license who then sells to another state. In the
future, Monsieur Touton Selection plans to purchase their own trucks due to the increasing size
of the company, but for the meantime the company’s trucking company is: Fleetwood
forwarding, the warehouse company is Hanover, and the overseas container shipping company is
JF Hilbrand.

The main division of the company is the sales division of course, but the sales force can’t
operate by itself; it needs support from other parts of the company. For example the Headquarters
in NY contains multiple different divisions.

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Sales and management:
The sales force is the focal point of the company. The sales force consists of: salesmen and brand
managers.

The position of salesman is someone who goes out into the field and visits his
accounts, which is a restaurant, liquor store or wholesale market, an presents wines to sell to
them. Though this job seems simple, it is not. Finding an account is extremely difficult. You must
go see a said liquor store, restaurant or wholesale market, see if they need anything, if the
competition has not already taken them as a customer, if the answer to all that is no then you
must still create a lasting relationship with the customer so that they continue to purchase your
product. The salesmen don’t rely sorely on in-store encounters to open up accounts. They can
also advertise the company through magazines (wine spectator) or even fairs such as Wine-expo
or ProWein.

The position of Brand manager is the same as a salesman but it is more focused
on one brand hence the name “Brand manager”. The Brand manager does everything a salesman
does except for one thing: he only sells one brand of wine. For example, Tim Cousins is the
brand manager for Louis Latour and he only sells that band and advertises it. Usually brand
managers are only appointed to high end wine as it sells better when appointed a brand manager.

Marketing and graphic design:
The Marketing and Graphic design teams are also incredibly important. They are the people who
design and print the product book, the labels, brochures and “shelf-talkers.”

Logistics:

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The logistics department is basically shipping, getting the wine from the vineyard to the stores. It
consists of three companies. The warehouse company Hanover, The trucking company
Fleetwood, and the container company JF Hilbrand.

Customer service:

The customer service wing is fairly basic but very necessary. If a case is misplaced and broken,
or missing, etc… Customer service is there to resolve any issues that common or rare issues that
happen with the wine

Finance/accounting:

The accounting branch is there to take care of everything financial. The accounting branch is
what pays the employees, deals with almost everything legally, they do everything that involves
money. They pay the shipping companies. If anybody wishes to purchase anything with company
money, he or she must first come to terms with accounting. Accounting is the base of the
company.

Purchasing:

The purchasing branch deals with supply. It purchases the inventory from the vineyards. If the
purchasing branch sees an item that is selling well and quickly they will restock it as soon as they
can. If they see otherwise they will know not to purchase that item again.

IT:

The IT department deals with everything technical. They created the website for the customers,
they created the app for the salesmen to make the process a lot simpler. They do not seem very
important but they truly are because they have access to every electric document in the company.
They also supply everyone with a device so that they can work more efficiently.

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NYC main office positions :

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The Future of the company

In the graph we can see that the consumption of wine in the US is currently on the rise. This is a
necessary statistic for the growth of the company. If the demand does not rise neither ca the
supply, and what this graph shows us is that demand and supply are on the rise.

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The future of the company does not sorely rely on legacy. The company also has future
CEOs in mind. Once Guillaume Touton, the current CEO, retires his nephew Maxime Touton,
current NYC Manager, will become CEO. Maxime will stay CEO until an undetermined date
where Jean-Augustin Touton will become CEO. That is the future of the company so far.

My Internship

Day 1:

On the first day I was put under the charge of Gregory d’Agostino, one of the oldest on
the Touton salesforce. In the office we gathered 3 different bottles for tastings with our clients:
Mimi en Provence rosé, Chateau saint Baillon 2015 rosé, and Domaine Roc de Chateauvieux
sauvignon blanc of Touraine. Before heading out, Greg did a quick tasting to see if the wines
were corked or had any imperfections. After everything was set and ready, we headed out. In
total we visited nine liquor stores : City Hall Fine Wines and Spirits, House of Wine and Liquor,
MJK Wine and Liquors, Landmark wine and Spirits, Chelsea Wine Cellar, Aloha Wines and
Spirits, Elman’s Wine and Liquors. When we first entered each store we greeted the store owners
and Greg introduced me to the buyers. In some liquor stores the owners are not the buyers. The
owners hire people who have more knowledge in wine and spirits to buy for them. Every time
we entered a new store to sell there was always small talk with the customer. This small talk is
there to create a friendly relationship with the buyer. If the buyer trusts and likes the salesman,
there will almost always be a sale. After the small talk was over, Greg offered a small tasting of
the samples available. The buyer is always king, and he or she is the one to decide. Since
relationship is the most important aspect of a sale you cannot push or pull the buyer, you must
simply sway them, set up the sale, not force them. At the end of the day we sold a total of fifty
five cases.

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Day 2:

On the second day I was paired with William Raskin, one of the best salesmen in the
Touton salesforce. William’s accounts are primarily liquor stores located all throughout
Brooklyn. With William we visited: Brighton Discount Liquors, Best Buy Liquors, Colony Wines
and Liquors, Come and Go liquors, Franny Lew Wine and Liquor, Grand Wine and liquor,
Heights Chateau, Longs Wine and Liquor, G I Liquor world, L and A Liquors, Scotto’s wine
cellar, Sam Wine and Liquor, Towne Liquors, and Veranda Restaurant and cafe. That day, we
brought couple different samples with us, we brought the Touton Bordeaux red wine and a half
bottle of Bollinger champagne. We only brought two samples with us because the samples that
William ordered did not ship in time. Because of this we asked our first customers Brighton
Discount Liquors if we could borrow some of their bottles as products. William had a very
different selling tactic than Greg. Though during the visits small talk was always prominent,
William’s main tactic was to be totally honest. He only brought things to his customers that he
liked, and if the customer didn’t like the wine he would get something else. Though this method
seems simple, one of the things that a customer appreciates most is honesty. William doesn’t sell,
he helps the customer make their store better, this honesty is what makes him such a great
salesman. On the second day William and I sold a total of 187 and a half cases.

Day 3:

On the third day I saw what it was like outside of NY state. So at 8:30 am I took a train at
Grand central and headed to Westport Connecticut. At the train station my mentor for the day
was waiting for me: Ruth Donohue. Ruth is a saleswoman in the state of Connecticut.
Connecticut and New York are very different in terms of sales because in Connecticut there are
no deals on cases. For example in New York if you buy 1 case of a wine for 160$ there may be a
deal for three cases at 140$ a case. In Connecticut, these deals do not exist making it much more
difficult to sell more. With Ruth we visited: Bottle shop, Bevmax the wine and liquor superstore

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(in both locations), Cost less wine and liquor superstore, Cranberry wines and liquors, Greens-
Farms Spirit, Crazy Grapes, King’s Corner (parkway liqs), Liquor locker of westport, Leary’s
liquor Cabinet, New Canaan Wine, Rowayton Wine and spirits, White bridge Liquor, Warehouse
wine and Liquor (Stamford), and Westport wine and spirits. During the day we traveled from
place to place auditioning three different wines: The Touton rosé, and two rosé en provence both
from the same vineyard but made from different grapes and they both had different maceration
times. When it came to Ruth’s selling strategy I couldn’t quite figure it out so I asked her. She
replied that she did not have one. That’s when I realized that truly there isn't really a strategy, you
just need to be nice. the relationship she had with her customers was that of a friend. Ruth is an
incredibly friendly woman who keeps nice relationships with her customers, this makes the
customers want to buy from her. On that day we sold a total of 143.25 cases.

Day 4:

The fourth day was a much calmer day. Friday are very quiet in the wine industry
because during the weekends the shipping companies don’t do next day shipping, so the stores
don’t bother ordering on Fridays. So on Friday I was put with Domenico (nico) Bentivenga, an
Italian. That day we did not go and sell any wine because no one buys on fridays as I just
explained but we simply went to say hello and stay friendly to Nico’s accounts. Since Fridays are
slow days we worked in the office for the most part and only went out into the field from 12 to 3.
But even during those hours we managed to go see 7 different accounts.

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Conclusion

During my internship I realized that being a wine salesman looks like a great job and it
looks like something I would want to do. I very much enjoyed the job because it requires no
intense backbreaking work, it is always different, never the same, and it’s fun. Here is a list of
what I learned:

- Always be courteous : If you are rude to the customer in any way you will not make
the sale and you will not be able to maintain a good relationship with the customer, thus not
making the sale.

- Know your stuff and don’t invent: There is nothing worse than a salesman who
doesn’t know what he is selling. If a question is asked you do not know the answer to always be
honest and say that you do not know.

- Be Honest: Being dishonest is a horrible thing to do with a customer. They will not
trust you and not want to buy from you.

Thus, the role of a salesman is to be truthful and have a nice lasting relationship with a
customer, this will make sales easy as the buyer trusts you and your opinion.

Bibliography:

Wine consumption in the US: http://www.davethewinemerchant.com/onlinewineshop/tag/wine-
consumption-trends/

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