The No Thank You Economy

Gary Vaynerchuck's entertaining and thought provoking book entitled the Thank You Economy is certainly of the current zeitgeist. The book is at one end of the social media spectrum - the end that chooses not to question the return on investment of Social Media, taking it for granted in the same way that few would question the return on investment of your mum. More analytical commentators on social media such as Dan Zarella choose to measure the performance of all key indicators in a bid to demonstrate the impact of social media in a way hitherto neglected.

However, reading Vaynerchuck's work, compelling as it is, I wondered whether caring for our clients is really at the heart of some businesses' (or indeed industries')problems.

Alliance Wine is a business that has cared for its clients from day one and whilst the company has grown significantly, this has never changed. Directors still drop the odd case off for a desperate restaurateur on a Friday evening and no customer dissatisfaction goes unanswered or neglected. And we are not alone - whilst the wine industry is not guilty of being overly innovative, it does generally care for the people within it and for its consumers. A lack of caring just isn't the issue...

Indeed, somewhere else in Vaynerchuck's book lies the clue to some of the UK industry's current problems - think about the title. More often than not, when we think about "thank you" we think about the word "yes" and herein lies the rub.

We are an industry that say "yes thank you" far too often and it is to our detriment. Due to a fragmented, highly competitive supply base that sells to a consolidated, all powerful retail culture, the wine industry has become scared of saying no to deals that simply do not stack up.

At London Wine Trade Fair this year, a conversation with a leading Australian winemaker was enlightening. UK buyers have got used to being all powerful on their trips to an oversupplied, ailing Australian wine market and almost without exception, the answer has been yes to any vaguely reasonable offer to buy large quantities of wine at below cost prices. However, this particular winemaker, having been approached by a buyer for one of the big UK retailers had the audacity to not only refuse a visit but to say that they were not interested in supplying. The bemused buyer, when on Australian soil, called again but was told the same thing - not interested, no thank you.

This is a vital step - the producer may well have had some wine to sell but not at any cost and it is only by more people doing this that we will change both the way that the buyers approach the product but also how the consumers are catered for.

The Australian winemaker was not the only one talking about "No Thank You" at the London fair - there was a general feeling that something has to change, we need to be in a strong enough position to turn away business that will ultimately damage the industry.

Elsewhere in the UK trade, the position is similar, though not on quite the same scale. Within the on-trade in the UK, the legal system is regularly abused by unscrupulous operators who open and close limited companies at the drop of a hat - killing off small suppliers indiscriminantly. Numerous are the cases where an operator, already in a voluntary arrangement, will be offered further credit by suppliers desperate to take advantage of the situation. We need to learn to say "No Thank You"

In Paul Henry's recent blog on the New Currency, he talks about how, in the new economy, instinct will be more important than learning but perhaps the truth lies somewhere inbetween. Most of us know when we do a bad deal, one that is for the short term, one that may damage our future. So, we should learn from our mistakes and use that instinct to be more discerning and when faced with the lure of the short term over the long term, politely say "No Thank You"