Getting more sales analytics manpower with AI w/ Jeremy Hart, Somm.ai — XChateau Wine Podcast

The on-premise side of wine analytics has traditionally been a black hole, not covered by other data services. Somm.ai changed that when they launched in 2021, now covering ~100k on-premise accounts in the US alone. The richness of data allows Somm.ai to help their clients benchmark, prospect for new accounts, and so much more. Jeremy Hart, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Somm.ai, explains how it is more manpower vs a platform to accelerate on-premise sales.

Detailed Show Notes:

Jeremy’s background: restaurants, wholesale, importing

TX became a major wine market during ‘08 Global Financial Crisis; it took the allocations from NY and CA

Somm.ai founding: end of 2019 was originally an app for people to find restaurants with wines they wanted to drink; during the pandemic (2020) pivoted to turning restaurant wine lists into retail shops (sold ~$700k of wine); did some smart menus; 2021 launched current iteration of on-premise sales analytics

Categorizes restaurants, bars, & hotels in US (100k accounts), Canada, Europe (6 countries, Germany largest w/ 3k accounts), Singapore; data updated every 2 weeks
Jackson Family is longest client - w/ NBA partnership, Somm.ai developed target lists around NBA stadiums to sell into
~70 clients of all sizes (many large suppliers, e.g. - Terlato, Vintus, Concha y Toro, wholesalers, importers)

General use cases include:

Benchmarking vs peers (accounts, placements)
Prospecting and lead generation (can see accounts that other distributors cover)
Identify brand extensions
Help with pricing
Identifying sales pitches for national accounts

ROI

Some clients have moved up a lot in benchmarking ranks
Save money on travel, focused on the right markets
Can save manpower

Pricing ~$30-70k/year avg, includes unlimited training and unlimited seats, US and Canada (other geographies are an upcharge)

Product roadmap - expanding to more geographies, which can be temporary exclusivity for early partners

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