Guide
Tracking samples and tastings by account
Samples are the inventory that leaves in a rep's bag and comes back as an order, or does not. Here is how to record them so you can tell which, and how to keep samples pulled and tastings poured from being mistaken for each other.
Why samples deserve their own books
Sampling is how wine gets sold. A buyer tastes, a placement follows, and the sample bottle was the cost of that sale. It is also the most loosely tracked inventory in most distributors: bottles leave the warehouse on a sample sheet or a text to the ops manager, live in a car for a week, and are poured across accounts nobody writes down.
That looseness costs four things. Inventory drifts, because the bottles are gone but the count is not. Cost disappears, because nobody can say what sampling spent last month. Supplier support goes unclaimed, because reimbursement needs a record. And the one number that justifies the whole program, how many tastings turned into first orders, cannot be computed at all.
Two numbers, not one
The confusion at the center of most sampling reports is treating samples and tastings as the same thing.
- Samples pulled is an inventory number: bottles that left stock for sampling, counted in bottles, by SKU and vintage, with a cost.
- Tastings is an activity number: the times a wine was poured for an account, counted in events, by account and rep.
One bottle can serve five tastings across a day of calls. One tasting can pour six bottles for a wine list review. So the two counts move independently, and a “total samples” figure that adds them, or reports one while calling it the other, says nothing. Keep both, label both, and never sum them.
The records a sampling program needs
Two records, linked. A sample pull when bottles leave inventory:
| Field | What it holds | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| SKU and vintage | The exact bottle, not just the wine | A 2022 that converts and a 2023 that does not are different facts |
| Quantity in bottles | How many left inventory | Feeds inventory, cost, and the supplier's sample support |
| Rep and date | Who took it and when | Samples per rep per month is the first number a manager asks for |
| Cost | Landed cost per bottle at the time of the pull | Cost per placement is meaningless without it |
| Purpose | Account tasting, trade show, staff training, internal | Only account tastings should count toward conversion |
A tasting when a wine is poured for an account:
| Field | What it holds | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Account and contact | Who tasted, by name | The buyer who tasted is the one to follow up with |
| Date and rep | When and by whom | Starts the attribution window |
| Wines poured | Each SKU and vintage on the table | Links the tasting back to the sample pulls |
| Reaction | A line of feedback per wine | Suppliers value this more than the count |
| Next step | Follow-up task, quote, or sample list to send | A tasting with no next step is a bottle spent |
| Outcome | First order of that SKU by that account within the window | The only number that says whether sampling works |
The link between them is the SKU and vintage. From there, every question a manager or supplier asks is a query: what did we pour for this account, what did this rep pull this month, which wines convert, what did it cost.
How to run it day to day
- Pull samples on their own order type. A sample order draws down inventory like any order but is flagged so it never lands in sales, depletions, commissions, or billbacks. Mixing sample lines into a regular order is how a free bottle becomes a paid one on the invoice, or a sold one in the depletion report.
- Give each rep a sample list, not a free-for-all. The wines being pushed this month, with the supplier's notes and the price the buyer will see, so a tasting turns into a quote on the spot.
- Log the tasting at the account, in the moment. Which wines, who tasted, what they said, what happens next. A tasting logged that evening from memory loses the reaction, and the reaction is what the supplier pays for.
- Attach a next step. A follow-up date, a sample list to send, or a draft order. The next step is what makes the tasting a lead instead of a memory.
- Reconcile monthly. Bottles pulled per rep, bottles poured in logged tastings, and what is still in the car should roughly agree. A gap is either unlogged tastings or missing bottles, and both are worth knowing.
What to measure
- Conversion rate: tastings that led to a first order of that SKU by that account within the window, by wine, by rep, by account type.
- Cost per placement: sample cost pulled for a wine divided by the placements it earned. The number that decides which wines keep getting sampled.
- Samples per rep per month, in bottles and in cost, beside that rep's new placements.
- Tastings at dormant accounts. Sampling is the cheapest way to reopen an account that has stopped ordering; measure it separately from new-account tastings.
- Supplier support claimed versus pulled, by supplier, so sampling allowances are actually collected.
Compliance and supplier reimbursement
Samples are regulated product. States commonly limit how much a wholesaler may give a retailer free per brand in a period, and some want samples recorded or reported. On Virginia's monthly ABC wine report, for example, samples are their own category alongside taxable and tax-exempt sales, which is only possible if sample pulls were recorded as samples in the first place. The state-by-state compliance guide covers the rest of that filing.
On the supplier side, sample stock and sampling allowances are part of most distribution agreements, and suppliers increasingly want to see the sampling activity itself: which accounts tasted which wines, what they said, and which tastings became placements. A distributor that can show that record gets more sample support and a stronger case at the annual review.
The mistakes that hide whether sampling works
- Samples inside regular orders, where they inflate depletions, earn commission, or get invoiced.
- No vintage on the pull. The wine that converted was a specific vintage; the next one may not.
- Tastings logged without the account, so there is nothing to attribute a first order to.
- No outcome field, which turns the sampling report into a list of bottles rather than a conversion rate.
- A single “total samples” number that is sometimes bottles, sometimes events, and never comparable month to month.
- Car inventory nobody counts, so the gap between pulled and poured is invisible until the physical count.
- Suppliers kept in the dark, so sample support is decided on anecdote instead of the record.
How PYLR handles it
Samples in PYLR are pulled on sample orders: sample lines are rejected on regular orders, an order made entirely of samples is labeled sample-only for the warehouse, and sample lines stay out of depletions, commissions, and billback calculations. Samples pulled is the sum of bottles on those lines. Tastings are logged from the rep's phone as activities with each wine poured, tied to the account and contact, with feedback and a follow-up task, and sampling analytics show conversion and cost by wine, rep, and account. Reps carry sample lists priced from the current import list, and connected suppliers see sampling activity for their wines from first pour to first order.
See wine sales rep software for the rep side and depletion reporting for what suppliers see.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between samples pulled and tastings?
Samples pulled are bottles that left inventory for sampling: an inventory number, counted in bottles. Tastings are the times a wine was poured for an account: an activity number, counted in events. One bottle can serve several tastings, and a tasting can pour several bottles. Report them separately and never add them together.
Do samples count as depletions?
No. A depletion is wine sold to an account. Samples leave inventory without a sale, so they are tracked as their own movement and excluded from depletion totals. Many suppliers still want to see sampling activity alongside depletions, which is a different report.
How long after a tasting does a first order count as a placement?
Pick one window and use it everywhere. Thirty days is common for on-premise accounts that decide quickly; sixty or ninety days suits retailers who reset shelves on a schedule. The number matters less than consistency, because conversion rates are only comparable across reps and wines if the window is the same.
Are there legal limits on samples?
Often. Many states cap how much a wholesaler may give a retailer free of charge per brand in a period, and some require samples to be recorded or reported. Virginia's monthly ABC wine report, for example, carries samples as their own category separate from taxable sales. Check your state's rule before setting a sampling policy, and keep the record that proves you followed it.
Who pays for samples?
It depends on the supplier agreement. Some suppliers ship sample stock free, some credit a sampling allowance against invoices, and some expect the distributor to absorb it. Whatever the deal, it can only be settled if samples are recorded by supplier, SKU, and cost at the moment they are pulled.
What about a bottle a rep opens and pours across several accounts?
Record one sample pull for the bottle and one tasting per account it was poured for. The pull tracks inventory and cost; the tastings track who tasted what. That is exactly why the two numbers have to be separate.
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