Sébastien is the 4th generation of a family estate in Chinon, in the Loire Valley.
16 hectares of Cabernet Franc on tuffeau slopes.
80,000 bottles a year, and a full storage after 2 generous harvests.
After months of prospecting, he finally had a serious lead in Denmark: an organic supermarket and caviste distributor with 30 stores.
The buyer loved the wine.
The samples, shipped with Danish back labels, had convinced everyone at the tasting.
Then came the email.
"We are ready to order 3 pallets. But to enter the Danish market, you need to lower your Ex-Works price by 15%."
His brother read it first, and panicked.
"15% is nothing. It is Denmark. It is volume. If we refuse, we lose the deal."
Sébastien opened the spreadsheet instead.
15% off the Ex-Works price meant their entire operational margin gone.
They would prune, harvest, vinify, bottle, and ship 3 pallets for exactly €0 of profit.
And the cash flow would not survive a second deal like that.
Worse: once you enter a market at a discounted price, that price becomes your price forever.
Every re-order would be negotiated down from the discount.
Every other Danish buyer would hear about it within weeks.
His brother insisted.
"You do not understand export. That is how it works."
Sébastien understood something else.
The buyer was not asking for a discount because the wine was too expensive.
The buyer was asking because nobody had shown him the real numbers.
That is when Sébastien changed method.
Instead of negotiating against himself by email, he looked for someone who could defend the price face to face, in Danish, with data.
A commission-only commercial agent, paid on results, not on promises.
No middleman on retainer, no trade fair booth, no surrender.
Using the CommsOnly frameworks, Sébastien sourced and vetted Mads.
A Copenhagen-based agent with 12 years of experience selling French wines to Danish retail.
Mads did not argue about the price.
He rebuilt the conversation around landed cost.
Bottle by bottle: transport, duties, taxes, shelf price, and the buyer's margin per bottle sold.
The math was clear: at full Ex-Works price, the distributor still made a healthy margin.
The 15% demand was a habit, not a necessity.
3 weeks later, the deal closed.
3 pallets left the warehouse at full Ex-Works price, payment upfront by wire transfer.
Without a single sales trip: no flights, no hotel and travel costs.
The wine hit the 30 stores, and it sold.
Re-orders every 2 months since, at the same price.
His brother has stopped giving pricing advice.
Sébastien now lets the spreadsheet talk first.
Sébastien didn't find Mads by discounting his way into Denmark; he sourced and onboarded his new commission-only agent right from his cellar in Chinon, using the exact frameworks we share inside the CommsOnly Mastermind with our selected producers.