Hey wine pros! Here's my best advice for selling wine in a tasting room. - The Athan Zafirov Wine Blog

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Hey wine pros! Here's my best advice for selling wine in a tasting room.

It's busy season right now, and I'm sure my fellow wine pros who work in tasting room/direct-to-consumer sales have sales goals and membership signup quotas they're trying to meet.

I've sold a lot of wine in my career. Shit, I sold a lot of wine today. And, after a ton of trial and error, I found there's only one way to convince a guest to walk home with a case (or four):

Don't focus on the wine. Focus on the guest.

So many wine pros make the mistake of trying to geek out about the wine, but if you're just repeating a well-rehearsed spiel you'll have a hard time selling.

Almost no one cares about wine the way you care about wine. I bet that a detailed tasting note has never gotten you laid.

Wine is incredibly personal. If you want to sell wine to a guest, it helps to know why they've decided to trek across the state/country/world to visit you at your winery.

Questions to ask your guests

Forge a genuine connection with your guests by asking them questions and getting to know them.

Here's a list of questions to use as a jumping off point:

  • Where are you visiting from?
  • How has your vacation been going so far?
  • What other wineries have you visited?
  • What other wineries are you planning to visit?
  • Where are you staying?
  • What does the rest of your day look like?
  • Are you doing anything else while you're in insert geographical location, or are you just visiting wine country?
  • Have you visited insert geographical location before?
  • What's for dinner tonight?
  • Where have you eaten during your trip?
  • What kind of wine do you usually drink at home?
  • Have you visited insert winery before?
  • Why did you decide to visit insert geographical location?

Remember to listen more than you talk.

Good topics of conversation

Finding a (non wine-related) topic of conversation can help you connect with your guests and sell more wine. Here are topics that tend to work for me:

  • Hiking
  • Cooking/food
  • Dogs/cats/other pets
  • Skiing
  • Travel (especially international travel)
  • Movies
  • Music (especially festivals and live acts)
  • Art
  • Video games
  • The Golden State Warriors
  • Star Wars
  • Cannabis

People love to give advice, so when I find out that a guest has an obsessive passion I ask them to give me their best advice for n00bs. I've learned a lot of interesting shit this way.

Recommend other wineries

Since I live in wine country and I use the fuck out of the comped industry tasting perk, I have a lot of favorite local wineries.

When a guest tells me they love Zinfandel, I make sure to recommend Chase Cellars, Joseph Swan, and Robert Biale. When they ask about Merlot, I tell them they have to check out Robert Sinskey, Pride Mountain, and Frog's Leap.

This is legit helpful to your guests: you know more about wine than they do, and they're visiting your winery because they want to learn more about wine.

If they've got a gap in their schedule and you know of a winery you think they would like, offer to make a call to try and get an appointment for them. Admittedly, this works better once we get out of busy season.

Closing the sale

I like to ask for the sale, but my sales are worse when I do this by saying "is there anything I can send home with you today?"

I've found the best way to approach asking for the sale is as follows:

  1. I give them their final pour, and tell them they should make themselves completely at home. I want them to relax and enjoy.
  2. I tell them that they have an order form on the table.
  3. I say something along the lines of "Mark any wines you'd like to take home or ship on the order form. I'm happy to answer any questions about shipping when I come back to check on you."
  4. I offer more water and tell them I'm happy to get them any revisits if they'd like.
  5. I leave.

Look, I know that not everyone is going to buy wine from me, but I treat every person like they've already bought a case of wine. Buyers want the buying process to be clear, so I make it as clear as possible. This is the point where I'm all business – but since I've already formed a relationship with the guest, it doesn't come across as salesy.

Your company provides you with business cards for a reason.

And it's not just so you can get comp tastings at other wineries.

When a guest drops a bunch of money on a large wine order, bring them your card when you bring them their receipt. Tell them that you'd be happy to answer any questions they might have about upcoming vintages, and that they're welcome to email you if they need to stock up. Offer to help them with recommendations for their next trip to insert geographical location.

Sometimes, I write my (professional, wine-related) Instagram handle on my business card in pen. It helps my guests get in contact with me even if I switch jobs (not that I'm planning to, since I've currently got my dream gig). But, more importantly, it's a great way to network.

TLDR

  • Instead of geeking out about wine, get to know the guest
  • Ask them questions, and find areas of mutual interest
  • Provide excellent customer service by recommending other wineries and making purchases easy
  • Drop your business card and treat the sale like a networking opportunity

Good luck out there, fellow nerds. If any of you are currently working as tasting room staff in the Napa Valley, feel free to send me a message if you want to connect professionally. And AMA if you have any questions about tasting room sales, I'm happy to answer them.





Athan Zafirov Wine

For 15 years, Athan Zafirov has traveled the vineyards around the world and worked with some of the greatest chefs including Francois Duc and Alan Brown.


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