Category: Buying/Selling

Selling wine from a retail shop takes a person who is knowledgeable, fair and honest.  Over the past 40 years I have worked at three wine retail shops.  My primary job was to educate customers about wines and help them select the wine for them.

 

Knowledgeable  This is a key ingredient for any salesman.  To properly sell any product you have to know and understand that product.   Many times a customer would select a bottle of wine and ask me how it is.   If I have never had that wine, my answer would be.   I have never tasted that wine, but the vineyard has a good reputation, the grape from that region is known for its light and fruity appeal.   So, I am going to assume, its going to be something like that.   If you would like, I could show you something that I have personally tasted and is in the same grape and price point.    The worse thing any salesman can do is try to make up a story, lie to the customer about the product.  Its much better to just say,  I dont really know, but I will find out

Fair  When a customer comes in looking for a bottle of wine to serve with dinner, I would generally ask three questions

1.  What are you having for dinner?
2.  Are you an avid wine drinker or just starting out?
3. What is your price point?

This sets the stage so that I can start narrowing down the type of wine that I believe would best suite the customer.   Play fair.  Keeping in mind the answer to those three questions, should allow you to select a number of different wines.   Once I do get it down to a few, then I ask more questions about their likes and dislikes about wine.   I also tell them to throw away the notion that you have to have White wine with Fish and Red wine with Meat.   Whats more important is what you like.   If you dont like dry wines, but prefer sweet, then I will find a nice sweet wine for you.

 Honest  This is so much easier for a wine salesman than the owner of the store.  The owner needs to make sure the store is profitable, so they purchase wines that will give them the largest return of profit.     Sometimes those wines are good, but at times they are just borderline.    So, when the owner works with customers, more than likely they are going to direct the customer to those wines.   Its all about the money to them and it is their business.    Now on the other hand, since, I had no direct ties to profit, I do not have to worry about the profit margins (but still as an employee, I do have to keep that in mind) I could find wines that would be best for the customer, not what is just best for the store.   It could be one of those sale wines, but the key here would be to find the right wine for the person.   My biggest thrill  is when a customer  comes back and tells me how much they liked the wine I selected for them.   At that point,  I’ve established trust and confidence with the customer and they will generally allow me to select their wines for them in the future.

ONE MAJOR TIP FOR WINE SALESMAN
Never talk big wine snobbery words to a customer.   You do not need to use a lot of fancy wine jargon or terms that may go right over the head of a new customer.   Try to identify their level of wine experience and work with that.  Make the customer feel comfortable with you.   That will go a long way.

Buying wine can be a scary experience for many people.  There are so many selections, so many different wines to choice from.   The wine displays are like advertisements.  They  have so many great words to say about the wine,  they provide descriptions of the wine and  many times a point value is displayed.    Than you  add the salesman who will attempt to steer you in the right direction.   But I have found from working in retail stores and being a customer myself, there are some basics that you need to understand.

What type of wine are you looking for and for what reason ?    
How much do you want to spend ?
What are your likes and dislikes ?
The Label

What Type and Why  This is very important.   You may be coming into a store just to find a bottle of wine that you can enjoy with that special someone that evening just to relax and enjoy each other.   Or you could be looking for a wine to serve with dinner with friends.   Still you could be selecting a wine to impress a business associate.   As you can see, there are many reasons why someone wants to buy a bottle of wine.  Once you know which of these is important to you, you should be able to work with a wine salesman to help you.   If not, take your time, browse  the aisles, look at all the displays, read all the descriptions about the wine.   While some of the descriptions may sound so exciting, some may seem foreign to you.  They may talk about the wine having an apricot nose, a jammy finish, currant overtones.  Dont worry about that in the beginning.  Then there is the Point rating system.  There are three major wine organizations that rate  wines and give a point value to them.   You will always find those wines that have a 90 or above rating.   That is suppose to indicate the quality of the wine.   Two things to keep in mind here.  That does not mean that you are going to like that wine!  and secondly, many of those points are advertising related and like any other marketing industry there are some gives/takes on how a review is done

The Cost  This is an important consideration.  If you are basically new to wine, I would suggest not spending a lot of money on a bottle of wine.   There are so many very good wines that you can purchase in the $8 to $12 range.    So many customers have asked me over the years,  Is a $100 bottle of wine ten times better than a $10 bottle?   My answer is generally No, but it  depends.   For many people new to wine that $100 bottle is not going to be to their liking, mainly due to some of the complexity of that wine.   While experienced wine drinkers will say yes.  It really depends on your level of wine experience and appreciation.   For the person first buying wines, it is a good idea to purchase 4 or 5 wines of different grapes styles (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Rose, etc) all about the same price range.   Take the home and try them out to see which ones you really like.   Then the next time you go shopping,  try another vineyard of the grape style that you liked.   Then after several months, purchase those same grape styles, but at slightly higher price.   Do this slowly and see if you can notice any differences between the same type of wine, but at different price points.

Likes and Dislikes  This is very subjective.  Each person has their own likes and dislikes about anything.  The same goes for wine.   Some people dislike any wine that is dry and will drink only sweet wines.   Then you have some people that say they dont like wine at all, or they done like red wine or white wine.   I’ve always believed there is a wine for everyone,  you just have to find it.  In the beginning, I suggest sticking with your likes, but I also encourage people to branch out after a while.   I have found that people who like sweet wines, the more they try different wines, they start to gravitate to drier wines.  And for those folks that say, I dont like wine at all  The white or red blends are perfect wines for them.  They are generally soft and so easy to drink.  Any salesman should be able to so you the many blends that are on the market today.

The Label This can be a two edged sword.  Wine labels contain detailed information about the wine, almost to the point where you can anticipate what the wine will taste like.    But on the other hand, because of smart marketing ideas, there will be labels that will just catch your eye.  So many people have purchased wines because they like the label without knowing anything about the wine or type!

To buy wines on a regular basis,  it is important to get to know your salesman.  You may want to visit many different wine retail shops to look over their inventory, their displays and  to talk with some of their salesman.   Is the person pushy?  Are they just trying to sell you any wine?   Or will they spend time with you listening  

to what you like and dont like, etc  When you find a salesman that you can trust, then you will have made your wine buying that much easier.

Over time, you will develop better skills in selecting the wines that you want. Part of this process is also finding a wine salesman  that you trust and know that they are working with you to find the right wine at the right price just for you.

In the end, purchasing wine should be a fun event, something that you can look forward to do and find excitement about all the different wines.