This definitive book offers the first focused guide for developing personal wine-selling skills. The authors approach is based on a clear understanding of the principles, strategies, and practices used by leading wine professionals. Step by step, the authors explain how to develop relationships, understand customer needs, and deliver both products and sales presentations in an efficient and effective way.

Based on the authors over six decades of combined research, consulting, and teaching in personal selling skills, the book draws on their countless interviews and interactions with effective sales professionals in the wine and broader hospitality industries. Many of their ideas have been incorporated into the unique consultative selling skills framework they develop in this manual. The strategies they outline will be invaluable for all those seeking to start or enhance a career in wine sales. For anyone who wishes to pursue a career in the wine industry, whether their focus is distribution, retail sales, sommelier sales at a restaurant, or working in a winery tasting room, this book will be an invaluable launching point.

Paul Wagner is founder of Balzac Communications& Marketing. He has been an instructor for Napa Valley College's viticulture and enology department for the past twenty-five years. In addition he teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, is a guest lecturer at many universities, and speaks regularly at international wine conferences. He is the coauthor ofWine Marketing& Sales: Success Strategies for a Saturated Market, which won the 2008 Gourmand International Award for the best wine book of the year for professionals.

John C. Crotts is professor of hospitality and tourism management in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He is coauthor ofSelling Hospitality: A Situational Approach.

Byron Marlowe is clinical assistant professor of hospitality and wine business management in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University, where he coordinates the wine and business management program.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
SECTION I: PROFESSIONAL FOUNDATIONS
1Wine Sales: Foundations for Success
2Buyer-Supplier Relationships and Compliance Regulations in the Wine Industry
3The Exchange of Value between Buyers and Sellers
4The Organization of a Sales Force
5Direct-to-Consumer Sales
SECTION II: THE CONSULTATIVE SALES PROCESS
6Buyer Motivations and Presales Call Planning
7Precall Research
8Call Opening
9Probing the Customers Needs
10Supporting the Needs of Your Customers
11Closing the Sale
12Negotiating Customer Concerns
13Selling to a Lack of Interest
SECTION III: WINE TRADE
14Merchandising
15Strengthening the Relationship
16Professional Education Development and Your Career Ladder in Sales
References
Index
About the Authors