Good wines, even great wines, are not always enough to draw guests and customers back your winery. People are attracted to your wines and your winery for many different reasons.
Naturally, your products have to suit the people who visit your winery. Regardless of how great your wines are, you will eventually come across a customer who is not suited to your style of wines. They may like sweet wines and you make dry wines; they may prefer whites and you make only reds. However, if there are other things about your company that they like, they will find something and will buy it.
In order to draw customers back to your winery, your wines must be partnered with an atmosphere of captivating an uncommon guest engagement and a staff with an appreciating of people.
Part of anyone’s job when they work for a winery is to make people who visit, or who they talk to on the phone or connect with feel good.
Think of strangers as friends you haven’t met. Your job, in addition to giving them the wine information they want, is to discover what you have in common with them. Take the first few minutes to get to know them. As you get to know them accept them for whom they are. It may be that the wines you produce are not the style they like. However, you may be able to find something on your list that has the potential of appealing to their taste buds. If you encourage them to take a little taste, it could become one of those “aha” moments where they realize that they do like this type of wine after all.
Additionally, they may have friends who like the types of wines that you produce and buy some wine for these friends.
The keys to selling are:
- Be friendly to all your visitors
- Be interested in them
- Accept their individuality without passing judgment
- Don’t take umbrage when no offense is meant
- Encourage your guests to try something different
- Try to make a friend
The ultimate goal is not to create customers but to create converts. Guests who have enjoyed their experience will send others to your winery whether or not your wines are to their taste.
A tip of the glass from me to you.
E Column
by Elizabeth “E” Slater, In Short Direct Marketing
A recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and sales in the wine marketplace. Slater has taught more wineries and winery associations how to create and improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing programs and to make the most of each customer’s potential than anyone in the wine industry today.
