Tasting as a Sales Technique

You want to sell wine to customers, browsers, and visitors, not that all those groups are that different? Give them tastes. That's right. Give them tastes. And, make it an experience. And, you will sell those people wine.

Not by the glass. But, by the bottle or by the case. And, you don't have to charge them to taste. or, if there is a law that requires you to charge, charge as little as you can reasonably handle. It's not about making money on the tasting. Trust me; you'll still make money.

But, you can't just pour them wine. You have to make it a positive experience. If you do, however, your prospective buyer will imagine that experience every time they drink that wine. They will think about you. They'll come back for more. The other sides, of course, are to either charge a bunch for tasting in which case you will make money on the tasting (but you won't sell much wine) or to fail to make it an experience.

How do I know this is true? I've been a part of it. And the story I tell kept repeating itself until we ran out of wine. And, people talked about those wines like they loved them and they really weren't all that good.

Let's go back to what happened. There was a little market that happened to sell wine and also sold food stuffs some of which you might eat with wine (meats, cheeses, dried fruits and vegetables). Having tasted the wines the night before, my wife and I thought about what, in very small quantities would enhance the wine experience. (No, we didn't work there; we were asked if we would run this tasting for two hours or so.)

People came into the shop to browse, often with no interest in wine. We asked them if they would like a free tasting. I remember one couple in particular. They said that they don't like wine, but sure, why not if it's free. So, we prepared two small tastes for each one of them and gave them just tiny tastes of food to go with them. We explained the pairings and why they worked and gave them a bit of education both on what they were drinking and how to drink them to get the full wine experience.

Remember that couple who didn't like wine. They bought two bottles of each of the two wines and took our advice on foods to go with them. And, they asked when there would be another wine tasting in that little shop. So, they came in to browse and maybe pick of a $5 knickknack and they left having spent $100 on food and wine. Happily.

By the end of the 2 hours, we had sold ever last bottle of these two wines in the shop plus a bunch of other wine. We had sold food to go with those wines, other food, and a whole bunch of knickknacks. Yes, the proprietor that we were volunteering for treated us well for our efforts, but that's not the point. By making the tasting of these two very mediocre wines an experience rather than just come taste some wine, we gave the little shop perhaps its best 2 hours ever.

Give your tastings away and make them an experience.