Seven Tips to Boost Tasting Room Sales

Amanda Wittstrom Higgins of Full Cup Solutions offers some tips for winery another other tasting room operators to boost their sales:

1. SMILE: When you get dressed and ready in the morning, the most important thing to put on is a smile.
2. SET THE TABLE WITH COLLATERAL: Use the nonverbal selling tools, most importantly a company and wine club brochure.
3. RESEARCH: Do your research! Almost every producer has access to customer retail management. Do your research before you host anyone.
4. ONE-MINUTE PITCH: Make sure you can do a one-minute elevator speech on your company.  Don’t get tripped up on every single detail about the origin of the company.
5. TASTING NOTES: Have tasting notes available, if needed carry them with you tableside.  Have the ability to speak thoughtfully about each wine.
6. INVITE THEM: Invite them to join your wine club and email list. A simple invitation goes a long way.
7. ASK FOR THE SALE: Never let anyone leave without asking what they would like to take home with them.

“Small to medium size wineries are often stretched extremely thin. This is true, especially as we enter harvest and are coming off of a busy summer schedule and they prepare for the holidays. Basic training is a critical step for every tasting room staff that too often gets overlooked,” she says. “It just takes a training session and materials that are standardized for wineries which takes much of the work out of the process.”