Training Staff to Sell Wine Effectively

Sell Wine Effectively

Wine is much more than the perfect addition to a meal. It creates the opportunity to grow positive interaction between waiting staff and customers, also enabling upselling wine in restaurants. To benefit from this, training staff to sell wine is vital.

Having a knowledgeable team enables them to tell customers which wines compliment specific foods, make recommendations based on preferences, build rapport and also give them the opportunity to recommend appetisers to accompany their choice of drink.

Here’s how you can improve training staff to sell wine menus with confidence:

Let staff experience the wine list

It’s difficult to recommend something which you have never tried, let alone something you have no knowledge of. Age permitting, run tasting sessions where the team can enjoy and learn about the unique attributes of each wine, helping them to memorise selling points and project their enthusiasm to customers.

Make it memorable

Your staff should enjoy their learning. Build their confidence, make it fun and encourage continuous progression. Create ways for staff to engage with the wine list, whether it’s through competitions, illustrations, games, or quizzes. The main objective is to create ways of learning which work for each of your team members.

Consider courses

If you’re unable to train staff in-house, or wish to specialise knowledge further, consider courses and qualifications which could be relevant.

Be approachable

If there’s something your staff don’t know about the wine list, they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for advice. Create an atmosphere where learning is celebrated and providing top quality customer service is the goal. After all, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, so it’s far better to make sure waiters know everything they may need.

Build confidence

Make staff proud to talk passionately about wines in great detail. Make sure they know the correct pronunciations and talking points, providing any necessary materials to make sure team members are confident in what they are telling customers. When confident, team members will have no problem with recommending new wines, or helping customers to choose something different to what they usually drink.

training staff to sell wine

Encourage interaction

It’s all well and good talking about the various wines on offer, but giving a reason adds a whole new level of temptation for customers. Whether it’s a birthday, work meal or special occasion, staff should use this as a talking point and recommend wines based on this.

These top tips will help your staff to sell wine with confidence, working to create memorable experiences for customers and boost sales.