Smarten Up!

Retailers,
restaurateurs or wholesalers wedded to the notion that wine
and spirits sell themselves could be losing a lot of money.
Gone are the days when all you needed to do was stock
products and wait for customers to come in and buy them.
Now, every product category – from ultra premium Cognac to
the least expensive wine – is crowded with dozens, sometimes
hundreds of brands. Many are concerned only that their
favorite brand is available. But for a large and growing
customer segment curious how one product differs from
similar ones or why they should pay $4O for a bottle of gin,
detailed and readily available product knowledge is almost
mandatory. Shelf talkers won’t do, these customers want to
speak with another human being.

Today’s
consumers are much more interested in learning about what
they’re buying than those in the past. Common questions
might include: What grapes are in that wine? How were they
grown? Was that Cognac made from the heart of the
distillate, or the head and tail? Although some in the trade
still believe “inventory sells itself”, the progressive ones
(who often happen to be more profitable) invest the time and
resources to train their staff about the products they sell.
“We’ve seen an average 15 percent hike in weekly wine sales
because of staff training,” says David Alphonse, Vice
President of Beverage for Boston-based Back Bay Restaurant
Group, which owns Abe & Louie’s, Atlantic Fish Co.,
Charley’s, Coach Grill, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, and
Papa Razzi, and operates 34 locations nationwide. “I can’t
see functioning the way we should without training.” Because
service staff today is largely younger and the number of
products available has grown considerably, training is more
important than in the past, he explains. Although he tailors
his training to each restaurant’s concept, some things are
consistent at all properties.

Daily sessions
include information about each restaurant’s wine of the day,
with more extensive training every month for management,
covering grape types, wine regions, and tasting various food
and wine combinations. Every two weeks wholesalers give
presentations to the wait, bar and management staff about
wines and spirits they have on the list. Once per quarter,
the staff visits a wholesaler for a three-hour seminar.
Other educational topics include proper beverage service and
how to interact with guests.

The effort a
company puts into product education is determined largely by
what it sells, suggests John Hafferty, Fine Wine Portfolio
Director for M.S. Walker. The level of commitment to wine
education in the trade today is all over the map and depends
on a company’s goals, products and customer base, he says.
In general, companies sell either brand-driven products or
what Hafferty calls “quality of life” products that have
more individual character and typically cost more. Examples
include Belvedere vodka over store brands, Delamain over
Courvoisier, or a premier cru Montrachet over Yellow Tail.
Customers who buy brands aren’t really looking for detailed
information about how a Chardonnay’s character is affected
by using small barriques versus oak staves in tank. “They
simply want the wine to taste consistently good, remain
available and to be affordable.” On the other hand,
“Companies with a broader wine portfolio built upon the
diversity that makes fine wines so unique are absolutely
reliant on fine wine education. The extra effort and value
added in representing such products requires intelligent,
insightful and rational explanation,” he says.

“Quality of
life” consumers are keenly interested in learning about
those products, he notes, and have access to education
resources on television, the Internet, in books or at
forward-thinking retail shops. “Overall, they’re not curious
about brix levels or hang time of grapes, but they are
devoutly interested in understanding the relationship of a
wine to its origin, and how to best integrate wine into
their lifestyle,” Hafferty comments. “Having a strong,
continuously evolving knowledge base for those specializing
in the ‘quality of life’ segment of the market pays very
strong dividends.” This change isn’t limited to wine. “Wine
trends now are completely spreading to fine spirits.
Customers are going from jug wines to single estate bottles;
from Jim Beam to small batch bourbon; Hennessey VS to Pierre
Ferrand. In every category now you have a subcategory of
finer products. That’s why the shelves look so different
these days,” says Guillaume Lamy, Northeast Regional Manager
for Cognac Ferrand USA. “Today, you walk into any Kappy’s
and they know Pierre Ferrand. Those big stores now have a
wine guy and a spirits guy.”

“I think we owe
it to consumers and the trade to help them be better
informed. If you are in an off-premise location you see some
consumers have a thirst for knowledge about different brands
and products. Unless we can impart that knowledge to our
distributors and their accounts we’re doing a disservice to
the consumer,” says Kevin Compagna, New England Market
Manager for Moet Hennessy USA. “The number of brands in each
category is expanding rapidly. How do we expect the average
consumer to navigate that cluttered field? Not everyone has
the time to research. They really need store personnel to
guide them through that stuff.” To help accounts attain
this, Moet Hennessy recently added portfolio managers at
United Liquors and Classic Wine Imports.

“Guests are
interested but they don’t like to do a lot of work. They
need people to point things out. When I eat out I don’t like
to spend a lot of time reading menus so I’ll go with the
recommendation of a knowledgeable server,” says Sandy Block,
Vice President of Beverage Operations for Legal Sea Foods,
where each restaurant has about 3OO wines on the list. Most
people personalize their restaurant experience, he observes.
If it’s good, they’ll recall ‘Oh! The waitress recommended
this great dish.’ If it’s bad, the meal is an anonymous
experience. “We want the server to bring something to the
table in terms of knowledge of wine and food.”

With four
trainers and its own proprietary materials, Legal trains
staff in the basics of wine, emphasizing how wines match
with various dishes and how to communicate this to guests.
Wholesaler representatives are sometimes brought in, and
daily menu specials are explained by chefs and managers,
along with wines to pair with them. “Product selection? Big
deal. Anyone can choose a good list. How it fits together
and how you deliver it is the real challenge,” Block says.
“Our goal is not to make servers robots, but to provide
guests with professionalism and expertise,” he adds. “We’re
of the size that if we don’t invest in training, we’re going
to lose. Our whole business is based on the return guest. If
something is memorable from a service standpoint, it’s as
important as any other part of the puzzle. I don’t ever see
an end point.”

“If you can give
a guest pairing ideas about what goes well, people will come
back because it shows the server and restaurant really care
about what they’re doing,” says Sharron McCarthy, Vice
President for Wine Education with the New York-based wine
importer Banfi Vintners. “The advantage is that an educated
staff can sell more. If people are confident pronouncing
Valpolicella they’ll sell more, if they have information on
the grape or wine, they’ll sell more.” Banfi’s motive? “To
create a larger pie, not try to steal a piece of someone
else’s action. You’ve got to start off with the trade,” she
says. “Someone who is educated is going to purchase our
products. Sooner or later, you’re going to come to
us.”

At M.S. Walker,
sales staff regularly taste from the company’s portfolio,
learning product styles, origins and production techniques,
notes Hafferty. Winemakers and winery owners often join them
and visit accounts. “Sales reps have frequent opportunities
to visit wine regions represented in our portfolio. Nothing
quite conveys confidence and competence like a salesperson
who has tasted the wine, met the person who made it and
walked among the vines that produced it,” he says.
“Knowledge talks, B.S. walks.”

“It’s very
important for us to interact with suppliers and
distributors, and to constantly taste products,” says Carri
Wroblewski, co-owner of Brix Wine Shop in Boston’s South
End. Brix schedules one-hour staff tastings twice each week
with suppliers and wholesalers. “When you meet the person
who makes the wine you get a sense of passion from them and
you can translate that into your passion. That’s what it’s
all about. It gives the store more credibility because of
the way those experiences translate to
customers.”

“When a consumer
is shopping it’s a bit like a deer caught in headlights. If
a staffer is excited about (a product) consumers can feel
that enthusiasm. Knowledge is extremely helpful for people
to cut through the clutter,” says Evan Goldstein, Vice
President of Global Brand Education for Beam Wine Estates.
“Education is not a luxury anymore, it’s a department,” he
says. Goldstein visits Massachusetts several times each year
to meet with restaurant and wholesaler personnel to cover
grapes, geography, service, and germane matters.

“There’s more
interest than ever before. If someone likes a wine, they can
get on the winery’s website and learn the grapes, pH levels
and everything else. Because of that, restaurants need to
know more than ever before. If you know what you’re saying
it gives you credibility and people can feel that,” explains
Leonard Presutti, Corporate Wine Educator for Martignetti
Companies. To help achieve that credibility, Presutti
conducts an eight-week Wine 1O1 class for Martignetti sales
staff where he goes through the major wine production
regions, grapes and various types of wines from each area.
Tasting is a vital component. Participants are tested and
scored on their knowledge, and must repeat the course if
they don’t measure up. This basic course is open to the
trade. “It kind of marries them to Martignetti, we’re
providing them a service, observes Presutti. “One of the
things I find most gratifying is some people who didn’t know
much about wine now sell wines from esoteric regions. They
also tend to be more profitable.” In a more advanced
one-year class, Presutti leads top sales staff through the
intricacies of terroir, soil and winemaking methods. Part of
Presutti’s job is to visit promising stores and restaurants
trying to build or revise their wine offerings. “Some other
companies just drop off a case of samples. I go through them
and say, for example, ‘This is from South Africa, here’s why
it’s interesting and how it goes with food’,” he
says.

“The whole point
is we are in a business where you sell with your knowledge
or just sell and don’t talk to your customers. You could
have a relationship with the retailer or just buy a cheap
gallon of gin and leave. The only way for a new store to
survive is to have knowledge about products no one else
has,” remarks Ferrand’s Lamy. “Customers expect a service
that’s very different than 15 to 2O years ago. Today, people
want to be babysitted, to learn more about everything, which
is great for our business.” The expectation that waiters
recommend items on the wine and drinks list is now demanded
at stores, he adds. When visiting a new on-premise account,
Lamy says he makes sure to meet the staff, give them a basic
Cognac education and tell them how to sell it. “I talk a lot
about Pierre Ferrand and my competitors. It’s important not
to badmouth competitors, but to point out the differences
between you and them.” Lamy’s most common staff training is
a 2O minute seminar about cognac regions, which cognac to
sell to which customer and how to up-sell. “My real job is
to go out there and make a ton of noise about that product.
Most waiters learning about your product will be buyers in
two or three years.”

Training
“reflects well on our products, but most importantly it
reflects well on that account,” comments Compagna. Stores
look at this as an opportunity to drive loyalty in consumers
who traditionally have been very fickle and price conscious.
You’re better served if you establish rapport, if questions
are answered by polite and knowledgeable staff. We try to
create mini-ambassadors for our brands.” He continues: “If
you’re going to pay $5O for a magnum of Belvedere versus $2O
for Smirnoff, beyond the intrinsic quality of the two why
would you buy one over the other?” The right information
given to the right customer can make a sale.

As the choice
and sophistication of wines and spirits keep growing, many
products will gather costly dust unless qualified staff is
on hand to sell them. Those ringing up profits will employ
and train people who can confidently explain to customers
how and why a given product is better than others in its
category. “Human nature takes the path of least resistance.
If you don’t know about a product, you probably won’t try to
sell it,” says Compagna.