Table of Contents

List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments SECTION I: PROFESSIONAL FOUNDATIONS 1 Wine Sales: Foundations for Success 2 Buyer-Supplier Relationships and Compliance Regulations in the Wine Industry 3 The Exchange of Value between Buyers and Sellers 4 The Organization of a Sales Force 5 Direct-to-Consumer Sales SECTION II: THE CONSULTATIVE SALES PROCESS 6 Buyer Motivations and Presales Call Planning 7 Precall Research 8 Call Opening 9 Probing the Customer's Needs 10 Supporting the Needs of Your Customers 11 Closing the Sale 12 Negotiating Customer Concerns 13 Selling to a Lack of Interest SECTION III: WINE TRADE 14 Merchandising 15 Strengthening the Relationship 16 Professional Education Development and Your Career Ladder in Sales References Index About the Authors

About the Author

Paul Wagner is founder of Balzac Communications & Marketing. He has been an instructor for Napa Valley College's Viticulture and Enology department for the past twenty-two years. In addition he teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, is a guest lecturer at many universities, and has spoken at more than eighty conferences throughout the world on wine, wine education, wine tourism, public affairs, and wine marketing. With Liz Thach and Janeen Olsen, he is the author of Wine Marketing & Sales, Strategies for a Saturated Market, which won the 2008 Gourmand International Award for the best wine book of the year for professionals. John C. Crotts is professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He is coauthor of Selling Hospitality: A Situational Approach. Byron Marlowe is clinical assistant professor of Hospitality and Wine Business Management in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University.

Reviews

Now more than ever, it takes a lot more than extensive wine knowledge and passion to be successful in the wine business. The complexity of wine-distribution sales demands that anyone involved should embrace and practice everything this fabulously comprehensive book has to offer. -- Peter Marks, MW, vice president of education at Constellation Brands
A must-read for everyone involved in the wine business. The authors have done a tremendous job explaining how the complicated distribution system works in the United States. A psychology course in the selling of wine. -- Kevin Zraly, James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
A long-overdue, insightful look into the three-tier alcohol beverage system in the United States, as well as how to effectively combine sales and marketing strategies in selling wine. This book is relevant for anyone working in the wine business, serving as a detailed look at an industry that needs more of this type of self-appraisal and sales strategy development. -- Robert Bath, MS, Culinary Institute of America at Greystone