What if they don’t like the wine?

It’s the trap of our business. You cut the foil while telling the story. You pop the cork. You pour the glass. They lift it to their nose then take a sip.

They reject the wine.

“Nope!”

“Crap!”

“What the hell did you just pour me?”

The trap is that you can’t help but be tainted by that instance the next time you present the same wine. Something deep in you knows that somebody out there doesn’t like it.

This poison is most problematic in a winery tasting room. This is why a good winery tasting room employee is so valuable (and should be compensated well). When they hear one person in a group make a comment like that, they need to get control of the situation, and pronto.

And as a sales rep, server, or retailer, you need to know how you’re going to react as well.

Practice with your friends. Find all the angles. This is a good topic to role-play on during a staff meeting (role play training: nobody likes it but everybody benefits from it).

But don’t forget the main thing: you can’t try to convince the person who made the declaration that they are wrong. They’re not, because that’s their opinion. Simple as that.

What you can try to do is figure out why they think what they do, then steer them toward something different. Start by asking “what didn’t you like about it?”

That’s what an awesome tasting room employee does.