The best location in the world, featuring the most awe-inspiring infrastructure and fabulous value added services will amount to absolutely nothing if you don't have the right people to create, and sell, an experience. After all, buildings don't sell wine: people do!

In the past, wineries have been led by a production mentality. However the reality today is that there is an over-abundance of wine products that consumers can purchase just about anywhere. For a cellar door to remain a viable route to market, it has to differentiate itself from every other wine sales avenue. And the most obvious way to do that is through people, by building relationships between owners, staff and customers.

So, it's a people business. That means hospitality; and retail; and tourism; and wine. Rather than being simply in the "wine-making" business, you're actually in the "memory-making" business. And this process begins with the visit to your cellar door and continues when your customer opens up your wine at the dinner table and regales tales of their fabulous experience with you.

Matching
Matching the right products to the right people = good profits. But it's a skill that needs to be acquired over time like any other, and not everyone has the aptitude to make it happen. Selecting the right mix of staff, and training them, is vital for success.

At this point, you might want to ask yourself some questions:

• What business am I in?
• Is it simply wine production?
• Is it the hospitality and tourism industry?
• What am I really selling?
• Is it just wine?
• Is it an experience?
• What will people take with them when they leave?
• What are the tangible - and intangible - experiences?
• Do I have the skills to make this happen?
• Will I need to employ specialised staff?
• What kind of ongoing training can I implement?

Experiences and Sales Outcomes
Ross Brown of Brown Brothers Wines attests that sales are the outcome of the experience. So it makes sense to spend time training the people who are going to make the experience happen. Whether that's simply offering tastings at the bar, hosting tours, preparing and serving food, managing your database, writing your newsletters or despatching your wine to customers.

And if your people aren't also trained to sell, then the fabulous experience you've just worked so hard providing might amount to little more than a warm and fuzzy memory for visitors. Your job is to turn a "prospect" (first time visitor) into a "customer" (visitor who makes a purchase) and finally into an "advocate" (a loyal customer who spreads the good word).

Loyalty Pays
There are good financial reasons to invest in your people. Research demonstrates that loyal customers will purchase from you more frequently and spend more on each purchase. This applies equally to customers on your mailing list and those who return again and again to your cellar door. You might think they're just buying more wine because they're delighted with the wine quality - of course they are! But your wine represents much more than something nice in the glass: somehow it connects to their values and reflects their take on the world; it makes them feel special and knowledgeable among their friends and family; it evokes great memories of a romantic weekend away; it's a memory in a bottle.

So find people with passion (for people and life, as well as wine) and equip them with the knowledge and skills to meet and exceed your visitors' expectations while building a relationship that might ultimately lead to a loyal advocate for your brand.

There's no question that the people business can mean great business for you.

In this Section:

• Learn about the value of staff training
• Ascertain the range of training options available - both accredited and non-accredited - for you and your staff
• Implement a training plan and find out how others have done it
• Discover the finer points of customer service and why you should welcome complaints, and
• Learn how simple selling techniques can make all the difference.