Business School Professor Wrote the (Best) Book on Wine Sales

College of Charleston Hospitality and Tourism Management Professor John Crotts‘ newly released wine business book, Wine Sales and Distribution: The Secrets to Building a Consultative Selling Approach, recently earned the top spot in its category for drink-related business books published in the United States.

Named Best Book for Professionals by the Gourmand International Cookbook Awards, which honors books in a variety of food and beverage categories, Wine Sales and Distribution (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) is the first focused guide for developing personal wine-selling skills, examining every element of consultative wine sales, from understanding the market and the customer to providing excellent customer service. Crotts co-authored the book with Byron Marlowe, clinical assistant professor of hospitality and wine and beverage business management at Washington State University Tri-Cities, and Paul Wagner, founder of Balzac Communications and Marketing.

The book draws on the authors’ more than six decades of combined research and experience in the wine industry. Step by step, the authors explain how to develop relationships, understand customer needs and deliver both products and sales presentations in an efficient and effective way. For anyone who wishes to pursue a career in the wine industry – whether their focus is distribution, retail sales, sommelier sales at a restaurant or working in a winery tasting room – this book will be an invaluable launching point.

John Crotts, professor of hospitality and tourism management in the College of Charleston School of Business (photo provided)

And, the College’s Center for Continuing and Professional Education is making that launching point even more valuable by bringing Crotts and his co-author Wagner to the CofC North Campus for a two-part wine-sales training on April 1, 2020. A book signing and reception will follow the training sessions at 3 p.m., and copies of Wine Sales and Distribution will be on sale at a discount.

The first part of the training, “Wine Sales: A Consultative Approach for Distributors,” will be co-presented by Wagner and Crotts, who is also the co-author of Selling Hospitality: A Situational Approach. This course will focus on the buyer-supplier relationship and will focus on how to develop and hone the skills needed to succeed as a sales representative. The second part, “Using Storytelling to Sell Wine to Consumers,” will be led by Wagner, and will provide restauranteurs and those with a passion for personal wine collections with the tools and perspective needed to sell more wine.

More information about the wine sales training workshops is available on the School of Professional Studies’ website.