Book excerpt: This definitive book offers the first focused guide for developing personal wine-selling skills. The authors’ approach is based on a clear understanding of the principles, strategies, and practices used by leading wine professionals. 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. Based on the authors’ over six decades of combined research, consulting, and teaching in personal selling skills, the book draws on their countless interviews and interactions with effective sales professionals in the wine and broader hospitality industries. Many of their ideas have been incorporated into the unique consultative selling skills framework they develop in this manual. The strategies they outline will be invaluable for all those seeking to start or enhance a career in wine sales. 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.