I was visiting a reasonably high-end California winery, with a production that I would describe as moderately small.
One of the tasting room employees (whom I have known before he worked there, which is possibly why he felt comfortable telling me this) mentioned that part of his pay is commissions from tasting room sales.
He said that he likes this, because it motivates and rewards and the tasting room employees to give visitors a good experience. In his opinion, tasting rooms that do not have some commission-based pay component tend not to give as uniformly good an experience.
I know very little about operating winery tasting rooms, but I had never heard of this. I suppose it makes sense, theoretically incentivizing customer care. On the other hand, I suppose that in some cases it might engender a “used car salesman“ type of thing, hard sells and so on.
Anyway, I am wondering how common this is, and if you think is a good thing, bad thing, neutral, what differences it might make in the experiences of winery visitors?
On the whole, I bet this leads to a better experience for the guests. Yeah, there might be some “hard selling” going on, but I bet there’s also more liberal pours, “extra” pours, and friendlier, more engaged, staff. Plus, a good salesperson can read their audience and adjust their sales strategy accordingly.
That does not surprise me at all.
Does it promote a hospitable impression, or that of a salesman hustling? I expect that to vary from person to person, and indeed from winery to winery depending on the weighting of the base/commission.
I suspect European visitors may find the end result more jarring than US customers.
Only once in Italy have I ever encountered a hard sell at a winery, and having never experienced anything remotely like it, I was shocked.
Bottle sale commissions are common in Napa. Usually it isn’t much per bottle, but a nice perk for them.
Not surprising at all. Tips and commissions are the larger part of the compensation based on my experience. Hourly pay in tasting rooms is pretty low.
I’m guessing the main bonus structure is around getting people signed up for the wine clubs.
My father owned a retail liquor and wine store. He always told me that the key to sales was not to put on the hard sale to get immediate sales but rather to have the customer love what he is buying and love the experience. The key is not just getting sales one time but getting repeat business.
The hard sale salesmen who make you resent that you ever went into a store is a very poor salesman. May work for a car dealer where they only see you once every several years, but a successful winery relies on repeat business. So, what the guy told the OP is what a really good salesman does. The salesman that does a hard sale on you is a poor salesman IMHO and you should run from him as fast as you can. If the product was any good, he would have confidence in the product and not act like he is selling time shares.
The only time I ever felt real pressure to purchase wine was when I visited Del Dotto many years ago. Needless to say, it was my one and only visit there.
If a winery is generating 35% of its revenue in the tasting room then it’s neglect not to have employees with sales / people skills.
The financial incentives make perfect sense. What tactics the employee uses and how the winery manages and trains the employees around sales is its own question.
I haven’t been to so many wineries in recent years, but I usually can tell they’re incentivized to try to get club memberships, but it hasn’t been a hard sell to the point of being uncomfortable. I’m sure that happens here and there, though.
I’ve been in tasting rooms where I was pretty sure they had commissions, based on the hard sell. I think the hard sell is more common in areas with lots of tourists. It’s a particularly bad look if the staff don’t know much about the wines they’re pouring (or wines in general), becomes like a low end furniture store.
-Al
Same - have never returned. Got pretty ripped there, though 
Exactly.
People get wrapped around the axle regarding “salespeople” and the negative connotation.
Hey, one of the best winery “sales people” in Solvang was Mae Apple if you ever met her, she was unbelievable and probably had no idea she was in “sales”.
Good people skills, including listening, are important.
I think people are universally turned off by the hard closer types. That’s the winery’s fault because they don’t understand sales.
At our favorite local winery, we like to be served by a particular long-term employee. I often slip him a $20, and we always get an excellent experience. We also usually buy at least a half case, and often a full case. I sure hope he gets a livable wage, however it plays out.
One of the relatively few bad tasting room experiences we’ve had came in a well known Napa room, where after paying for a tasting, we were repeatedly pestered to join the club and/or subscribe for futures. I suppose I don’t know the comp structure of the employees, but it was bad enough to sour us on the place. To my knowledge this place is not a “corporate winery” - ironically we had a great experience at Beaulieu, where you might think they’re trying to drive a bunch of cash flow via the tasting room. I don’t know how you set comp to incentivize this directly, but they should be seeking to ensure people have a great time, not that you maximize cash extraction (especially after a paid tasting!!)
When “wine tasting” turned into to “wine tourism” it became about the money and maximizing wallet share.
I’ll pick on Temecula but most of the people will never visit again. So sell as much as you can right there and push the club membership.
Some visitors won’t like it but they don’t care.
Hospitality staff in NorCal doesn’t get paid well at all per hour, especially considering they are selling bottles of wine that are $100-$500 a bottle. McDonalds pays $20/hr in NorCal. You’d be shocked what hospitality employees hourly wage is selling such luxury items. Luckily, a good chunk of the wineries tasting room staff have incentives/commission type pay in addition to hourly.
This is news to me, but it makes sense. Generally, visitors are very well treated in my experience, and I’ve never been subjected to a hard sell for individual wines or a club, so it’s fine by me. But I tend to visit a few places I like, so there’s a selection bias for me.
Yes, a lot depends upon the place. I’ve only had a few negative experiences but also a selection bias with me.
-Al
I know there are sales quotas for some tasting room staff in walla walla