This Wine is Good? How Napa Inspired Me.

This past weekend I went to Napa Valley, California to help my parents celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. That, in itself, is inspiring! While we were there, what else inspired me were the wineries with wine sales people who knew what they were talking about!

When I go to a wine tasting room, I do not want to sample an old vine zinfandel and have the sales person/taster say I will like the wine because it is "good" and walk off. Good?!

Here is where the inspiration came in to play. The wineries in which I bought wine (which was WAY more expensive than what I would pay when shopping in San Diego!), were those in which the owners and sales people listened to what I liked in a wine. They described each and every wine and what I might taste at the beginning and the end, whether the wine was earthy, fruit forward, dry, smokey, spicy, or peppery. They not only let me sample the wine, they SOLD it to me.

At Acorn Winery in Sonoma, the owner, Betsy Nachbaur, described each wine and what her husband was envisioning when he created each bottle. I not only bought two bottles from the winery because I liked the wines, but I also liked her. She had personality and believed in her product. I re-visited Homewood Winery in Sonoma because I loved the Wizzbanger red table wine, but I also wanted to share the wines, tasting room and wonderful, devoted sales people with my parents.

These experiences reminded me of why I am proud of my business and why I choose the people I do to come and work for me. To help make a promotion successful, the model or ambassador knows the brand, understands the consumer, has personality, believes in the product, and uses bigger adjectives than "good." They understand that each person is a potential customer and the models are not there to just sample or talk about a product--they are there to sell and inspire people to become loyal fans of the brand.