Wine sales in restaurants can drive a significant share of both revenue and margin, but only if someone actually offers the wine list with confidence. Too often, it sits untouched on the table because staff are worried about coming across as pushy. That worry is understandable — nobody wants to be the server guests complain about. But there’s a real difference between pushy selling and positive selling, and once your team understands it, offering wine stops feeling like a sales pitch and starts feeling like good service.
eHotelier’s course on Using Positive Selling Skills to Take Wine Orders is built around that distinction. It breaks selling down into three memorable steps that any team member can apply, regardless of how much wine knowledge they already have. Rather than pushing a specific bottle, the approach focuses on reading the table, offering the list at the right moment, and using soft-selling language that invites a decision instead of forcing one.
The course also covers something managers often overlook: the mechanics of actually taking the order. Where to stand, what tools to use, how to write the order so the kitchen and bar get it right the first time. Small process errors here create big problems later — a wrong bottle or a delayed pour undoes all the goodwill a good sales approach just built.
For revenue leaders, the math is worth paying attention to. Restaurants that train staff on wine selling consistently see higher average wine sales than those that leave it to chance. This isn’t about squeezing more out of every table. It’s about making sure your team feels equipped to offer something guests already want, instead of avoiding the conversation altogether.
If you manage a service team, this is a low-cost, high-impact training to roll out this summer. It takes the guesswork out of a skill most staff were never formally taught, and it gives them language they can use on the very next shift.
I stopped dreading the wine list. Now offering it feels natural, and my average check went up.
— David T., Restaurant Server, Full-Service Hotel
Get your team started here.
