Wine Specialist | Training + Education | People Developer | WSET Educator | Experienced Hospitality Professional | Advisory | Speaker | Sales + Marketing
Daily Dollop of Wallop #66 Had a call with a long standing client (of sorts - he is a mate who owns a few different types of bars in East Sussex and he asks me for wine advice, and pays me for it. So hang on, yes indeed, a client!) yesterday morning and after the managers meeting that he holds every Monday, he mentioned to me that the wine list at his smaller venue in Brighton, is the best in town. I interrupted him mid flow and asked "according to who?". He answered "well, we think it's the best, we decided. You look at others round The Lanes and we think ours is the best". It angered me. In short, I advised him never to use the phrase 'the best' unless you have the agreement in the form of metrics, from your competitors to enable you to decide on who the best actually is. To simply declare yourselves 'the best' without any backup is careless and unsubstantiated but also, and most importantly, a COMPLETE TURN OFF. Most people are actually dissuaded from a venue when seeing a sign that reads 'best coffee in town' or 'best burger in the city' or 'best wine list around'. So, I advised him, after a mini argument, to use the word 'favourite' instead. To use this word, is unarguable. It is a far softer way to say that you are the 'firm favourite among guests for a glass of wine' than it is to say something more like the above. This little play on one principle can change things up. Keen to hear some thoughts on this. Leverage your beverage.