Estee Lauder, the founder of the eponymous cosmetics company, once said: "If you don't sell, it's not the product that's wrong, it's you."
That's somewhat of a cutthroat attitude to the mystic art of making a sale. But there is something in it - especially when it comes to wine.
Such is the complexity of wine, thanks to the different styles, producers and the complexity of the liquid, barstaff with little or no knowledge become completely bamboozled by it.
Licensees can be intimidated by it and leave the sales decision and choice to the consumer. The impression sometimes on walking into a pub is that the licensee has stocked up on whatever was recommended to him or her, and then just let it fly.
Too often we think we need to be a master of wine to make the sale. Actually, those in the know simply believe a little bit of knowledge, skill and enthusiasm will see you a long way.
Here we look at two areas that are vital to address - training and merchandising.
Merchandising
Merchandising is too often ignored by many pubs. As suggested in the introduction to this Focus, so much of the 'sales job' in drinks retail is done for the barstaff. The skyline of a bar top is dominated by modern beer fonts, illuminated and condensing for the drinkers' pleasure. Our eyes cannot help but be drawn to them. Plus the brands are well known to us and the vast majority of beer drinkers want brands.
But when you come to wine the goalposts shift a bit. The labels and branding are smaller to see, making it very hard for customers to pick out a bottle they would like when at the bar.
Some of the bigger wine companies have tried to improve the branding on bottles to rectify this - but of course there are a number of drinkers who shy away from wine brands.
And this is when the job becomes really difficult. If a customer wants a merlot or a pinot noir, or indeed a Californian white, how will they be able to seek it out, unless you have signposted the information effectively?
For this reason Claire Archer, non-beers category manager at Punch Taverns, says licensees have to 'sell' their wines all over their outlets.
"What is vitally important as well is to be aware that most wine consumers in a pub don't even visit the bar," she says. "So they may not even see the wine displays. Therefore, you have to use specially created wine menus and posters and table talkers. You have to ensure that the customers drive their own footfall and consumption."
Punch provides pretty user-friendly merchandising advice through its quarterly magazine Marketing Matters.
"It literally tells licensees to stock particular brands and how they should be merchandised," says Claire. "For example have the wines on display, keep red wines at eye level behind the bar and make sure white wines in the fridge are easy to see - and if possible use taller fridges. It's all about eye contact with the product.
"Licensees are always going to think about rent and beer first - particularly in a tenanted model. So that effort with wine has to be made."
Robin Knapp, director of wine at wholesalers Matthew Clark, believes putting real effort into merchandising is absolutely vital to the success of a pub's wine offer.
"You have to have an imaginative back-bar. If you go into a pub and see a back-bar with bits of lemon strewn all over it and open bottles of wine on it that is bad news," he says.
"Great pubs have great back-bar displays with neck labels on the bottles - with words of description and the price - and blackboards. It is just so important."
TrainingEmma Jeffrey, wine trainer, Enotria"Within Enotria, myself and my colleague Lily Hicks are wine trainers and our sole job is to go out into the industry and train staff for our customers - from fine dining establishments downwards.
"The sessions we run are bespoke. We spend a long time before the sessions talking to the pub managers trying to understand exactly what it is they need and what level of training we should bring to them. We try to cater very carefully for each venue."We look at how wine tastes, at upselling, at matching with food and good service. The sessions also become a forum for staff to ask questions.
"I think for pubs training is a massive part behind the sale. You can't expect people to make a sale if they know very little about the product. And, in fact, people are very keen to learn and they also respond well to me and my colleague, knowing that we are dedicated trainers, rather than sales staff who do training on the side.
"We expect a little bit of previous knowledge from staff but training is vital. You can't put together an excellent wine list and then expect it just to sell. You have to increase the confidence of staff that have not had the opportunity to sell wine before."