Competing and "Connoisseuring"

I once attended a coffee tasting at my neighborhood Starbucks. I had wanted to do this for a long time but the scheduling just never worked out. We tasted Joya Del Via first which is a Latin American Coffee. The name means Jewel of the Day in Spanish. Then we tasted “Eubora” an East African Coffee. The name means Quality and Excellence in Swahili. I was delighted to be able to identify the earthiness in the flavor of Joya Del Via and the citrus qualities of Eubora.

The Coffee Master taught us to swirl the cup and smell the aroma first and only then to take a sip and let it envelop your entire tongue. We were taught the importance of pairings. Joya Del Via was paired with a special Starbucks chocolate cake and Eubora with an apple crumb crisp dessert. I loved the whole experience and plan to do it again. In fact I now have a Starbucks Coffee Passport and plan to work my way through it.

I have never taken a wine tasting class, but I was so encouraged by this experience, I think I may give that a try. I think this is all part of learning how to Savor Life which has been a growing theme for me in the past few years. Savoring requires slowing down, noticing stuff, and learning to make distinctions. Let’s pull each of those three ideas out for minute.

Savoring doesn’t happen fast. In fact, in my dictionary, savor is defined as “enjoying something unhurriedly”. Speed kills the savored moment.

Savoring requires that you begin to observe, to notice, to pay attention to detail. Savoring is a sensory experience. In the culinary area with food and beverage this involves not only taste and smell, but also texture, and sight. I don’t know a lot about wine tasting, but I do know that it involves at least these four senses.. Sight allows you to notice the wines legs which is indicative of viscosity. Sense of smell introduces the bouquet. Taste allows you discern a whole host of flavors unique to each individual wine. Then there is texture and mouth feel.

All of that slowing down and noticing leads to making fine distinctions in each of the categories mentioned. It becomes possible to pull the pieces of the experience apart and notice them individually and in whole.

This process allows someone to place a higher value on something. It also can lead to communicating that higher value and ending up with higher shared values. My wife and I sometimes take walks in the neighborhood. She has many qualities, but one of her finest is the ability to savor nature including animals, sunsets, cloud formations, all kinds of things. When I walked I tended to use the time to go inside and think. But notices everything around her, all the beauty in great detail. She continually points things out that I would have missed. Just like the Starbucks Coffee Master she is attuned to the details.

I am increasingly convinced that all of life can become like this by working on it with intention. We can learn to savor every moment for some aspect of beauty.

What does all this have to do with sales? I believe great sales people learn to be connoisseurs of the their product line. They learn to slow down, notice stuff, and develop the ability to see fine distinctions of value in their product of service. Then like a coffee master they learn to help others see those distinctions. They point out the counterparts to the legs, bouquet , mouth feel , and earthy or fruity flavor. They guide others into the experience and help them become connoisseurs in their own right.

The dictionary says a connoisseur is “someone who has specialist knowledge of or training in a particular field of the fine or domestic arts, or whose taste in such a field is considered to be discriminating”. That sounds like a pretty good definition of some traits of great sales people I’ve seen in operation.

As I said previously I try very hard to select samples that pull on heart strings. Some things need to be pointed out though. If you don’t go through the details people may assume you are a commodity with a product/service/program that is just like every one else presents or what they have seen before.

I talk about protective coatings, magazine grade paper, color, and composition. You want to help your prospective customer become a connoisseur of what ever you sell. Consider talking a wine tasting class or a coffee class from Starbucks. Learn about bouquet, legs, and all that goes into a great wine. Learn about the coffees and where they are grown and how the soil and moisture impacts flavor. Learn about roasting. In short learn the romance. Go to a jeweler and have them teach you about color, cut, and clarity.

Catch some of there passion and watch how they romance their product. Then come back and learn to communicate the virtues of your product in the same way. Go out and turn your customers into certifiable snobs who wouldn’t stand for any less than the quality you offer.


What do you sell? Do you have specialized knowledge of your product/service? Have you acquired a taste for your field so much so that you might even be considered discriminating? If you develop that discrimination and learn how to communicate it accurately it will increase your success dramatically.