I think the better question would be: What makes a good retailer?
1. A basic knowledge of the subject, and the eager willingness to learn anything and everything you can to increase your knowledge and understanding of wine. Of the two, the latter is far more important than the former. The eager willingness to learn means you have a love of wine---which is very, very different from a love of particular wines. It also means that you are open, wide open, to picking up knowledge from any and every source and opportunity. For instance, books are good; tastings are good; map reading is good; being exposed to experts is good; but listening to
any customer (from mundane to the height of winegeekery) is good as well, for that leads to requirement #2.
2. A basic empathy with people, or to put it another way, an interest in 'reading' people and accepting them. (The acceptance is crucial.) If you have #1 and #2, you have the potential to be a very good wine retailer.
When I gave basic intro training to new hires for the retail chain I worked for, I used to begin by standing in the back of a fairly large store with the trainee and having him observe as people came into the store, and noticing when a customer was acknowledged, approached, worked with, and taken to the point of sale. We would kibitz while watching, and then do an 'after-action' discussion. Said trainee got an idea of how some of the experienced sales people worked, and how customers responded---and how the sales person would react to that.
When a customer walks into a store (we're supposing new customer here, either for the store or the sales person), a relationship is entered into. A good sales person does an instant and empathic 'read' of the customer and attempts to respond (This isn't, as some people think, crass hustling. Far from it). With a really good sales person what happens is usually not even at the conscious level; it's more automatic action and reaction. And if wrong assumptions are made, not a problem, because you then respond to the information and adjust your response accordingly. The main thing is, you are focused on the customer.
At that point, you can get a feeling for what the customer wants/needs and how you can respond to those needs. Sometimes it is just reassurance or permission. Sometimes it is guidance. Sometimes it is deeper knowledge. Sometimes it is to be introduced to the magic of wine. Sometimes it's being left alone. What it isn't?: belittling, condescension, arrogance (although that sometimes will be allowed by the customer if done well, but since it is a form of dominance games, you'd better be damned careful or damned good at knowing when to do it), imposition of your preferences and tastes on their preferences and tastes, and pedantic pettifoggery (the key is the eyes glazing over or constant fidgeting as if they desperately have to go to the bathroom---it means they desperately need to get away from this idiot know-it-all). In other words, read the customer and know how to respond.
If a customer walks in and you ask "May I help you?" and he says, "I need a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay", the first thing you do is take him to the section, pick up a bottle of K-J, and put it in his hand. Then, and only then, can you say or do anything else, like casually recommend another wine, or ask him if he's ever had a French version of Chardonnay, or "If you like K-J, I have another wine that you might like. It's a couple of dollars more expensive, but then it's marked down quite a bit from a much higher price, so it's a pretty good deal." I once had a salesman say, "Hey, I've got a waaaay better wine than that stuff," and try to steer him to a more expensive item. The guy almost didn't last out the day, as he spent it totally in the cold box keeping the beer fronted in the windows. We had words...well, I had words, anyway. He mostly listened. (He got better with training and attitude adjustment.)
Had another guy who I hired part time, mostly to do clean up at night. Turns out just mopping the floor he was a better salesperson than most of the salespeople I had, even though he knew relatively little about fine wine. Why? He listened, and he responded. And he would occasionally say, if he thought the customer might be interested, that he might want to take a look at that wine in the front display, the one that was marked down, but sure was flying off the shelf it was so popular, and the wine guy told him it was pretty similar to the one he had in his hand."
So being a good retailer isn't all that difficult: just combine a vast knowledge of the subject (wine) with the skills of an exceptionally good psychologist, and be willling to do it for pitiful sums of money in return.
There's lots more, of course, but that's pretty much the gist of it. If you're good, you'll develop a loyal following, and at the same time, find yourself getting better and better at knowing your subject (you'll find you will begin to require it of yourself, interestingly enough).
Jon, as to your avowed interest in joining the particular store you mentioned, as Oliver said, there's danger there. If you have the attitude you seem to have (although I doubt you really do; I put it up to a brief comment and I’m sure there’s more to it), you won't be very popular with the rest of the crew, that's for sure. And you might be surprised how the owner might react, as you're looking to change the relationship of customer to one of a guy trying to tell him how to run his business while expecting to be paid for doing what you want to do selectively.
He might not be able to afford you. I don't mean the basic pay. I mean the attitude. Maybe those guys in t-shirts are there because they are the best ones he can get for the money, since 'sales person' more often than not means 'manual worker who moves hundreds of cases around and then waits on customers when he has the time'. In that instance, ask yourself what the more important function is to the owner.
Also ask yourself what the store is there for; what clientele is the primary source of revenue; and how much you can realistically add to sales given the customer base.
A well organized store operation can tell you exactly what they make from each category or section...sometimes sliced and diced by price points too. And you might be surprised at the results. There are some very good fine wine stores I know of that subsist off of cola, beer, and jug wine sales---without them, the store would not exist in that location with that fine wine inventory possible. In the case of wine stores alone, the base of the business is more likely to be the standard name brands rather than the Grand Cru. (One of my early bosses in retail once opened my eyes by informing me he deeply resented 'fine wine', because it required him to spend 80% of his time on 20% of his business.)
Also ask yourself if "selling up" is what the boss wants done. Most of us think that is the prime motive of a retailer---but sometimes it isn't; sometimes selling up puts you right out of your customer base, and then you end up with insufficient base and insufficient revenue to sustain your business.
Finally, if you go in to this with the idea that you're there to "sell the really good stuff", I as an employer would be reluctant to hire you. Would you be willing (and able) to haul 300-400 cases a day of product, build three or four displays of multiple cases, mop the floor, restock the cold box, ring up sales, close out the register, work early hours and late hours, be on call when needed to help out, work every single holiday period, work nights, deal with surly, bad tempered customers, apprehend shoplifters, clean up broken bottles, swamp out the restroom, and perhaps endure robberies???
On the other hand, if you offered the owner/boss to work on spec, or even better, to work on some sort of consignment base, or percentage of increase over a certain price range, you might have a different situation.
Despite what you may believe at this point in my overlong dissertation, I don't really want to dissuade you from going in to retail. God knows we need better people overall; this could be a perfect situation for you; and you might get the best of all worlds. But if you go into this with the idea that the customers are going to automatically flock to you so you can fill them to the brim with your knowledge and love of wine----well, it usually doesn't work that way. I loved retail, totally loved it. But a lot of people don't; even with good paying jobs (and most aren’t good paying), there is an awful lot of frustration involved, and some people just aren't cut out for it. And oddly enough, a lot of the people who are most passionate about wine don't turn out to be all that good at selling it; they just want to tell you about what they want to tell you about (themselves and what they like).
