August has galloped right along, taking the last bits of summer with it. Among the usual uptick in wholesale order volume and incoming shipments, a visit to our Adagio stores in the Chicago area was also on the schedule.

Although a busy time to be away from the wholesale helm, this window just before the tea busy season was probably the best time to go. The plan was to do a training session with each store’s crew to fill in the gaps from basic tea and sales training to enhance their understanding of our buying processes, Masters Collection and general tea world and Adagio world information.

The unexpected plus of these sessions is the insight gained by the interaction with the team members. Some I’d met before, and others for the first time on this trip. Seeing the growth and progress of the more experienced crew members was really gratifying as their passion and new found confidence in all things tea has blossomed. Even the newer members had great questions and tales from the front line to contribute. Although they get excellent training on tea and other products, adding the extra level of how and why our tea collection is as it is creates better understanding, which parlays in to confidence of the staff member and in turn better sales.

As a tea buyer, it also helps me understand their needs on a deeper level and plan better for the future or connect them to products in ways they hadn’t considered. Additionally, passion is contagious, so when they hear the company tea nerd waxing poetic about Dan Cong or other tea, they catch the bug and pass their enthusiasm along to our customers.