Everything Leads to This Moment

The history, tradition, and artistry behind every cigar are realized at the point of service, where the cigar meets its ultimate consumer. 

Every cigar represents years of cultivation, fermentation, aging, and craftsmanship.  Leaves are grown, harvested, cured, and blended with mastery and intention. Each cigar passes through hundreds of hands before being crafted into a finished product. 

That experience does not execute itself.

Even in the hands of an experienced smoker, the condition, presentation, and context in which a cigar is delivered will influence how it performs. Storage, rotation, humidity, handling, and knowledge are not secondary details. They are determining factors.

This is where the role of the tobacconist becomes essential.

Not only as a curator of inventory, but as the custodian of quality and the champion of standards. The tobacconist is responsible for ensuring that every cigar is preserved, represented, and delivered as intended.

The tobacconist does not exist solely to guide the novice. They exist to uphold the standard. They are the point at which the work of the industry is either upheld or compromised.

At that moment of service, everything that came before is either realized or forgotten. 

Tobacconist University is built by tobacconists, for tobacconists, from the ground up to operate at that exact moment, where the customer meets the product. It is not built for passive learning. It is built for execution at the point of service. It is a structured system designed to train, certify, and support professionals at the point where the industry becomes real.

Through a comprehensive curriculum, tiered certification pathways, and defined standards of knowledge, service, and accountability, Tobacconist University goes beyond passive learning and quiz-based certification.

It is not designed to test what someone can recall. It is designed to impart strong fundamentals and shape how a professional performs.

Tobacconist University teaches the foundation and fundamentals the right way, so that professionals can continue to learn from anywhere, while knowing what is right and what is not. Because once the foundation is built incorrectly, everything that follows becomes distorted.

Certification is tied to application, to conduct, and to representation at the point of service. Every certified tobacconist operates within a system that extends beyond the classroom, supported by real-world tools, resources, and infrastructure built for the trade.

This includes professional listings that identify qualified tobacconists to the public, The Tobacconist Handbook as a foundational reference for the industry and behind the counter, ongoing research and development through the R&D Lab, and scalable programs such as the CCST Maestro system, which allows certified professionals to train and certify others across the industry.

Together, these elements form a living system. One that supports not only individual knowledge, but the consistent execution of standards throughout the industry.

Because in the end, it all comes back to the moment where the cigar meets the customer, and everything that came before is either realized or lost.  That is why the standard matters.

Gift Packaging

Nothing adds value like free Gift Packaging for customers. And, Tobacconists already have the most precious item on hand – empty cigar boxes! Packaging gifts for customers has many benefits, including:

· Higher Customer Satisfaction
· Competitive Advantage
· Stimulates Up-selling
· Branding Opportunity
· Promotes Loyalty
· More Memorable
· More Impressive

Gift Packaging, especially during the holidays, creates more special and valuable presents. The gift-givers will remember your store and the receivers will come back for more.
 
The cigar box Gift Packaging method shown here only requires Tobacconists to purchase inexpensive paper stuffing; as you should have branded business cards, ziptop bags, matches, and cutters in stock. In addition, this gift box shows a branded sticker opportunity on the inside lid and another sticker sealing the box – these stickers can be made on store bought labels with a rudimentary computer. Get creative and use every opportunity to reinforce your brand with your customers: it will pay off in the short and long term.

TIP I: Prepare your gift boxes ahead of busy times – keep them loaded with stuffing, business cards, resealable (ziptop) bags, matches, cutters, and stickers. That way, it will only take a few seconds to prepare and your customers will be impressed.

TIP II: During the holidays, add a red bow to anything and you have an instant gift pack.

TIP III: Have branded coffee mugs made and you have an instant up-sell.

Fundamentals First: Products & Customers

 
It sounds simple enough, “Fundamentals First”, but it is paramount to success. My favorite cigar maker quote is from none other than Jose Orlando Padron; the simple translation is ‘you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run, if not you will fall on your face’. Truer words have never been spoken, in my humble opinion.

  

Sr. Jose Blanco has his 5 Keys To Retail Tobacconist Success, and I think those are powerful and accurate. But I also think Tobacconist success can be distilled further into only two necessary fundamentals: PRODUCTS & CUSTOMERS. Focus on Products, Focus on Customers and you will never fail. Those are the two fundamental principles for success: PRODUCTS & CUSTOMERS. That’s all you need to know. Now, get to work….

Tobacconist Whisperer

I like to think of Tobacconist Whisperer as my own little management theory, but in reality it has been borrowed from the original Horse Whisperer(s) and Dog Whisperer (Cesar Milan). It has taken me almost fifteen years to get to the point where I can use the Tobacconist Whisperer techniques and I am finding them just as valuable as anything I have ever learned from Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, or any other management guru.

  
Tobacconist Whispering is the art and science of understanding natural human behaviors, instincts, and reactions; then using that knowledge to illicit desired actions from Tobacconists and Customers. Tobacconist Whispering is employed through Calm & Assertive behavior.
 
It is easy enough to understand that stress and angst lead to more stress and angst. A stressed manager will stress their Tobacconist who will in turn stress the customer. No matter how hard we try, our own dispositions and body language will affect and effect those around us.
 
For example, recently I walked into my Princeton store to find a Tobacconist on the floor trying to fix the fax machine while another was fussing with the credit card machine. The machinery had gone haywire and there were customers coming in and out of the store. Both of my Tobacconists had flustered and frustrated demeanors. One had their brow sweating and the other looked ready to strangle a chicken. I’m sure a decade ago this would have led me to get angry and frustrated as well. But I now know that all of these problems can and will be fixed; they are just machines after all. The only variable worth focusing on in this mini-catastrophe was the CUSTOMER. Our job is always to focus on the customer and not let anything get in the way of that. If you focus on the customer then you realize that nothing else matters. We must encourage that customer to come back through our good service and having two hysterical or frustrated Tobacconists does not help. So I walked into the shop and focused on being more CALM than ever, telling employees to RELAX and FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER. I used my body language, tonal inflection, and words to CALM the situation and get everyone re-focused. If I had come in cursing, barking, or overly assertive it would have compounded the already downwardly spiraling situation.
 
The Tobacconist Whisperer techniques are about letting your mood and emotions set the tone for what you want out of people, and lead by example. Consider your employees (and customers) like your loved-ones and ask yourself: How do I want my loved-ones to be treated? What do I want my loved-ones exposed to? Treat them with calmness, respect, and fairness. You are in a position to create a perfect world for yourself and it starts by LEADING BY EXAMPLE.
 
Every retail Tobacconist knows that when it rains it pours. Often we are dealing with broken humidifiers, machinery problems, schedule changes, POS issues, and much more. All the while, we must provide a comfortable and hospitable environment for our customers: that burden/responsibility/honor rests on our shoulders, so we must lead by example.
 
And the Tobacconist Whisperer techniques work equally well on customers. Through our body language, tone, and words we can manage our customers as well. One of the first things I tell our Tobacconist Apprentices is that “You never know what a customer has been through on a particular day”. If someone comes in and is nasty or angry, that is OK. Perhaps they received terrible news that day or lost a loved one: these things happen every day. It is not our job to judge them, but rather to do our best to bring something pleasant and positive to their day. As humans, retailers, and Tobacconists we must be willing to accept and forgive in order to move forward. Conversely, if a customer is ever belligerent or too nasty, every one of my Tobacconists is authorized to throw them out forever; because no one deserves to be treated with disrespect. There is a lot of grey area here, but if you train and educate with the right values your Tobacconists should be able to make the right decision without letting their egos or emotions get in the way.
 
Ultimately, Tobacconist Whisperer is about being cool and collected under pressure; body language counts! With December and the holidays around the corner, these are excellent values to be reminded of. The ten days before Christmas are extraordinarily challenging for good retail Tobacconists: we handle ten times our usual traffic and try to maintain our own high standards, since we want those customers to come back during the year. Ironically, the majority of our holiday customers are the most challenging, question and doubt-filled customers: they are called SPOUSES. So my advice to myself and every other Tobacconist this year is buckle down, be cool, and focus on the customer. Everything else should take care of itself…

Jorge Armenteros, CMT