Wine Shop Selling & Your Sales Punch

One of those hip and happening farmers markets. Expanded over the past decade, now even an adjacent bottle store has a pop-up bar outside.

Inside the shop, I was asked by one of the staff if I needed any help.

Being English, I naturally averted my eyes, saying something akin to the standard, ‘I’m fine, thanks, just looking’.

After a moment, I realised I could test the server’s mettle.

In the country I was in, there’s a construct familiar to many around the world. You go to a gathering at someone’s house and take a nice bottle of wine. Yet no-one else seems to share in your standard of generosity. You put your wine on the communal table. But when you go back to pour a glass for yourself, your bottle is already empty. The choice you’re left with seems only marginally better than vinegar.

I exaggerate, but only a touch.

The concept of braai wine means one you can happily quaff at such shindig. That isn’t showy, doesn’t break the bank, yet can be enjoyed.

So I asked if there was a winning red braai wine on offer.

Straight away, the response was a beaming, positive ‘yes!’.

I was filled with hope.

Then, something strange.

The person walked straight over to a particular shelf, picked up a bottle and pronounced, ‘this is the one’.

Pretty good.

Though not quite worldclass.

They already knew I was after red above white. Yet I couldn’t help thinking how much more satisfying the transaction could be with even just one qualifying question.

‘You prefer bolder or more delicate?’, ‘blend or single cultivar?’, or even a direct ‘any upper price band in mind?’

Not every question deserves an instant response.

And this situation is one typical from inside a solution sale conversation.

Are you rushing to answer them when a pause for at least one extra query back would give you more?