What kind of weirdo analyzes sales tactics at a wine bar?
The person who’s copy you’re reading right now. That’s who!
Buckle up for a quick, fun lesson about one of my LEAST favorite copy techniques.
This weekend, my girlfriend and I went to one of our favorite wine bars in Boise.
It’s right along the river.
And if you can get there before the big rush, you can sip wine with one of the best views in the city.
Since we moved last March we’ve probably been 8 or 9 times.
And the past few times we’ve been there, we’ve contemplated joining their membership club (where you get special pricing on bottles, access to events, and other cool perks).
But one of the main reasons we never pull the trigger is because we walk there every time we go.
And it’s not a short walk either.
From our apartment, it’s like 5 miles away (so we really feel like we earn that drink when we get there!).
The walk isn’t a huge deal.
But in order join this wine club, you have to buy a case of wine and take it home that day.
Which means I would have carry the case of wine 5 miles back home (and I’m not doing that hahaha).
So once again the last time we went, we decided to pass.
But our server wasn’t having it.
She said she recognized us from the last time were there.
And that we were practically “throwing money away” because of all the savings we were missing out as non-members.
With those comments, I could sense that she was gearing up to close us. That day.
In true weirdo form, I started to get irrationally excited.
Because I LOVE to be sold to.
(I don’t know if it’s just a weird quirk of working in sales my whole life, but I really do).
So I decided to play along with her and hear out the pitch.
She told us about the savings we’d get today, how much we could save every time after that and how we’d get to come to an event in the near future.
And then she made her first attempt to close me, “All you have to do is get a case today. Do you want me to get a menu so you can pick your bottles?”
I smiled and said, “Ahhh. You’re good! But I don’t think we’re interested.”
She contorted her face and said, “Why not?”
“Well, we actually walked here so there’s no way we’re carrying that case of wine back.”
“How far away are you?”
“About 5 miles.”
Acknowledging that was a little far, she said, “Have you ever heard of this thing called Uber?”
Oh snap. Shots fired.
I laughed and said, “Yeah. But we normally pop in a restaurant on the way back and I really don’t want to be carrying that case of wine with us.”
“Couldn’t you go home first?”
DANG!
SHE WOULDN’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.
Sensing this, I tried to create our out.
“Okay, let me take a look at the menu for a minute.”
“Cool, I’ll be back to check on you in a just a sec,” she said turning back to the building.
As soon as she got inside, my girlfriend and I shot up and got the heck out of dodge.
(In case you were wondering, we’d already paid lol).
But there was no way we were going to sit through another round of that.
While I typically LOVE sales pitches, I did not love this.
Because I felt trapped and unheard.
What’s funny is if you actually look at what she was doing, it was kind of by the book a lot of sales people teach.
Hear an objection. Squash the objection.
The problem was in her effort to “handle my objections” she didn’t hear the actual problem: that I didn’t want to carry it home today.
But had she not tried to squash the objection and actually tried to provide a solution, it might have worked.
For example, she could have suggested that I buy them today to get the savings and come back to pick it up at another time or even get them shipped to my apartment and I probably would have signed up on the spot.
And yet I did not because of the approach she took.
Actually, because of the experience, it might be a while before we go back.
That’s why I’m not a huge fan of “objection handling” as a sales strategy.
Because twisting and turning your prospects’ arms when they voice real legitimate concerns only makes them feel trapped and unheard.
Now, you can still address objections in your copy.
In fact, you should.
But I like to take the approach of writing down the potential objections that prospects might have and then proactively shaping the copy around those concerns.
For example, if you get to the end of your script, and you get the objection: “This is too expensive.”
My guess is you already dug yourself into a hole MUCH higher up in your copy.
And using some cheap trick in your FAQ like, “Too expensive? Not at all. This material has made me thousands. So if you do even half what I’ve done, you’ll be amazing. Blah. Blah.”
In my experience, that’s a waste of air/copy.
And it’s actually a sign that you didn’t prove your point or convey the value much earlier.
My recommendation: Don’t try to handle objections.
Try to write your copy in such a way that objections don’t appear.
Rob “Objectively the best middle names of any copywriter” Allen
PS. Ready to see another sales tactic I despise?
Check your inbox for one of the WORST emails that people send to their list that costs them LOTS of sales.
Look for the subject line: “🔒This extremely templated email is GARBAGE”.