Cider Corner: Do you Need to Hire for Sales?

Margins are made in the tap/tasting room. So ANXO Cidery is fine with not having a sales staff.

“No one at this company wants to see a salesperson make more money than the people who put their blood sweat and tears into making the product,” said Head Cidermaker Gregory Johnson of the DC cidery.

So the cidery doesn’t look to hire sales professionals.

“We do not want to play the sales game as breweries do,” Johnson pointed out. But that does not mean sales aren’t important outside the tasting room.

“Granted, we will need some sales help for certain markets, but our goal is to make a great product, make it look good, and put into the right places where people are excited to sell it,” Johnson said.

Luckily for the cidery, Johnson said ANXO has had several accounts come to the cidery to create sales from its doorstep.

“We aren’t trying to be the biggest cidery, though we are growing fast, we do want our cider out there,” Johnson said.

Now, when it comes to building a sales force, finding someone in the craft beverage industry may be difficult to start. That means building up a salesperson to start. Knowledge can be taught, explained Ash & Elm’s Andrea Homoya.

“I look for people who are passionate about the product first and foremost,” said the co-founder of the Indianapolis cidery. “90% of the skills that are necessary to be a great salesperson can be taught, so find someone who believes in what they’re selling.”

Once Homoya can connect with a salesperson with the will, she said that the next traits she looks for are a mix of being personable and detail-oriented.

“So … accounts look forward to talking to you and are then impressed by your follow up a couple days later,” she said.