When Erin Grey Kemplin first started adding to the sales department for Ecliptic Brewing, the brewery’s Sales Manager was looking for employees on Craigslist and Facebook only.
As the Portland brewery has grown they have also added more online resources to cultivate talent.
“Word of mouth is also very effective for us,” she added.
Having a passion for craft beer is a first priority, she noted.
“Knowledge of craft beer is a big plus too,” she said. “Sales experience is also great but can be learned so [it’s] not a deal breaker. … It is all about the best fit for our culture.”
When speaking of culture, Kemplin — who joined the Ecliptic team in 2015 — said every person is different and some people come on board already a natural part of the Ecliptic culture while others need a month or two to let it all sink in. To help that process, they do a four-day series with on-board training.
The new brewery rep not only goes through sales training but also has to work a shift in every other department of Ecliptic. Kemplin also requires each rep to become a Cicerone Certified Beer Server and read Randy Mosher’s book “Tasting Beer.”
The brewery also has ongoing training internally to keep the team up to speed on all new beers that are released.
“To little or “too much” sales experience means nothing to me really,” she said. “I would happily train someone from the ground up, as well as hire someone who has previous sales experience at another brewery.”
Flying Dog CMO Ben Savage said in a previous interview with Brewer that the Maryland brewery has invested quite a bit of energy to continually train the sales team, usually once every two weeks for a few hours.
“It’s also a good way to reset since they aren’t based at the brewery and it gives us an opportunity on topics or good bullet points to hit on,” Savage pointed out. “That way new hires can jump in and have an continual education process. No one starts from scratch, they get the training week in and week out.”
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