Tips for Advancing Your Brewery’s Sales

Each interaction with a potential beer buyer is a personal conversation that craft brewery sales reps have to try to dig into.

Using education, knowledge of products and how they can work for the buyer, along with building that relationship, will assist in moving ahead.

Sales team members can help communicate the brewery’s dedication to quality, consistency and community as well.

At Cincinnati’s MadTree Brewing, Adam Lane noted that diving into production, testing, quality control and the proper handling of beer has been stressed from the brewery to the beer buyer and consumer.

“Our philosophy is that the smarter the consumer and our partners are about beer and the better they can discuss it, the more powerful and fulfilling the interactions at the point of consumption,” he said.

Even breweries that have a good penetration in a local market, there still needs to be the recognition that there are still hundreds of locations around that market that sales reps must work with to educate buyers. There are still plenty of spots in markets that a brewery can leverage growth opportunities through craft beer knowledge.

Teaching that knowledge has become easier for sales reps. As the market has grown, so has the amount of knowledgeable reps that possess a deeper understanding of selling the product and the story.

Although many potential reps can come from other areas of sales with beer know-how and sales fortitude, having the ability to understand the three-tier system can be a stumbling block.

“To train someone about wholesaler relationships isn’t something that exists in a whole lot of other industries,” said Flying Dog CMO Ben Savage said. “That’s the dynamic that can be a wild card and challenging to find — but easier to find than five years ago.”

If a sales rep can develop a good relationship with people — whether it’s distributors, distributor personnel, retailers or consumers — if those people like the sales rep, they are going to like the products noted Summit Brewing CSO Mike Bamonti.

“They will buy your products because of you,” he said. “The work that goes into producing this product is unbelievable and the people are proud of what they are selling and can present this great product.”