Welcome Summit Attendees!

Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales

Strategies
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
In this session we’ll discuss:
 A brief history of sales
 Craft Beer – Here to stay & how to survive
 Selling strategies
 What does High end mean?
 A glimpse at the future
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies

Webster’s Defines as:

Sell
1. Give or hand (over) something in exchange for Money
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
Sales has evolved from the simple act of bartering to the emergence of sales
methodologies and Tools.
At the end of the day, the customer is still confused. It’s the salesperson’s job to
help them make sense of it all and it’s the Marketer’s job to get the word out.
Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies

Personal Selling a bit different.

Something those of us who
have done this for awhile
understand – the relationship
does indeed matter but ONLY
if you’re a consultant. What?
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies

 Personal Selling:
 Person to Person Communication
 Process of
 Developing Relationships
 Discovering Needs
 Matching Products with Needs
 Communicating Features and Benefits
 Viewed as a process that adds vlaue
Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies

But to be a Consultant, even to your best relationships is true

value. Many sales people simply give up and do not use a
strategy to “get over the hump.”

If you’re asking the right questions (Probing), and being a

good listener, you will get answers. You have to be patient;
80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th contact. work the
problem and Prepare!

So how does this translate to the high end?

 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
We all know companies that purposely work the mythical “high end.” They
perpetually make the most expensive products and Price them accordingly. BUT,
they don’t sell themselves. There’s a strategy behind it or there should be.
Pricing a bit higher than your competition can not only increase brand awareness
but help define the image of your store, brewery or brand. It may take time to
develop this as lots of factors weigh in: location, demographics, price index, etc.
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
Premium pricing
A premium pricing strategy involves setting the price of a product higher than
similar products. This strategy is sometimes also called skim pricing because it is
an attempt to “skim the cream” off the top of the market. It is used to maximize
profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more, where there are no
substitutes for the product, where there are barriers to entering the market or
when the seller cannot save on costs by producing at a high volume.

Source: www.smallbusiness.chron.com
Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
Steps to take:
1. You must have a selling platform.
2. You must have a product with a unique selling position? Ask yourself that question. Ask your
team that question. Good retailers do this – challenge your suppliers and distributors. Unique
Beers have the best chance of commanding a premium price.
3. Understand the concept of “Price-Quality Signaling.” This can sometimes be used to tweak
the perception of a brand. Can be difficult in beer but not impossible – may need brand
overhaul as well.
4. You must build a strategy to then execute in the market, store or distributor. Right beer/right
account, strategic partnerships, PR, location, PERCEPTION all play a role.
5. Can you accurately articulate the Features and the Benefits no matter what tier you’re in?
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
The Past as it relates to the future…

 20 years ago: 750 breweries, most of the micro variety. 3500+ distributors.
 Today: 5500 breweries, 2700 in planning. Less than 1500 distributors. 35
deals on distributor side alone were done in 2017 YTD.
 Being Intentional and creative matters.
 Brands matter
 Positioning matters
 Training matters
 What does this mean to me?
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It means.. That in this world of unprecedented choice, and that is not

going the other way, knowing who you are and how to position your
brand or store is going to be mandatory. Without this, you may get
lucky and that will happen but luck is rare. Make your own luck and
create your own energy. DO not sit on the sidelines. Define your
future or it will be defined for you.
 Craft Beer and Top Shelf Sales Strategies
“You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you
have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very
least you need a beer.”

- Frank Zappa
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THANK YOU!