You don’t know what you don’t know…..

While working as a distributor I was often assigned new brewery reps. for our markets.  The majority of these new brewery reps. were young, fresh out of college, and some had MBAs in which the ink has not yet dried.  These young reps had been put through training on distributor economics and how to sell beer.  The classes were generally taught by brewery executives who had never owned or operated a beer distributorship.

In the 80s, Coors Brewing Co. had a training program called Distributor Economics.  This was a two-part training class:  DEI was the introduction to distributor economics and DEII was a three-day exercise, with each day representing one year of business.  You were placed on a team and given a case study in which the distributor was losing money.  The idea was to put programs into place that would make the operation profitable.  At the end of every day, each team presented their operation to the group.  The team with the best case study results won.  Again, the class was usually taught by executives with backgrounds at company owned operations.  The class was mostly theory.

I had numerous new craft and import vendors come and visit when I was building Glazer’s beer portfolio.  Each time I would ask the vendor to outline their strategy and marketing programs.  In almost every situation the vendor would produce their beer and packaging.  I would continue to press them for a marketing business plan and I would usually get this answer “well, we have a couple of signs!”

My recommendation to each of these vendors was to find an experienced beer sales manager, hire that person, than we would talk.  While the vendor made excellent beer, they often did not know how to sell their product.

Soon after hitting the streets in Texas, New Belgium hired a new ranger.  At a lunch meeting, the ranger spent the entire time explaining how he was fasting and cleansing his system.  He did not even bring up New Belgium and their programs.  Shortly thereafter, in talking with Kim Jordan, head of New Belgium, I commented on how it would be interesting to watch NB grow and adapt to the industry while trying to keep their unique culture.  To her credit, Kim and her team have done a great job bringing in top beer talent, yet keeping their niche.

A new book on craft beer, Distribution Insight for the Craft Brewer, recently hit the shelves.  This book, written by the sister of a small Colorado brewer who now puts on beer festivals, is advertised as a how-to on distribution, distributor appointments, and a myriad of other top topics in the craft industry.  The price of the book is $39.95!

So, craft brewers, who have spent years in training and learning how to brew beer, have invested hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in a brewery, can now spend just $39.95 and learn how to distribute beer!  Perhaps we will soon see Craft Beer for Dummies!

Those craft brewers who do end up purchasing this book may, in fact, realize that to be successful in the beer business one needs more than simply good craft beer!  Maybe then they will also invest in finding the experienced beer people who can help them with sales and distribution.  To those other craft brewers who do not invest in employees to bring them this much needed knowledge, you don’t know what you don’t know!