Even if you have a high-quality product, you must be able to connect with retailers in order to get your product on the shelves. In this three-part series from Park Street University, Robin Robinson, Founder of Robin Robinson LLC, provides insight on a better way to think of beverage alcohol sales and how it can translate to pitching a brand to retailers.
In the first video of the series Robinson discusses the importance of systematizing your approach to sales. Creating a system that can be replicated and leads to predictable outcomes can create continued success for your brand.
In the second installment, Robinson explains how to gain your account’s trust and increase sales in the process. Robinson reveals how acquiring industry knowledge beyond your product can make you a trusted consultant to your client, rather than just a product-pusher.
In the third of the series, Robinson reveals how good story-telling can become one of the strongest tools at your disposal when pitching your brand. Robinson also goes on to break down the structure of a winning brand narrative.
A Better Way To Think of Beverage Alcohol Sales
Robin Robinson 0:00
Hi, my name’s Robin Robinson, and what I hope you’ll take away from this lesson is a great definition of what sales is. I’ve been a salesman for my entire life in three separate industries. First, in show business as an actor where I was the product. Second, in the tech sector, selling complex mission-critical systems to large businesses to help transform their operations. Third, currently in the liquor industry, where I sell products and teach others how to sell a variety of alcoholic products.
Robin Robinson 0:50
This is really where the problem occurs: what I see out in the industry is a complete lack of systematizing what the salesperson is doing. Therefore, it becomes a scattershot approach. Typically, sales training ends up being two weeks out of the field with your manager, and then you’re thrown into the deep end of the pool. When I ask people what sales is to them, I get a variety of answers, but I’m going to offer a definition that I hope you’ll be able to take away and use immediately.
Robin Robinson 1:28
To me, sales is a set of methodologies and practices that leads to a predictable outcome in which an exchange of value will occur. Let’s break that down:
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A set of methodologies and practices: This is a systematized approach. When you systematize something, you put processes in place that you repeat over and over again despite the varieties of different sales scenarios. This is something I rarely see in the liquor industry.
Robin Robinson 2:09
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Leads to a predictable outcome: At the end of the day, we want to know what we are going to sell and what we are not going to sell. The last thing a good salesperson wants to do is spend time in a scenario where a sale is not going to occur. Understanding this systematized approach creates a predictable outcome so that you, your sales manager, and your organization understand what’s going to happen.
Robin Robinson 2:43
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An exchange of value occurs: This is critical, and a part where a lot of salespeople don’t come in understanding. Value doesn’t just occur in the product, the deliciousness of the liquid inside the bottle, the packaging, or the compelling story behind it. Value also occurs in the reputation of your company and your personal reputation in the industry. All three make up value.
Robin Robinson 3:14
You are exchanging that value for the value that the retailer, bartender, or bar manager brings by displaying and selling your product. You’re crossing those over, and that’s where the exchange of value happens. In my mind, sales is one of the noblest professions in the world. Stay tuned for the second part of this lesson, where we’ll learn more about the details of this methodology and process.
How to Gain Your Account’s Trust and Increase Sales
Robin Robinson 0:00
Hi everyone, this is Robin Robinson, and we’re here in the second part of understanding what sales is in the liquor industry. I’ve noticed that there are two approaches: one I think is a successful one, and the other one I think is not so successful. Every salesperson, at any given time, makes the choice whether they’re going to be one or the other. One of them is a trusted consultant, and the other one is a product pusher. You can probably understand right there from the very beginning how one is going to be a little bit more valuable than the other. The whole idea of this, remember, is an exchange of value between you and the people who are buying your product.
Robin Robinson 0:56
So many people go out there with no real understanding of the broader essence of the market or other spirits categories. They go out there with essentially just bullet points and a product sheet, and they’re essentially just nailing the product over and over and over again. That actually has some limited success—you may be selling on price or on the newness of the product. But I’ve got news for you: that product is new one time, and that price is going to get beaten by someone else, especially if you’re a small brand working against larger brands who will beat you on volume anyway.
Robin Robinson 1:41
What you’ve got to understand is that you’ve got to bring more than just the product—you’ve got to bring yourself as a salesperson. That is the professionalism of sales, as opposed to falling into it to see if you can make some quick money. That’s a product pusher right there. A lot of this has to do with how much time you spend getting to know your customer’s business issues. At the end of the day, whether it’s a retailer, a bar manager, or a large restaurant chain, they have one thing in mind: a business practice where they’ve got to make money selling your product. How they do that is really up to you.
Robin Robinson 2:31
One of the most important things a salesperson can do is display an extraordinary understanding of their own product—what makes it up, its backstory, and how to tell a great story that conveys the real virtues of the product. At the same time, bring additional value: an understanding, for example, of every other product that is in their bar or retail shop, to be able to converse and understand how all of these things fit together. This takes you outside of just being a product pusher and brings you into the realm of being a professional salesperson in the liquor industry.
Robin Robinson 3:21
You don’t have to have super-geeky details on every single item, but you should have a clear and workable understanding of all categories outside your own. If you’re selling whiskey, you really need to know about gin and rum. If you’re selling rum, you really need to know about vodka and vermouth. Nowadays, with all the experimentation and innovation going on in the liquor industry, there’s a pretty good chance each category is going to meet another somewhere in a new iteration of a product.
Robin Robinson 3:57
Your ability to understand that—as well as the forces impacting the industry, such as consolidations, acquisitions, new market entries, trends, and numbers—is what helps you bring true value. This is what makes you a trusted consultant and not just a product pusher. While everyone has numbers to hit, if your customer knows that you’re in it for them to survive and thrive, you’re going to have a lot easier, more fruitful, and much more profitable relationships.
A Better Way To Think of Beverage Alcohol Sales
Robin Robinson 0:00
Hi, my name’s Robin Robinson, and what I hope you’ll take away from this lesson is a great definition of what sales is. I’ve been a salesman for my entire life in three separate industries. First, in show business as an actor where I was the product. Second, in the tech sector, selling complex mission-critical systems to large businesses to help transform their operations. Third, currently in the liquor industry, where I sell products and teach others how to sell a variety of alcoholic products.
Robin Robinson 0:50
This is really where the problem occurs: what I see out in the industry is a complete lack of systematizing what the salesperson is doing. Therefore, it becomes a scattershot approach. Typically, sales training ends up being two weeks out of the field with your manager, and then you’re thrown into the deep end of the pool. When I ask people what sales is to them, I get a variety of answers, but I’m going to offer a definition that I hope you’ll be able to take away and use immediately.
Robin Robinson 1:28
To me, sales is a set of methodologies and practices that leads to a predictable outcome in which an exchange of value will occur. Let’s break that down:
-
A set of methodologies and practices: This is a systematized approach. When you systematize something, you put processes in place that you repeat over and over again despite the varieties of different sales scenarios. This is something I rarely see in the liquor industry.
Robin Robinson 2:09
-
Leads to a predictable outcome: At the end of the day, we want to know what we are going to sell and what we are not going to sell. The last thing a good salesperson wants to do is spend time in a scenario where a sale is not going to occur. Understanding this systematized approach creates a predictable outcome so that you, your sales manager, and your organization understand what’s going to happen.
Robin Robinson 2:43
-
An exchange of value occurs: This is critical, and a part where a lot of salespeople don’t come in understanding. Value doesn’t just occur in the product, the deliciousness of the liquid inside the bottle, the packaging, or the compelling story behind it. Value also occurs in the reputation of your company and your personal reputation in the industry. All three make up value.
Robin Robinson 3:14
You are exchanging that value for the value that the retailer, bartender, or bar manager brings by displaying and selling your product. You’re crossing those over, and that’s where the exchange of value happens. In my mind, sales is one of the noblest professions in the world. Stay tuned for the second part of this lesson, where we’ll learn more about the details of this methodology and process.