Maximizing Off-Premise Success With Your SOND Sampling Program

To prepare for SOND building a retail alcohol sample program should be a top priority. In the first part of our series on building sampling program for SOND, Todd Richman, National Sales Director for Tastings at Overproof, dives into the three steps for planning your ideal alcohol sampling program in retail stores.

In the second part of our SOND series, Richman discusses the benefits of independent and chain retailers for in-store alcohol samples. He touches on the differences between sampling programs in chain and independent stores, as well as the pros and cons of each approach.

In the final video of our series, Richman breaks down the keys to executing and analyzing your retail alcohol sample program. Richman reveals how your talent can effectively pitch your alcohol brand while serving samples in a retail setting. He also touches on best practices for tracking and reporting your sample data.

Chains vs Independents For In Store Alcohol Sampling: Which Is Best For Your Brand? | SOND Strategy

Todd Richman (0:00)

Hi, I’m Todd Richman. Welcome to part two of how to execute a perfect SOND strategy for your off-premise samplings. In our first part of this webinar series, we discussed preparing a strategy, and now it’s time to create your plan for working with chain or independent retailers. There are definite benefits to both that you should be aware of, and if you have the opportunity based on the scale of your distribution, definitely prepare to balance out your tastings with both chain and independent retailers.

Todd Richman (0:40)

One of the benefits to working with a chain retailer is that it’s a major opportunity for larger shipments of your product. Chain retailers are large, some of them have central warehouses, and there’s a lot of opportunity to get a lot of volume at the jump. Additionally, chain retailers allow you the opportunity to book far in advance for your tastings. But keep in mind that every chain does it differently: some use email, some have an online web-based portal, and for some, you have to go through a distributor representative. So, it’s important that you secure your ways of working with each group of chains that you plan to sample with. Additionally, make sure you have good relationships with your chain accounts manager at your distributor as well.

Todd Richman (1:26)

The benefits of having all of this stuff squared away so far in advance is it gives you an opportunity to assess your budget and how much you’re allocating each month to sampling with chain retailers. It’s a good tactic to plan your budget to be a little lighter in September and gradually increase it through the four months. A couple of things to think about: there are some challenges with chain accounts in that you don’t have a lot of ability to reschedule. Additionally, you have a lot of competition—you may be sampling your whiskey brand amongst four other whiskey brands, and you may only be allowed a certain amount of products that you can sample at one time depending on your state’s laws.

Todd Richman (2:11)

All right, we’ve talked about the chains; now let me talk about the independents. Independents are a great way to execute tastings, and there are a lot of benefits to working with them regardless of their size and scope in the off-premise market. With independents, you can have an immediate relationship and book several samplings at once. These samplings will be more impactful as independent stores are a little smaller; you may be the only person sampling in the store, you’ll have full share of mind of every customer, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to engage.

Todd Richman (2:48)

Additionally, with independent retailers, samplings are seen as a great form of support, and they’re very grateful to have you there because every sale matters and it’s a great way to ensure you’re cementing relationships with your retail partners. Also, streamlined communication: there may be a three-person operation at your independent retailer, and because of that, you may only be needing to send one or two texts today to book samplings for an entire quarter. Additionally, a lot of independent retailers do a great job with social media, out-of-home advertising, as well as field marketing. So, with enough planning, you’ll have a great way to ensure that your retailer is going to mention the tastings. They have large customer databases and a lot of benefits, so don’t sleep on the independents!

Todd Richman (3:45)

The only challenges that I can think of is that there may be a little less foot traffic. While there’s a little less volume as far as the amount you could sell versus in a chain retailer, there’s still such great value in working with your independents. So, like I said before, do not sleep on your independent retailers! These tastings matter, they’re great support, and it’s a really good opportunity to cement your relationship.

How to Execute & Analyze Your Retail Alcohol Sample Program | SOND Strategy

Todd Richman (0:00)

Hey, I’m Todd Richman. Welcome to part three of how to execute the perfect SOND sampling strategy for your brand. For this next section of the webinar, it’s all about the details. At this point, your strategy is developed, so now you need to hone in on the tactics to ensure excellent execution for your sampling program in SOND. The first thing you have to think about are your resources. Time is your most important resource that you will never get back. There will always be product in your warehouse; there will always be distributors able to sell it. But there will never be time that you can get back, and you have a lot on your plate with just the front end. Let’s talk about scheduling, staffing, confirming product, getting your marketing materials together, and your beverage strategies. That’s a lot of work, and that all takes time.

Todd Richman (1:03)

The first thing you want to think about in your details are your training materials for your ambassadors. It’s SOND—everybody’s busy. The best thing you can do to ensure success with your ambassadors is to provide a simple, refined script with enough room to let them bring their own character to the tasting. Keep it simple. There’s something called the “Trinity Pitch” that a lot of suppliers use, and that means they talk about three key points per brand—and that’s it. Our supporting data shows that brevity is key, and here’s why: on average, a sampling agent has three to maybe five minutes with a customer. If you’re sampling three products, that’s just over 1.3 minutes per product. Also, if you have special initiatives for SOND, be sure to brief your talent on this. This could be anything from gift packages to bottle engraving next to your sampling table, seasonal launches, or additional cocktail strategies. You want to have all that squared away.

Todd Richman (2:09)

So, the front end is taken care of: you’ve got your sampling scheduled, you’ve got your staff trained, you’ve got your marketing materials, and you’ve shipped everything out where you need to be. All you have to do at this point is have the samplers do their thing, and then comes the next challenge you face—and that’s your after-action reporting. As tastings increase in velocity from September through the New Year, the only potential off day where you will not have samplings is Sunday, and that’s not even guaranteed. Additionally, you have to think about the fact that your reporting requires a very fast turnaround time.

Todd Richman (2:47)

A couple of things you want to do here is realize that every tasting has a cost. As you plan, sample, staff, and get ready to generate your reporting, you need to include your cost for all of the following things: you need to include the cost for your product, your talent, your time, any point-of-sale mixers, etc., and shipping. Then, you’re going to want to calculate your ROI. You want to think about the cost of your tasting against case sales, and those case sales can include your shipments to the distributor as well as distributor depletions and sales at the table. All of those three metrics are very important.

Todd Richman (3:28)

Additionally, you want to take a look at your talent performance and see how they’re engaging with the customer. You want to see what their sales and conversion rates are like. Remember, sales and conversion rates are different things, and both are important, especially if you have a great ambassador who’s doing a really good job of engaging the customer. Based on your objectives, which one matters more to you? If a tasting has less people but a higher conversion rate, that’s as important as a lower conversion rate with more bottle sales.

Todd Richman (4:00)

Once you have all this information together and you’ve calculated your ROI, how are you optimizing your sampling program? Are you using a platform like Tastings by Overproof to generate immediate reports? Are you capturing talent performance and conversion rates? Are you capturing the data at each location and seeing where your tasting programs are succeeding based on each sampling program that you’re doing across the country? Be sure that you’re using technology to help you with this and take all that after-action reporting and data diving off your plate. Thank you so much for your time. If you like these tips and tactics and want to get some more, scan the QR code on your screen right now to download Overproof’s Store Sampling 101 Guide. Additionally, if you have more questions or would like to learn about our tastings technology, email me at todd.richman@overproof.com. Once you’ve got your tools, get out there and go win in the retail market!