Lessons Learned Along The Way

“Selling begins when the customer says no.” I heard that early on in my beer career and never forgot it. I have been told “NO” lots of times, and I couldn’t help but learn a few things along the way, which I would like to share, starting with this anecdote:

When I owned a craft brewery in the early 2000s, I made a sales call along with the chain manager from my distributor to a large supermarket in New York City. With headquarters authorization in hand, we had a ‘license to hunt” for shelf space. The manager was in a small office up the stairs with a high view of the store. A few seconds into the pitch, he told us to get out, he didn’t want my beer and cursed us out of the store. Out in the parking lot afterwards, I asked the distributor rep what he thought about what had just happened.

Here was the lesson I learned that day. You never know what that customer was going through in his life. Sitting in that tiny office every day with all the problems of managing a store, meeting quotas, maybe a difficult boss, problems at home, financial stress, whatever…listening to me and people like me trying to gain a spot on his shelf over and over again, day after day.

That lesson – think about your customer’s perspective before you say a word, listen before you talk, understand the human being you are trying to sell something to.

The same holds for a distributor meeting. Think about what your audience has gone through before listening to you – how many insufferable supplier presentations they have already had to sit through. They are busy people and they have their own personal and professional issues that occupy their minds.

So craft your message accordingly, keep it brief and simple, leaving them with only the 3 things you want them to remember. If you respect the customers, you are more likely to be invited back.