{"id":4460,"date":"2017-11-28T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4460"},"modified":"2017-11-27T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T14:56:12","slug":"change-is-the-end-result-of-all-true-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4460","title":{"rendered":"Change is the end result of all true learning.."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The ongoing talent drain at AB, as discussed in last week\u2019s post, has additional ramifications for other beer companies.\u00a0 In a recent visit with a senior leader of a large MC distributor, this leader commented that when asked by his vendors to do a ride-with, he typically refused, under the assumption that he would not learn anything from a sales rep. After decades of leadership roles in various beer companies, he saw no upside to working with a vendor sales rep.<\/p>\n

When InBev took over AB 10 years ago, and opened the gates for AB wholesalers to pursue new products, many of these AB houses promoted from within to handle to job of managing the new vendors.\u00a0 The upside to this model was that these employees knew the market and their company.\u00a0 The downside is that, as we now all know you cannot sell crafts or imports using the same techniques as selling AB products.\u00a0 There was a learning curve for all of these people and beer companies, and unfortunately, it has taken much longer to learn the needed skill sets than anticipated.\u00a0 Fortunately, however, the AB houses have had the resources to enable their staff the needed time to learn and grow.<\/p>\n

That curve has now cycled through.\u00a0 What the industry is currently experiencing is the next generation of craft managers who are moving into leadership roles and managing various portfolios.\u00a0 At the moment, the typical career path to a vendor-manager requires promotion to a sales rep.\u00a0 A number of these sales reps come from the on-premise retail, typically employed as a craft server or manager.\u00a0 \u00a0They have a passion for the industry and a good knowledge of craft beers which makes them desirable for the wholesalers to acquire these reps.\u00a0 It makes sense.<\/p>\n

The question becomes: are these craft-passionate young people qualified to lead a wholesaler\u2019s portfolio?\u00a0 Where the senior MC executive saw no reason to ride with an inexperienced sales rep, perhaps the reverse applies to an experienced team of successful beer people. Those working to develop a brewery\u2019s brand could be assigned an inexperienced manager as the wholesaler.\u00a0 This is a disconnect.<\/p>\n

It is imperative that a wholesaler not only educate their young employees in regards to the dynamics of the three-tier-system, they must also assign portfolios accordingly.\u00a0 In other words, putting a young inexperienced, or limited experienced, manager against a vendor whose team is highly experienced with a proven track record, is going to cause problems.\u00a0 The reverse is also true.\u00a0 Managing a portfolio means managing a vendor.\u00a0 A vendor does not need to manage the portfolio manager.<\/p>\n

When a vendor, at the request of the wholesaler, sets up tastings or samplings, the wholesaler must execute.\u00a0 Vendors, when setting up a sampling must be in the position to also execute.\u00a0 This includes carrying the right product and having ample inventory.\u00a0 Many of you see this as a basic function, yet time and time again, someone drops the ball and the retailer loses.<\/p>\n

Vendors and wholesalers need to communicate who, what, when, where, and how to manage and execute a vendor\u2019s portfolio from the beginning.\u00a0 This is not one sided, either parties must execute or both parties will lose.<\/p>\n

Change is the end result of all true learning\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing talent drain at AB, as discussed in last week\u2019s post, has additional ramifications for other beer companies.\u00a0 In a recent visit with a senior leader of a large MC distributor, this leader commented that when asked by his vendors to do a ride-with, he typically refused, under the assumption that he would not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-19W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}