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Sales encentives for regular employees

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  • Sales encentives for regular employees

    We're a year-old brewery with just a few employees and are trying help our regular employees branch out, stretch their wings, try new things and hopefully earn a bit of cash on the side doing a bit of sales in their off time if they would like.

    We are struggling with a reward/bonus program that is lucrative for employees but does not take all the profit of a sold keg for us.

    One idea we have had is offering a $200/month "bonus" for every 5 taps they have on, say, the 15th of every month. We thought this would give them a bit of flexibility for success, but also keep them working to keep the 5 taps, picking up new ones as others drop.

    This would just be a voluntary side-gig, and the employees are working in their home town and selling at places they probably visit already on a weekly/monthly basis.

    Any thoughts on this kind of structure or any idea of a better one?

    All ideas appreciated and entertained.

    Cheers!

    el

  • #2
    A couple thoughts:
    1. A professional salesman can sell way more product than a casual "hey wanna buy my beer?" from a regular at his local.
    2. I would be worried about having a lot of non-committed employees making professional connections on your behalf.
    3. I think incentives are a good idea in general, but maybe you should try to provide incentives for the employees to do their current job better?

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    • #3
      Brewery employees in a bar will always be brand ambassadors once people learn where they work but there's a big difference between people just talking about how awesome your beers are and somebody striking sales deals on your behalf. If you equip your employees to strike deals you might find yourself bound to sales commitments at prices or volumes you can't support. That's an immediate problem with having non-sales people place sales. If you are paying them to make sales then you have authorized them to act as sales agents for the business and their commitments are binding upon you even if you don't want the deal. A bar probably isn't going to sue you to enforce an agreement but a bad deal most likely will ruin future business opportunities. You might be better off paying them for generating leads where the owners/sales are coming in and making the actual agreement. That would give you control over the actual business but let your employees do a little more than just talk about how great your beer is.

      Another consideration, from an employment perspective, is that you create legal risk by having employees working "off the clock" for you. The employees probably would not need to be paid hourly for this external sales work if they are being paid by commission for that work but a disgruntled ex-employee might decide to file a wage claim for the hours and create a mess for you even if you prevail. It's not a problem for salaried, exempt employees but for your hourly and tipped employees that could be a real problem. It could be a source of other wage-related claims that, even if you prevail, would probably cause an unnecessary headache.
      DFW Employment Lawyer
      http://kielichlawfirm.com

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      • #4
        Yeah. And at least here in WA anyone representing you out in the market technically needs to have an Agent's License. They're like $20 bucks and a form, but still, there goes your profit on that keg. Better to have them forward any leads to someone responsible for sales to close the deal. But public praise and a small in-house reward system for bringing in leads isn't totally out of order.
        Russell Everett
        Co-Founder / Head Brewer
        Bainbridge Island Brewing
        Bainbridge Island, WA

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