What did you/your company do that REALLY helped sales?

[einhorn]

I'm going to throw this one out there like a big, fat bone.

Let's consider the fact that we are all constantly trying to sell more, and that we all try very different tactics and tools to do this. Some things work well, other things are a waste of time and money. What I'm looking for is an idea or concept that is SALES oriented; things that your customers embraced and increased sales. Here a few examples to get the brain-juice flowing:

o Introduced a certain beer type
o Decreased the product portfolio
o On-Pack Promotion
o On- or Off-trade promotion
o hired a professional ____?______
o sponsorship of a certain event or group


I'm interested in ideas from both micros and brew-pubs. Looking forward to your answers....

Prosit!

[nohandslance]

First dedicate yourself to your target market. This should have been outlined in the company mission statement. For our brewery in the Mojave Desert and our love of off-road racing here and in Baja Mexico, part of our statement is:
"To serve the off-road community". I just got back this morning from an "Off-Road Race for the Cure to help support Breast Cancer Research.

Our part was to hand out trash bags and have people walk the course and surrounding areas and pick up trash in order to help clean up the desert. We gave away shirts and hats and some beer for the most trash collected, etc. This is all volunteer so we are able to post our clean up efforts on local buletin boards at the local Coffee shops and other public places that have these boards.
For our 13 retail stores along the route out to the desert we have noticed significant sales increase on weekends where there is a particular event in the area.
Also select one or two causes to really focus on. For our Baja 1000 pre-run we our bringing school supplies and donated items to the town of Mulege on the Baja Peninsula that was devestated by Hurricane John in September. We travel down there three times a year and bring donated items to the poverty stricken areas that welcome us as tourists through out the year.....It is the least we can do. Find a cause and commit to it.... the sales will suprise you with how word of mouth and peoples response to simple volunteer tasks that the brewery supports.
Good Luck
Lance

[Michael Murphy]

Our Brewery likes to use the press, they like to make a big deal out of a special beer, for example they will travel to England and pick up 20kg of fresh hops and we will brew it all while a newspaper reporter is witnessing.

2 weeks after the newspaper will make a big spread about the beer and the brewery....

Another thing is we have decided to become a publicly listed company, (probably not realistic for most) but the financial newspapers are all over us.

Newspapers coverage is big for sales. Inbev wants to sell our beers in sweden? they asked for more than half our yearly production for the first order, we had to say no for now...

We hired a really good sales guy and he has a sales assistant too, in 3 months he has made our distributor the smaller part of our total sales, we are selling most of our beers directly to the supermarkets. Supermarkets are key to big sales...

Now they need to hire me some help out in the brewery they stepped up production 500% in 1 year and were still in 2 prs in the whole production (not packaging)

[Moonlight]

This may not sound sales oriented, but if you have draft beer, I guarantee it will translate into sales: Clean the lines and faucets more often than your competitors.
Trust me on this one.

[Dave Suds]

Sweden eh?

So whats the brand name of your beer? I have just started my own Brewpub in Sweden (Stockholm). At the Stockholm beer festival there were more American microbrews than you can find at Trader Joes in CA!
Anyway I cant say much on the thread here as i the alcohol scene here in Sweden is much different than the states. What has worked for us though much like Mr Murphy stated is the Newspapers. We just got covered in Sweden largest selling Cusine magazine. We invited them to the brewery to participate in the makings of a Belgian Wit. Everything went well and beer turned out fantastic! We got the cover story! Comes out first in January.
We have also had major exposure in other newspapers and this has certainly increased our orders.
Cheers,
David Meadows
Brewhouse Tech

https://www.sigtunabrygghus.se

[BurntWood]

awards program worked in a different industry. Top customer (my new customer!) won a trip to the Olympics in Barcelona along with a 4 day cruise in the Greek Islands (or they had the choice of 7 days at Olympics). They knew they were in contention early on, but then started buying lots to stay in pace, then they were reselling product to keep up volumes as they wanted the award and were reselling a lot via the distribution channels, and were selling the product cheap to get orders and to meet the objective of achieving this trip for two. They bought like $190,000 from me during that program. Was a great new customer and the award program really kept the conversations alive. When it was all said and done, they had a trip of a lifetime.
Imagine a top bartender (fill in owner here...) with top honors to Zihuatanejo Mexico! The trip would more than pay for itself in a promotion. Better yet, have an award for 3 top customers and go with them to build long term relations and brand loyalty. Would be a great program to run for 3/4 of a year or for 6 months. New business or new business growth by percentage.

What do you think? Could also be simple trip to Vegas or XYZ.