The First-Order Accelerator: The Simple 5 Steps to Get More Bars to Place the First Order
And Stop Sitting Hopeless in Front of People Who Don't Wanna Buy
In today’s issue, I’ll analyze why new drink brands struggle to get a meeting with bar owners. I'll show you my 5-step process to make your cold-calling warmer and land more first orders.
By adopting this process, you’ll spend time better. You’ll likely increase your strike rate in the right outlets and get them to re-buy.
Unfortunately, most salespeople lack a pragmatic system. They either:
only work through their network, never scaling their distribution
or do cold calls and burn most of their opportunities in a city.
It's about having people + systems
First thing: building a brand takes time so you will never get a silver bullet or a shortcut from me. It's about creating a system to use long-term and be consistent.
Salespeople used to create + capture demand. Not anymore. Today, most On-trade buyers do the research themselves, know what to buy, and want to decide when it's time to buy.
Without a system in place, you’ll spend most of your time trying to get your brand in front of people who don’t want to buy.
Challenge 1: They already know the hottest brands they want to list: They speak to peers and do research. If they haven't heard about your brand they think there's a reason and they're skeptical.
Challenge 2: You’re approaching them too early: you usually show up at the door of people who don’t want to buy. You have to make your cold call warmer by making your brand known to them before approaching.
Challenge 3: 100s of salespeople contact them each month: Whether by phone, email, or in person. They've developed tough skin and they might say no to you for the sake of it. You have to play differently.
Challenge 4: You walk in too cold: walking in, and asking to speak to the buyer won't get you far. You might land 10 but burn 90. You have to get to them more subtly, either via network or being a customer, before being a seller.
Here’s the 5-step process I follow to overcome the above challenges: