Benefits of Beer

*Originally written by Billy Meagor who quit us.

No, it’s not what you’re thinking.  Yes, to the consumer, the benefit is that beer feels good on your mouth parts!  I’m talking about the benefit of our buyer purchasing our awesome beer.  Let me explain.  In my last blog, I talked about the difference between a buyer purchasing our beer based on taste vs the individual beer’s rad marketing. You can read that here.  

This blog, I’m going to explain how the features and benefits of a beer can help when selling it.

Now, for whatever reason a buyer won’t always sample the product, especially when selling to a Grocery Store. Something about not drinking on the job… I don’t know, I get to sample on the job, but whatever. When that happens, a rep will need to be able to talk to about the brand and how it could benefit the buyer and their customers.  

I’ll start with an easier example. We have a big drinking holiday, you may have heard about it, St. Patrick’s Day. Well, that’s one of our biggest months for Irish Death, for obvious reasons.  So, for me when I’m working my markets and selling-in beer displays, I’m targeting Irish Death 6 pack cans and 22’s this time of year.  When I speak to the beer buyer for, let’s say Fred Meyer, I’ll speak to Irish Death’s rate of sale, pricing, the fact that we sell a shit-ton of Irish Death in March compared to other months and that we have POS to support displays.  

The Feature – Irish Death.  The Benefit – Rate of sale during March, Pricing and the POS we can offer.  

My next example is selling-in our new IPA, Beer Wolf, to a bar or restaurant.  Again, the buyer may not be able to sample (strange but true).  This beer is awesome, because the liquid is fantastic and the marketing is unique and fun! The label has a wolf on top of a helicopter, who wouldn’t be into that?  So, I know the marketing is good and now I need to speak to the beer.  When talking to the buyer, I’ll present the beer, offer a sample, talk to the specs of the beer and then speak to the fact that it’s a NEW IPA from Iron Horse and different from our last IPA.  If I need to I can also speak to the differences between Beer Wolf and other IPAs in the market.  

The Feature – Beer Wolf IPA.  The Benefit –  It’s new and brewed to fit the IPA characteristics data tells us consumers are looking for in the IPA market. It’s an actual NEW beer from Iron Horse and the marketing for the beer stands out and gains the attention of the consumer.

It seems simple, but it’s not always easy, a beer rep needs to be prepared, know what they are selling and how it will benefit the buyer.  It is not easy to sell beer, believe me, I hear “no” often and not because our beer is bad, it’s the fact there is so much beer in the market and not enough space for everyone.  But, I hear “yes” more than “no” because I have knowledge of our beers and I can identify the benefits of our beer to the buyers.