The First 1000 Cases You Sell Will Not Be the Hardest!

That is not a typo. That is not a mistake. I encounter wine, spirit, and beer entrepreneurs all the time that lament that the selling 1000 cases into market is the hardest thing they have ever done! Here is how it will roll from an effort standpoint.

• 0-1000 Nearly Impossible
• 1000-5000 Impossible to the N’th degree
• 5000-15000 Easier than the above
• 15000- Impossible to the N’th degree

How can that be? Why is that?

0-1000 cases, Many of my clients fall into this range and they have the comment without fail that, “hey, we sold 1000, we are on the way!” Sure you sold 1000. Every liquor store and bar you ever went to, visited, drank at or used the bathroom at bought your product. They all did a favor for you. Selling into market is super easy! You will be Tito in no time.

1000-5000 cases, This is where the business gets real and gets really hard. The key to any new brand is not the first purchase but rather the second. When a bartender or liquor store manager is making a shelf list at 5am or in pre-shift is when they decide to REORDER your item, that is when your hard work needs to pay off. When there is no one to whisper in the ear or beg for cases is when brands are made. Success here and at this time will be made in all the pre-work, the sales calls, the bought coffee’s and donuts.

5000-15000 cases, Now you have traction. Clients are asking for your item and you have shelf set position. Back bar is no problem and being on a drink list is an expectation as well as a tap handle or wines by the glass list. Additionally, you now have some marketing support. Your distributor is seeing progress and sales teams are presenting your brand more and more. If you can believe it, you might even be part of a EOM, or EOQ incentive program from the distributor, life is good!

15000+ cases, Here we go! This is where it happens. This is where brands fight with you for shelf space. This where you start to get some, a little, leverage on the distributor (30,000+). This is where the likes of Diego, Pernod, LVMH and others start to watch what you are doing and how you are marketing. This is a good place to be, deciding on your own direction and where to take it.

The other real scenario is that less than 3% of all launched brands get to 500,000 annually cases and 6% of all launched brands get to 100,000 cases annually. The rest are come and go brands and white noise on a shelf. This is a sustainable life for a brand but by no means a guarantee to long term success. An often noted success is Tito’s. Tito’s toiled for 20 years to be a global success but often the un-sexy part of toiling is forgotten. Only for the hard work of Tito did the brand survive.

When you look at your success, especially as OND comes, know that getting on the shelf once is not success, it is a friend and family favor. The success of Casa Amigos had our phones ringing like crazy. The eager voices we heard said, “I can sell between 69,000-125,000 cases and sell for $1B?” The short answer is….no way in hell.

There are so many external forces that influenced that sale that the ‘everyday man’, me included, cannot understand what really happened there and what went on in the boardroom that influenced that purchase. We work with many, many brands between 5,000 and 300,000 cases -no one is getting a call like that.

A brand needs to get worked everyday by the supplier and the sales teams. The brand needs to be in market in so many more ways, other than an off premise shelf and on premise back bar.

Making the product is easy, selling in once is easy, selling it twice is hard and getting Clooney money is nearly impossible. But, with all that said, you can, with hard work, get a very nice 250,000 case brand in the world and be an adult beverage player to be noticed and reckoned with.