Time v Patience / Patience v Time and the Adult Beverage Space

We have the good fortune of meeting brand-trepreneurs (people who make booze) all day every day. They come to our offices or we meet them on the road, and they all ask the same question from us; they all ask about sales and growth advice, but for the purpose of this piece the two things are:

TIME and PATIENCE

The last times I heard the phrase time and patience it was from my parents telling me why I had no success with the ladies. Or when my 8^th grade hoops coach said it when I asked how come I did not make the team. Or my mom said the same to me when I was waiting in line for Six Flags. All scenarios actually happened and all required time and patience.

But, when referring to the adult beverage game, time and patience is what you MUST have to survive the peaks and valleys of the business.

TIME – Time is always a function of money. Money allows time to be elongated and brands to have choice. If you are well funded, have giving friends and family, you are allotted the luxury of time. Time is finite, measurable and can be easily defined and communicated.

PATIENCE – On the opposite side is patience. Patience is not easily measurable nor has no clear and defined role. Patience is both plentiful and scarce.

With all this psychobabble what I am trying to say?

Brands fail in the patience portion. Always and forever. We see makers weekly that are well funded and well meaning. We see suppliers that have money and unlimited resources but lack the one commodity that cannot be bought or owned; patience. In the adult beverage business, whether it is wine, beer or spirits – patience will be the one golden ring you will need to be successful.

Patience is the ability to wait for your opening in the market. Patience is the ability to sleep at night when you have sold ZERO 9L cases that week and knowing that it will come. Patience is having a route to market plan and being able to work with it until it comes to fruition.

See, we deal with makers all day…every day. All of them have time and money, because that is how they got this point (COLA, bottled, shipped and warehoused). But with all that tangible spend comes the intangible part, the patience of it all.

• Can you wait for the market?
• Can you allow your core customer to notice you?
• Can you be allowing the consumer to buy your brand once and twice?

These are all real questions and not a parable. Time and patience are what is needed to have success as a brand owner and supplier. We at BevStrat can point to our successful brands and the slower brands. There are obviously different levers to pull and reasons of the what, why and how, but the one thing the growing brands all have are ….

Time and Patience!
Time and Patience!
Time and Patience!