Motivate Reps With 3 Tips From Beverage Industry Sales Professionals

Your sales reps aren’t happy, and it’s actively impacting your beer, wine, or liquor sales. How do we know? To start, a recent Gartner study [1] shows that more than 80% of B2B sellers feel unmotivated and that less motivated sellers achieve up to 41% lower quota than their more motivated counterparts.

It’s grim out there, but it isn’t too late for you as a sales leader to turn the ship around. The tips below are jam-packed with real-world advice from three alcoholic beverage (bev-alc) industry sales professionals [2-4] as well as insights from Gartner research [5-6]. By including them in your sales training, you can reinvigorate your sales team and get them back to crushing their goals.

Paying your reps fairly is the best way to boost employee happiness. This is a particularly important sales motivation tip given that twice as many nonwhite B2B sellers (23%) see their compensation as not fair compared to sellers who are white men (11%) [5].

To be both fair to reps and mindful of your budget, you might revisit your compensation plan. While some sales teams are assigned a certain quota or earn commission, Nicole Stufflebeme of Lupinus Artisan Ales [2] is a fan of management by objectives (MBO). This results-based approach to performance management focuses on individual goals instead of traditional KPIs.

Nicole Stufflebeme, Owner and director of operations at Lupinus Artisan Ales [2]

“It’s easy to overfocus on numbers such as conversion rate or contract value versus the intention of those KPIs,” Stufflebeme explains. “Instead of asking reps to close a certain number of sales in a week, what if you focused on events they could host for their accounts or experiences that are more about building relationships with clients?”

Here are a few other examples of goals that you could set for reps as part of an MBO plan:

• Prospecting goals: Reps aim to contact a certain number of businesses each day or week.

• Continuing education goals: Reps spend two to three hours each week researching brands and producers to improve sales presentations.

• Underperforming category goals: Reps focus on selling from underperforming or underrepresented categories in your inventory.

The benefits of an MBO compensation plan, Stufflebeme adds, extend beyond financial incentives into work-life balance: “Being mindful of reps’ time prevents burnout. If they’re overly focused on sales targets, there’s only so much time they’re going to have for themselves outside of work. And at that point, it’s quantity over quality.”

It’s hard for sales reps to stay motivated when buyers don’t want to talk to them. But 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, and a whopping 40% didn’t involve reps at all in their most recent purchase, opting instead for self-serve digital commerce methods [6].

This might not seem relevant to those in the bev-alc industry where most sales activities are still conducted in person. But the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR) predicts that by 2025, eCommerce will account for 6% of global alcoholic beverage sales, with the rapidly growing (over 20% annually) U.S. market on top [7]. In other words, your sales reps will soon encounter more buyers who prefer to shop without their assistance.

“I’ve definitely had this happen,” says Anne Claire Brewer [3], a sales representative for wine and craft spirit distributor Maverick Beverage Company. “Some buyers just want to know about our inventory—do you have this, yes or no, and how soon can I get it—and not so much about our recommendations.”

Anne Claire Brewer, Sales representative at Maverick Beverage Company [3]

To connect with reluctant buyers, Brewer suggests the following:

• Don’t force buyers into tastings or further interactions. Sellers should strive to be as helpful as possible to their buyers, even if those interactions aren’t as fulfilling. “If they’re happy to play ball and still interested in closing the sale, I’ll do my best to meet their needs and maintain those customer relationships,” says Brewer.

• Check in every week, and keep attempts conversational. “If I’m selling to a restaurant, I’ll text my contact, ‘I saw on Instagram that you’re offering a new special. How’s it selling? I’m excited to try it!’” Brewer says. “Once the business aspect has been put to the side, it’s a lot easier to figure out what an account needs.”

• Reference the buyer’s purchase history. This is a great way to remind customers how helpful working with a sales rep can be. Brewer likes to suggest wines that previously sold well for the buyer or offer something else from the same producer. If a rep wants to go the extra mile, they can drop off samples for the buyer to try on their own time.

The competitive nature of sales is enough to burn out reps, but you can set a different tone for your sales team. One of Brewer’s favorite things about her organization is the collaborative environment among sales reps.

“We all have our own experience in sales, plus a lot of us have worked in restaurants,” she explains. “There’s always an opportunity to learn something new from your colleague or provide a connection that gets them a new account.”

Sales leaders can also collaborate with reps to help bridge the disconnect that 67% of B2B reps feel from leadership at their workplace [1]. Bobby DeSeyn [4], who has overseen sales teams for various bev-alc distributors across the Midwest, suggests joining reps on the job. “I would actually work with them for a week, as in jump on a truck and help them deliver,” he says.

Bobby DeSeyn, Sales professional [3]

Shadowing opportunities like the ones DeSeyn describes allow you to troubleshoot tricky selling scenarios with both new and seasoned sales reps. They also let you build rapport with accounts and stay on top of trends, which can help inform your sales strategy and training.

Here are more ways to foster a culture of collaboration within your sales force:

• Encourage knowledge-sharing. Creating a portal or website for your sales reps is an easy way to share resources, experiences, and the occasional motivational sales quote without contributing to a cluttered email inbox.

• Maintain ongoing sales training sessions. Twenty-one percent of respondents in our 2023 Business Structure Survey* report that their sales organization conducts training sessions less than once per quarter beyond the initial onboarding. Keep reps fresh by holding at least monthly training sessions on topics such as sales call tactics.

• Develop a mentoring program. Invite experienced sales reps to serve as mentors for new hires. This way, they can give novice reps the inside scoop on winning over a prospect and closing deals more efficiently.

The tips we discussed are designed for motivating salespeople:

But the fact remains that 54% of B2B sellers are actively looking for new jobs [1]. If you really want to set your team up for sales success, provide them with the right tech as well as proper training on its use. Whether you invest in performance management, accounts receivable, or collaboration tools, invest equally in your team by inviting a vendor rep to host a training session. When your salespeople know how to leverage the tools provided to them, they’ll learn all the hacks that make their jobs easier and feel more confident.

Note: Questions and responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.