Why brewery's attitude is more important than the beer product itself

The scenario is more or less known to all of us. We attend a trade show where we meet a ‘great company’. The person at the booth looks friendly and ready to respond to our inquiry. Few months later and after the first shipment, communication is not great anymore, exchange of e mails is poor, the second shipment is delayed for an X reason but we get a reassurance that everything will be ok. The friendly employee is not working with that company any more so we have to tell our ‘story’ from the beginning to another employee who is a newer and unluckily the second shipment is not as expected and there are some problems that no one appears capable of solving. Does this sound familiar to you? 

Beer distributors are in constant search for both new beers that will give them money, and for breweries that can adapt quickly to their market needs and requirements. However, going from theory to practice is not easy and even the most experienced traders and distributors sometimes fail this process and experience the unpleasant results of a bad deal. So the question here is, how one can recognise the best 'beer-brewery' package before investing time and money with it?

The answer to the above is simple, RATE them. The first step is to know exactly the product you are looking for, including its characteristics like taste, alcohol content, packaging, container type and size, shelf life, quality etc. The second step, is to contact few breweries to taste their beer. Lastly, upon basic communication, you should check and assess the brewery's staff intentions. There are some traits and characteristics in supplier's behaviour that betray his future attitude towards business and by asking few questions you will soon understand what's his strengths and weaknesses. In addition to that, a quick online search is a must and should always be part of any beer supplier assessment. The below matrix will help you put your thoughts in the line.

 Above selected criteria in the matrix are not random. Each of them is likely to affect your business in one way or another. Criteria that will affect your business the most get an ‘importance’ of 5 while criteria that cannot affect the business extensively get an ‘importance’ of 1. Then, the score of each criterion (its weight) is multiplied by its importance to give a weighted score. Weighted scores of all criteria are summed up to give the total score of supplier. Supplier that scores the highest will most probably prove the best choice for you. In this case, the supplier that scores the highest is Supplier C with a score of 243.

The list of criteria should be amended based on your market needs and priorities but in general, the qualities a supplier should possess in order to establish and maintain a fairly good partnership remain the same. Companies that very often loose employees to competition, they do not invest on their plants, they do not launch new products, they do not respond quickly to e mails and they do not provide reasonable solutions to your problems will most probably put you in a difficult situation when you need them. It doesn’t matter how ‘cool’ their product is, they won’t be able to serve you on time and communication will be poor. Subjective assessment of the situation before establishment of a formal business partnership is of great importance to the success of a partnership and should not be underestimated.

Next time you walk in the long corridors of a trade show don’t be impressed by big and bright booths of those who pay for them, instead sit down with suppliers and get some ‘unofficial’ information that will save you time and money! Don’t be afraid to ask any question you consider appropriate even if it is not relevant to the practical aspect of your business as this is what will determine the success of your future business with them.  

Now, after reading the above, could you RATE the ''LEON beer - Photos Photiades Breweries'' package?

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