Do You Have Any Experience in Sales?

This is a question that almost nobody asks themselves before opening a brewery, and it's one of the most important.

Most people who start breweries come from one of two backgrounds: they were homebrewers who got serious, or they worked in another industry and fancied a change. Very few of them have ever worked in sales. They've never cold-called anyone. They've never walked into a business unannounced and tried to convince a stranger to buy something. They've never had a door closed in their face, politely or otherwise, and had to walk straight to the next one and do it again.

That is the job. Especially in the early days, before you have any reputation, any track record, any repeat customers — the only way to get your beer into pubs is to go out and sell it. Nobody is going to come to you. Nobody is browsing a directory of new breweries hoping to discover yours. You have to get in your van, drive to pubs, walk in, and try to speak to a manager.

And that word "try" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Because pub managers are busy. They're running a business themselves — pulling pints, managing staff, dealing with deliveries, handling complaints, balancing the books. They don't have time to listen to every hopeful brewer who walks through the door wanting to talk about their passion project. You might time it right and get five minutes. You might be told to come back another time. You might be told, firmly, that they're not interested.

Most of the time, you'll hear some version of the same thing: "We've already got our suppliers sorted." And they have. They've got their wholesaler. They've got their regular range. They've got tied agreements or preferred supplier lists or just habits that have worked fine for years. Your beer, which you've poured your heart and your savings into, is an interruption to their day. An unknown product from an unknown brewery, asking them to take a risk for no clear reason.

If you've never done sales before, this is crushing. You believe in your product. You know it's good. But "good" doesn't open doors. Relationships open doors. Track records open doors. Persistence opens doors — eventually. But you'll need to be knocked back dozens of times before you get your first yes, and you need the temperament to keep going when every instinct is telling you to stop embarrassing yourself and go home.

Some people are natural salespeople. They enjoy the challenge, they're comfortable with rejection, they can read a room and adapt their pitch. If that's you, you've got a genuine advantage. But if you're the kind of person who went into brewing because you like making things quietly in a workshop, the sales side of this business will be agony.