Be Your Brand’s First Salesman, Then Fire Yourself | Paul Hletko | Few Spirits | Goza Tequila | Bottom-Up Cut #006
That's a very interesting topic because I I was reading something earlier on LinkedIn. They were talking about some people that sold and how they felt about selling or how they felt about keeping themselves involved in the role. You know, there's no right or wrong there. It's just like you need to be able to make a decision. And what's your experience on the fact that, for example, I speak to a lot of people that create their brand, but then don't actually want to sell themselves.
Chris Maffeo:They go into hiring right away, a brand ambassador or a salesperson, and they haven't really learned from the market before they actually assign the job to someone. Right?
Paul Hletko:If you're the brand owner and the brand creator and you're not out in the field personally understanding the market's reaction, I think it's really tough. Because if you don't know what the objections are, how can you expect somebody that doesn't care to overcome them? You as the founderentrepreneur, you will always be the best salesman for your product, always. And the goal as the entrepreneur then is to make it so that somebody who is less than 50% as good as you is good enough because people want to talk to the person that made it. They want to talk to the person that owns it.
Paul Hletko:That's what they want. Retailers and buyer owners like talking to the guy. It's really powerful to be the guy walking in and say, I made this. Cause you've got more credibility than the brand ambassador ever will. No matter how good the brand ambassador is, they're never going to be as good as the guy that distills it.
Chris Maffeo:The first step it's being bold as long as possible to understand and get feedback from the market, understand what the objections are, why they love you, why they don't like it. The moment that you need to step out and say, okay, now I need to pass the ball on onto this new guy or girl. What's your recommendation based on your experience on how you enable those people to do your job?
Paul Hletko:I think you allow them to do a lot of the work, but fundamentally they then bring you in to close the deal. It's that transition as you grow. If you as the founder are doing your job right, your brand ambassadors and salespeople can do their job better. Like, if I'm out there recording podcasts and doing press interviews and talking to people on Clubhouse and I'm on Instagram and I am spreading my message that way. It allows the sales team and the brand ambassadors, everybody else to come in because in some ways I am the one out there continuing to sell.
Chris Maffeo:How do you create demand for the brand? You want to create demand before your team is able to capture that demand. Right? So you want to enable that. And back in the day, was different because you were creating the demand and capturing the demand at the same time.
Chris Maffeo:I mean, you started few, you were the guy going out, talking about it and closing the deal.
Paul Hletko:But I still am that guy. Right? I'm just doing it in a different way. I continue to be out there. Am I the guy who's walking into every single retailer and doing a quick tasting with them?
Paul Hletko:No. But I am in fact out there each and every day selling. I'm just doing it in a way that's much more scalable, that I can reach more people. There's a thought leader talks about doing things that don't scale at first. And you can't scale me walking into a bar.
Paul Hletko:That doesn't scale. It's just one of me. But if I don't know what happens when I walk into a bar, and if I don't understand the challenges and the opportunities that the salespeople have, I'm not going to be very effective helping them out. Absolutely. You know, what are the objections you're getting?
Paul Hletko:It's like we just had a Spirits training with 60 or 70 reps from our distributor. That's awesome. And yeah, we talked about the brand and we talked about this, we talked about that. But fundamentally, my overall value proposition to them was, tell me the objections you're getting because I guarantee you I've gotten them. Are you getting the objection that it's too expensive?
Paul Hletko:Are you getting the objection that it's too cheap? Are you getting the objection that you don't like it? Are you getting the objection that it's not good? Are you getting the objection that you tried it before and people didn't like it? If you're not selling, you're getting an objection.
Paul Hletko:So what's the objection. I don't care what your objection is. I've had it and I can help you get over it.
Chris Maffeo:You basically have to start doing unscalable things, but as soon as possible enable other people to continue to do that while you do that at scale. And then it becomes more of a podcast interview, talking to the media, doing a training to a 100 sales reps, doing stuff that you can really benefit from and enable other people to take on from you.
Paul Hletko:As a founder, when you start the company like I did with virtually no money, you have to do everything yourself. When I started FU, I was production, sales, marketing, advertising, finance, janitorial, AR, AP. It was a one man company when I first started it. Here's the thing about people and I'm no different is that I'm not good at all of those things. I'm not good at AR, I'm not good at AP, I'm not good at sales, not good at marketing, I'm not good at finance.
Paul Hletko:Nobody is good at all of these things together. Your number one job as an entrepreneur is to fire yourself from every single role in the company that you are not the single best person on the planet for. That is my job is to fire myself. When I interview people to bring them into the company, I always tell them. Your job is to fire yourself because you're gonna be so good at what you're doing, we're going to replace you with three people and you're going to manage them.
Paul Hletko:That's your number one job. It's not if I hire a sales rep. Your job is not to sell. Your job is to be so good at selling it that we have to hire three people to replace you and you run them. That's your job.
Chris Maffeo:Love that.
Paul Hletko:And so transferring these things that you are not the world's best at onto other people, that's your fundamental job as an entrepreneur. And at least with few, I think I've kind of done that. My only real job after you is to be the guy that started FU right now. And there's not one single other person on the planet that can do that job. That's the reality.
Paul Hletko:But that's my fundamental job is to be the guy that started what I started. No one else can. I'm the world's best at it.
Chris Maffeo:When you started, were talking about earlier is the fact that brands are built bottom up, but actually the flow is top down, right? You start from an importer, distributor, wholesalers, you name it, then to the bar.
Paul Hletko:The brand is built bottom up. The business is built top down.
Chris Maffeo:I remember we spoke about it back in the days and how was it for you? I know a lot of brands, for example, in The U S because of the three tier system, you cannot market your own product to yourself, but you need a distributor to do that, but you can do it with a box mover. You can have somebody that, you know, that does it for you. And it's an enabler of that, you know, that makes it three tier compliant. When you start to do that, what would be your suggestion?
Chris Maffeo:Imagine like I launched my own brand in The U S now. We discussed the three steps to get calls from distributors back in the days. Nothing won't happen because with the oversaturation of craft brands in The U S no distributor would ever call me. What would be your suggestion for me to start selling? I've got pallets in the warehouse.
Chris Maffeo:The product is ready. I just miss selling it.
Paul Hletko:Understanding your brand and who it's going to appeal to. Is your brand going to appeal to the shot occasion or the whiskey snobs? Is your brand going to be appealing at Italian restaurants or Japanese restaurants? Is your brand going to be appealing at college bars or at cocktail bars? And yes, there are brands that can be appealing at all of them, but that's really expensive.
Paul Hletko:If you're trying to launch a brand being all things to all people, you better have a big marketing and sales budget. Whereas if you want to be a brand that lives and say, for example, you are the mastica for Italian restaurants. Now I know I can go to a distributor and say, hey, look. I've got the mastica for Italian restaurants in The US. And distributors could go, okay, got it.
Paul Hletko:I sell to 50 Italian restaurants. I could go drop this mustija into 50 Italian restaurants and you are going to go market it and have those Italian restaurants drive volume. Now, how much Messiah can you sell at 50 Italian restaurants? Well, you probably can't sell 100,000 cases at 50 restaurants, but can you sell 500 cases a year in 50 restaurants? Yeah, you can.
Paul Hletko:It's aggressive, but you can, and that can be your goal. You're gonna start off selling 50 cases into those 50 restaurants, but inside of three years, maybe you're selling 500. That's your goal, that's your focus. Understand what your customer is, who they are, where they live, why they buy, what the occasion is. Now you've provided value to your customer that goes beyond solving an intoxication problem.
Chris Maffeo:And focusing on that occasion, have made your brand sticky in the mind of consumer because they know when to drink is no matter how small that occasion is. It's replicable at scale. And there will be a lot of people having an Amaro after dinner in an Italian restaurants around the world. It's even if can
Paul Hletko:tell me that. I know, I know to drink fernet branca after I have an Italian meal. Now, if I'm fernet branca, I can extend that. I also drink fernet after I eat steak. So I could have fernet branca at steak restaurants.
Paul Hletko:Now I can do Oh, and I drink fernet Coke when I'm in an Argentinian restaurant. Now I can have that. But now I've got all these drinky occasions that are created because I know as a brand owner when my drinking occasion is. Yeah. Why do people drink few spirits?
Paul Hletko:Why do people drink few over Elijah Craig? There's a reason why people drink few over Elijah Craig. And if I don't know what that is, I'm probably in trouble. When because they can just buy it. Yeah.
Paul Hletko:You can just buy Elijah Craig and drink it. It's great whiskey.
Chris Maffeo:Yeah.
Paul Hletko:If I don't know why you drink wine over there But I'm in trouble.
Chris Maffeo:How do you get that this your biggest agree with you? How do you bring on that distributor that wants to sell? She want him to sell to the 50 restaurant. Like when is the right moment? Is it right to use a three tier compliance system in the meantime, until you actually get to a certain leverage that you can bring in to those clients?
Chris Maffeo:Or shall I wait until somebody says yes?
Paul Hletko:It depends on the brand. Like, if you could show success, every distributor on the planet, if you could bring a distributor a package that they can instantly understand, understand how to execute, understand that they can hit your goals, that you're not going be yelling at them every week. That, Oh, we're selling more of this $1,000 bottle gin. And I sold five bottles of it. That's one a lot thousand dollars bottle gin.
Paul Hletko:Yeah. But I thought you were gonna sell 25,000 cases. Oh, I can't sell 25,000 cases of that. If you could bring a distributor a package that can win, they're going to pick you up. Right?
Paul Hletko:Distributors distribute. If you can come to them with your sales and marketing plan and your finance and your boots on the street and show them how you are if the brand can show the distributor how the brand solves a problem the distributor has, they're going to pick you up every day of the week. You as the brand just have to be better prepared. You have to have the sales plan. You have to have a marketing plan.
Paul Hletko:You have to have the incentives. You have to have the reason why a distributor cares. And they only care if you're solving a problem for them, whether it's a I'm not making enough money problem. That's a really important problem to solve for distributors, making enough money. It just can be a strategic problem.
Paul Hletko:I don't currently have Amaro from Sicily in my book. Maybe I need an Amaro from Sicily. Maybe I don't. But I can now understand, okay, this brand solves a problem for me that other brands don't solve. Got it.
Paul Hletko:Now I need that brand and I can go win with it. But, oh yeah, I've got a vodka from Korn. I've got 30 vodkas from Korn. What problem does that solve for me? Well, it's really good.
Paul Hletko:All the other ones are really good too. Oh, but it's $25. Okay, well, I've got 15 corn vodkas that are $25 already. Why do I carry yours? Oh, well, I'm coming in with, we're doing TV spend.
Paul Hletko:We're doing ad campaigns. We've got five people in market. We've got all these reasons. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Paul Hletko:I will make more money selling your product than I do otherwise. Oh, I'm aperitivo from Carlo Viivari. Oh, I understand where I can sell an aperitivo from Carlo Vivari. Now I understand how I can do this.
Chris Maffeo:Yeah. And that's the thing with bringing something to the table because I get a lot of calls and messages on, oh, Hey, can you recommend us a distributor for Czech Republic? And it's just like, yeah, man, but I could, but basically I'm just name dropping and it doesn't make any sense to you because you will call them and they will never answer to you. And you were actually kind of like burned by name now. And that is another of these things that I think brand owners often do not understand that there is an importer thing that takes the brand horizontally at national level.
Chris Maffeo:And then there are wholesalers that do it at city level or state level, city level, neighborhood level, if it's a big city and their network is their net worth and they cannot burn their name on a brand that it's going to be there like six months and then it's going to run out of money. And it's going to disappear because their clientele is going to ask, okay, I want to order that brand and I'm sorry. It left the market. They went bust. So there, there is, there is a matter like of managing expectations that it's really, really needed in in understanding, okay, like, what are the players in the ecosystem and how do we navigate importers, distributors, bartenders, bar owners, brand owners, and so on?
Paul Hletko:With Goza, I've talked to a few friends in Europe trying to find distributors in Europe. And it's never, who's a good distributor? It's always, do you know a distributor that needs to have a tequila in their book around €30 retail? That's a different question than can you recommend a distributor to me. Yes.
Paul Hletko:It's a question of this is the product, this is where it's gonna fit. Do you happen to know somebody?
Chris Maffeo:Exactly.
Paul Hletko:And that's a start.
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