Beverage sales for drink brands, venue by venue

Where drinks actually sell

This guide is part of our retail outreach guide for food and beverage brands. Drinks have a split the rest of the shop does not. On-premise venues, such as cafés, bars, restaurants and hotels, serve your drink. Off-premise stores, such as bottle shops, grocers and delis, sell it to take home. They buy differently, so pitch them differently.

A bar wants a drink that earns its place on a short list or works in a cocktail. A grocer wants a product that moves off the shelf at a price its customers accept. Decide which side you are starting on before you write a word.

• Cafés: non-alcoholic drinks, kombucha, cold brew, juice, functional drinks. Fridge space is tight, so lead with one flavour.
• Bars and restaurants: spirits, RTDs, premium mixers, low and no alcohol. Ask for the bar manager.
• Bottle shops and liquor stores: beer, wine, spirits, RTDs. Independents choose their own range.
• Grocers and delis: most drinks, if the price and pack size suit the shelf.
• Hotels and event venues: bigger volumes, slower decisions, often a central buyer.

Who to email at each venue

Email the person who chooses the range. In hospitality that is usually the food and beverage manager or the bar manager, then the general manager, then the owner. In a bottle shop or a grocer, it is the owner or the buyer. For a group of venues, find out whether each one chooses its own drinks or a group manager chooses for all of them; the answer decides who gets your email.

Hospitality staff change jobs often, so a name from last year may be gone. Check every address before you send, and expect a few to have moved on. When we find stores for a brand, each email address is checked before anything goes out.

What a drinks buyer needs before they say yes

Answer these and you remove most of the reasons to wait.

• A margin that works. Many independents want at least 30% on what they stock, often more. Bars price by the serve, so show them the cost per serve.
• Proof it sells. Other venues nearby that pour or stock it, and whether they have reordered.
• Support. A staff tasting, a suggested serve or cocktail, something for the menu or the shelf.
• Easy ordering. Case size, who delivers, and how quickly.
• A taste. Nobody lists a drink they have not tried.

The email that gets a drinks buyer to reply

Short, specific and easy to answer. The buyer should finish reading and know what you make, why it suits their venue, and what to do next. Plain text, no attachments, no price list. Those come when they reply.

1. 1Name the venue and why you chose itThe cocktail list, the natural wine focus, the fridge of local drinks. Something true about them.
2. 2Say what the drink is in one lineWhat it is, where it is made, the one thing that makes it different.
3. 3Give the reason it fitsWhy their customers would order it, in their words, not yours.
4. 4Make one easy askReply and I will drop a few bottles in. Not a call, not a form.

Samples, and the rules for alcohol

Send samples only to venues that ask. Ask the format and the address in the same message: bottles, cans or a mix, and where to send them. Then agree a day to check in.

Alcohol has its own rules. In some places you cannot post free samples of alcohol, so many brands offer to bring one in person or send a rep. Check what applies where you sell. In Australia, LaunchPal does not search liquor stores at all, for regulatory reasons.

After the first case

A drink that sits in the fridge unexplained does not get reordered. In the first two weeks, give the staff a taste and a one-line description they can repeat. Suggest a serve for the menu or the specials board, and for a bottle shop, a spot at eye level or near the till.

Then book the check-in. Ask how many have gone, what customers said, and whether the venue wants the same again or a different flavour. Note the answer and the date, because the next order usually comes at a similar interval. Keeping track of who is due a reorder across thirty venues is its own job; that is what Flow is for.

Run it one city at a time

A sequence to 150 bars in one city tells you more than a few dozen venues spread across a country. Independent venues in one area talk to each other, and you can deliver and visit them. Start with one venue type, learn what works, then add the next.

Follow up. Most replies arrive on the second or third email, and a good sequence stops the moment a venue replies. Send from a separate domain so your own stays safe; we set one up for you.

If drinks are part of a wider range, our guide to getting your product into cafes covers the café side in more depth, and how to find a distributor covers what comes after your first stockists.