106: The Beer Consumer Isn’t Dead, They’re Just Out to Dinner

117: The Drive to Socialize: Why Beer Demand Is Stronger Than You Think (ft. Andrew Heritage, Beer Institute)

Everybody wants one reason the beer industry is soft. Gen Z quit drinking. Spirits stole the share. Pick your headline. The Beer Institute's Chief Economist Andrew Heritage came on to blow most of those up with actual data. The short version: demand is a lot stronger than the doom takes make it sound. The consumer is just stressed, and beer is still the drink people protect when they go out. In this episode, we break down: 🍺 Who actually makes the beer (2-3% of breweries move 96% of the volume) 📊 The Gen Z myth and why they spend the same on alcohol as every generation before them ⛽ How gas prices and a stressed consumer, not category abandonment, are driving the soft weeks 🌡️ The weather math on beer sales ⚽ The World Cup effect on concession and on-premise sales 🥂 The drive to socialize and why on-premise keeps outperforming off-premise Key takeaways: * There is no single reason for the softness. It is a stressed consumer, not people walking away from beer. * Gen Z is not quitting. They are broke, and they still pick beer over the emerging categories. * On-premise is holding because people protect the occasion, not just the beer. * Weather and gas prices explain most of the week-to-week swings. * Build the occasion and they will come. You have more control locally than you give yourself credit for. Andrew Heritage is Chief Economist at the Beer Institute, covering roughly 90% of industry volume. If you want someone who can separate the myths from the math, this is the one. Want the deck? Email info@vxptech.com and we will share it. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do. Share with a friend if you love it. 🎧 Also on YouTube | 🔗 LinkedIn: Tapped In Sales / VXP

116: Double Tap: When Brands Don't Compete, They Multiply

Every supplier talks about pod gaps. Almost nobody talks about which gaps are worth chasing. Matt Moberly does. Master's in chemistry, 25 years in beer, and he runs the number one New Belgium market in the country, and he treats selling beer like a science experiment. We get into why the account closest to a rep's house is usually the wrong one to chase, how Two Hearted and Oberon make each other bigger instead of stealing from each other, and where the data stops and the human side of this business takes over. In this episode, we break down: 🍺 Why the pod closest to home is usually the wrong pod to chase  📊 Quality-weighting distribution gaps instead of treating every POD the same  🍻 The Double Tap: why Two Hearted and Oberon sell more together, not less  💸 FOLD (Fear of Lost Dollars) and why it moves reps and distributors  🧪 Running sales incentives like a chemistry experiment  🗺️ Carrying the right things, not everything, and the on-premise data void  🤝 Where AI stops and the human side of selling beer begins A few things worth stealing for your own market: * Not all PODs are equal. Chase placements that rebuy and stick, not checkbox pods that die in the back room. * Double Tap is real. Accounts pouring both Two Hearted and Oberon saw roughly 4x the combined volume of the median single-handle account. * FOLD moves people. If you're not getting those go-get dollars, your competition is. * Run it like an experiment. Test, measure, adjust, repeat. * Carry the right things, not everything. Discipline by style beats stacking five IPAs. Matt started street-level at Bell's, built their national accounts and business insights teams, ran sales and marketing for all of Bell's, and now leads Michigan for New Belgium. Chemistry brain, on-premise heart. Worth a listen if you're building distribution goals, incentives, or trying to get more out of your data than a stack of reports. Share with a friend if you love it. 📩 info@vxptech.com =============== YouTube: Watch on YouTube: Tapped In Sales [http://www.youtube.com/@TappedInBeveragePodcast] Spotify Podcast: Listen & Watch on Spotify Podcasts Tapped In Sales [https://open.spotify.com/show/1AuQiKjRrHy0JmwwvTAzAJ?si=7189540cc7e344c9] Apple Podcasts: Listen on Apple Podcast Tapped In Sales [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/26-how-to-make-your-pfp-a-guaranteed-monthly-bonus/id1744836870?i=1000673130206] =============== Connect with Us:   Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest episodes, industry news, and insights from the beer distribution world. About Tapped In Sales:   Tapped In Sales is a podcast dedicated to beer distributors and beverage industry professionals who are looking to elevate their sales strategies and drive profitability. Hosted by industry experts Bud Dunn and Mike Hall, we dive deep into real-world stories, actionable insights, and the latest trends to help sales teams and managers unlock their full potential. Each episode blends data, strategy, and motivation, making complex topics easy to understand and implement. This podcast is powered by VXP Tech – the leading Sales Strategy Management system designed for beer distributors. VXP simplifies the complexities of goal setting, variable compensation, and sales team performance, helping you master your market and grow profits, case by case. Stay tuned for expert advice, fresh perspectives, and tools to sharpen your sales approach! If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

115: That's Not Vibes, That's Hope and a Prayer

That's Not Vibes, That's Hope and a Prayer | ft. Sean Baker, Rarig Pacific A distributor told Sean Baker he was making decisions "based on vibes." Sean's answer stuck with us: that's not vibes, that's hope and a prayer. Too many distributors are running operations on assumptions instead of truth, and it's costing them on the shelf and on the bottom line. This week we get out of the sales seat and into the warehouse. In this episode, we break down: 🍺 Why "running on vibes" is really hope and a prayer  📦 What overs & shorts are actually costing you  🔍 Operational truth: you can't manage what you can't measure  🤖 Why the goal is augmenting your people, not replacing them  🚚 Old habits worth breaking, from U-boats to the duo lift  💰 The right way to structure warehouse and delivery comp  🤝 Why the whole industry wins when partners stop building walls Who is Sean Sean Baker has touched nearly every corner of this business. He started downstacking cases off a side loader in 2003, moved into warehouse ops, ran a route selling to Kroger and the corner liquor store on the same day, became a sales trainer, worked the supplier side at AB and Heineken, and now leads technology commercialization at Rarig Pacific. He's not a vendor reading from a script. He's an operator who connects how a decision in the warehouse ripples all the way to the six-pack on the shelf. Connect Learn more about Rehrig Pacific Company at rehrigpacific.com Questions for the show? Email info@vxptech.com and we'll pass them along to Sean. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do. Share with a friend if you love it. =============== YouTube: Watch on YouTube: Tapped In Sales [http://www.youtube.com/@TappedInBeveragePodcast] Spotify Podcast: Listen & Watch on Spotify Podcasts Tapped In Sales [https://open.spotify.com/show/1AuQiKjRrHy0JmwwvTAzAJ?si=7189540cc7e344c9] Apple Podcasts: Listen on Apple Podcast Tapped In Sales [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/26-how-to-make-your-pfp-a-guaranteed-monthly-bonus/id1744836870?i=1000673130206] =============== Connect with Us:   Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest episodes, industry news, and insights from the beer distribution world. About Tapped In Sales:   Tapped In Sales is a podcast dedicated to beer distributors and beverage industry professionals who are looking to elevate their sales strategies and drive profitability. Hosted by industry experts Bud Dunn and Mike Hall, we dive deep into real-world stories, actionable insights, and the latest trends to help sales teams and managers unlock their full potential. Each episode blends data, strategy, and motivation, making complex topics easy to understand and implement. This podcast is powered by VXP Tech – the leading Sales Strategy Management system designed for beer distributors. VXP simplifies the complexities of goal setting, variable compensation, and sales team performance, helping you master your market and grow profits, case by case. Stay tuned for expert advice, fresh perspectives, and tools to sharpen your sales approach! If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

114: Out of Balance Equals Opportunity

RNDC got cracked open like an egg. Now the real question isn't what happened — it's what suppliers do next. Bud, Ross, and Alicia get into the post-RNDC scramble, why limiting your distributor choices may have become a bridge too far, and where the chaos is quietly handing opportunity to the people paying attention. Plus the value war, the flat-drink boom, and the Delta-9 clock running out. In this episode, we break down… 🥚 What suppliers actually do now that RNDC is sold off piece by piece — single point of contact, multi-point headaches, and nobody wanting to hire a wall of middle managers ⚖️ Why "out of balance equals opportunity" — and how the pendulum may swing back toward boutique, brand-building distributors like it's the 1940s 🛢️ Oil down 26% in a month, inflation cooling, and why we think July and August could be a quiet summer sweet spot for volume 🍎 The value war is back: 1 in 4 Busch Light Apple shoppers are first-time beer buyers, 70%+ incremental to the category additive, not cannibalization 🌊 Who's drinking all this? Superlight and Spikeade U-boats rolling out the door — flat, low-alcohol, hyper-premium GP, and a category that came out of nowhere 📊 Lester Jones' gender employment data and why the answer is NOT making the packaging pink 🌿 The Delta-9 endgame: hope is not a strategy, distributors running inventory to zero, and who picks up hemp come January 2027 Key takeaways: * Consolidation helped suppliers — one contact, aligned spend and pricing — but RNDC's breakup may be the bridge too far. Out of balance equals opportunity. * The Sazerac/Crew & Point deal is a logistics-partner play, not a brand-building one. Smart first-mover move today, but it gets followed, and then profitability becomes the battleground. * Don't get lost in the big book. Small craft and wine producers will hunt for brand builders and specialty houses, not a slot they disappear into. * The value war is genuinely additive — Busch Light Apple is pulling new drinkers into beer, not stealing from it. Reps stack it high and watch it fly. * Hope is not a strategy on Delta-9. The noticeable shift this month: distributors stopped waiting for a rescue and started planning to run inventory to zero. This is a news-and-takes roundtable — Bud, Ross, and Alicia working through what's actually moving in the market right now. The spine is the RNDC fallout: a 40-state wholesaler down to a handful of locations, and a supplier world about to learn how to manage 15-20 relationships where they used to have one or two. When the market goes out of balance, the people watching closely find the opening. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do. Catch the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Got a take on how this shakes out in your market? Email us at info@vxptech.com. Share with a friend if you love it.

113: When the Tide Goes Out

The tide's going out, and it's showing us who's been swimming naked. Rates are high, inflation came in hot, beer volume's cratering, and the consumer's tapped. If your whole game is volume, this is the market that exposes it. This one's for the reps and team leads trying to figure out how to win when the easy growth is gone, and why GP per CE is the number that gets you there. In this episode, we break down: 🌊 Why the macro headwinds aren't structural, but they're sticking around, so buckle up  💸 Profit first, volume second, and why now is the time to make the pivot if you haven't  🧭 "You're not the conduit to market, you ARE the market" and why that mindset changes everything  🔥 The Fireball story: how GP per CE took a "dead" brand and turned it into a top-5 GP winner  🎯 Return on effort, or how to read the portfolio and spend your time where the dollars actually are  🥫 The aluminum squeeze: PPI running hot, tariffs biting suppliers, and whether anybody's going back to bottles (spoiler: probably not) Key takeaways: * Volume can hide bad decisions. GP per CE measures judgment, not luck. * Reps don't blow back on seeing the GP math. They get on board fast when they see how they win as the business wins. * It's not a generational thing or an age thing. Car dealers, chemical distributors, plumbing supply, old owners paying on profit. It's an innovation thing. * We spend dollars around here, not cases. Pay people on the thing that pays the bills. * Leadership is top-down AND bottom-up. Bring the tools all the way to the point of decision. We do a little talkin' the book on this one. Out of 113 episodes, maybe five. But even if you don't run VXP, there's plenty here you can put to work. You'll just have to get a little more creative with it. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do. Share it with a friend if it lands. Got questions or want to talk shop? info@vxptech.com [info@vxptech.com]. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Changes in Layouts 02:20 Big News in the Industry 05:22 Challenges in the Beer Industry 08:14 Understanding Consumer Behavior 11:21 Profitability Challenges and Strategies 14:11 The Shift from Volume to Profitability 17:11 Financial Ownership and Transparency 20:10 Return on Effort and Profitability Metrics 23:48 Navigating Volume and Profitability Challenges 24:44 Redefining the Role of Distributors 26:50 Understanding GP per CE as a Health Indicator 28:48 The Importance of Return on Effort 29:10 Complex Portfolios and Profit Disparity 32:27 Creativity in Sales Strategies 35:12 Shifting Perspectives on Product Placement 37:36 Becoming the Market vs. Being a Conduit 39:25 Aligning Incentives for Success 43:32 The Impact of Aluminum Costs on the Industry