Tax Cut for Brewers Perfect Reason to Automate Beer Sales

The Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers association issued a study last month revealing the U.S. beer industry can be credited with creating better than 2.2 million jobs paying a total of $103 billion in wages and benefits. That’s a lot of jobs! The US House of Representatives just announced the majority supports a new piece of legislation that promises to free up even more capital for brewers and a good chunk of that windfall could well be used to add more employees to the sales forces of the competitive beer business. But we think the money saved by these proposed tax cuts could be put to even more effective use. Here’s what you need to know about the impending legislation and how GreatVines suggests any windfall might be best utilized.

According to a news piece in Brewbound, “The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) now has a majority of support in the U.S. House of Representatives.  [The bill] would cut the federal excise tax to $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels for domestic brewers making fewer than 2 million barrels annually if passed – and would also cut the federal excise tax to $16 per barrel on the first 6 million barrels for all other brewers and all beer importers while maintaining the $18 per barrel excise tax for brewers producing more than 6 million barrels.”

This is good news for growing brewers; particularly those whose growth is constrained by budgetary limitations. But before you run out and add headcount to your sales force with that sweet tax cut windfall, you may want to consider working smarter with beverage selling technology.

One of the many benefits of a sales platform specifically designed for the beverage industry is the extent to which traditionally manual processes involved with activities like trade marketing, sales execution and even surveys can be automated. The reason you may be inclined to plough tax savings into salesforces is because you’re thinking about the man-hours needed to ensure trade marketing spend is being accurately allocated and that its effects are properly measured and analyzed. You’re likely also thinking about the increased volume of sales you could drive with another salesperson or three in the field.  Of course, even if you do decide to add depth to your sales bench, putting some technology in place will definitely ensure your entire sales force produces at a higher level and with far greater efficiency.

Wouldn’t you be better served by investing a fraction of the loaded cost of just one new employee into automation tools that streamline these processes so that your existing sales force could be even more effective in their existing roles? Cloud based sales automation tools are designed expressly to deliver greater spend visibility, increased strategic planning capacity and improved process flows for all sales tasks from order management to depletion reporting and so much more.

So, let’s hope this rare instance of bipartisan support holds together (the Senate reportedly has a similar version of the bill which is expected to pass and merge) and the CBMTRA is passed by Congress. In the meantime, reach out to the experts at GreatVines to learn how much more cost-effective a sales automation solution can be for your brewery compared to only increasing headcount.