Does Your Sales Team Have Enough "Yappers"?

At the Craft Brewers Conference in 2018, the Head of Sales for Deschutes Brewery at the time gave a talk and brought up that he likes to hire ex-athletes on his team. He cited the benefits that being ultra competitive and having that natural desire to win can have in beer sales. I’d never heard that point before, but it made a lot of sense, not as the only background you’d want to recruit, but certainly a worthwhile style to target when building a diversified team. Last week, another very different skillset in Sales crossed my TikTok feed that I wanted to share: The Yapper.

If you’ve ever met me or heard me on a podcast, you know that this woman I’m about to introduce you to is about as much the opposite of me as you’ll find. That’s in part why I’m not in Sales, but I pride myself on embracing people who are different from me, not casting them off. Please note that I acknowledge this video is a little aggressive, but it had me smiling and nodding at the same time.

Credit: Shelby Sapp, aka @diaryofaD2DSaleswoman, for this video.

Have I completely lost you? 😂 Okay, let’s acknowledge a few likely reactions which include that Shelby is likely selling something very different from beer, probably with a more significant opportunity for commission than beer typically affords. That being said, this yapper makes some interesting points that got my wheels turning about how craft beer sales have evolved and how the current state could be improved.