Episode Details

Here’s a problem that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when you can sell way more than your company can produce?

That’s the question posed by Dylan Noah from Toronto. Dylan sells craft cider to bars and restaurants across his territory. He’s the only salesperson for a small producer, working with limited tools (no proper CRM), and here’s the kicker: he could sell a million dollars’ worth of product, but production isn’t enough to meet that demand.

If you’re shaking your head thinking this is a champagne problem, you’re half right. But for Dylan trying to hit his income goals through commissions, it’s a real constraint that’s costing him money every single day.

The CRM Obsession Is a Distraction

Let’s tackle the first issue head on. Dylan is worried he doesn’t have the right CRM tools to manage his accounts and hit his numbers.

Here’s the brutal truth: at one point in time, salespeople sold a lot of cider, beer, wine, liquor, and all kinds of other stuff without any CRM at all. They used index cards in a box. They had lists on paper. And they crushed it.

You’re a small business with one salesperson working with 3,000 to 7,000 potential accounts in your territory. The last thing you should worry about right now is a $40,000 CRM system.

Could you use automation for email sequences and promotions? Absolutely. Should you eventually invest in something like HubSpot or Pipedrive? Yes. But right now, what you need is a simple system to identify your best accounts and focus your time there.

You’re not going to hit $1 million across 3,000 accounts. You’re going to hit it across 500 accounts that are the biggest restaurants and bars, where they like you, their customers like cider, and where you can create events and experiences that spike sales.

Use a spreadsheet. Use index cards. Use whatever basic tool you’ve got right now. Create a 30-60-90 day system where you know who you’re calling on in the next 30 days, the next 60 days, and the next 90 days. Build a list of your top 250 accounts that buy the most from you. That’s where you live.

Stop obsessing over tools you don’t have and start maximizing the opportunity in front of you.

Scarcity Is Your Secret Weapon

This brings us to the real issue: production capacity. Dylan can sell it, but his company can’t make enough of it.

The bourbon distillers in America are dealing with this exact problem right now. They ramped up production years ago based on projected demand, and now they’re sitting on excess inventory that’s aging out. It’s a delicate balance, and if you make too much, it goes bad and you lose everything.

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