Ask the Collective

What is the most effective go-to-market approach for a newly launched beverage brand targeting high-end on-trade accounts?

For newly launched beverage brands targeting high-end on-trade, face-to-face founder-led selling is significantly more effective than digital outreach alone. **Go-to-market tactics:** - **Founder-led face-to-face sales** — Direct visits from the founder have more persuasive power than emails, calls, LinkedIn, or social media, but require highly targeted account selection to be efficient - **Bottom-up approach** — Build momentum from smaller or mid-tier accounts before approaching tier-one venues; this establishes credentials and case studies for premium on-trade pitches **Key principle:** Be ruthlessly selective about which accounts you target in person; the founder's time is the constraint, not reach. Quality targeting beats volume outreach at this stage.