Tapped In Sales and Strategy for Beer Distributors
129: Cents Per Case vs. Objectives: How Doll Distributing Rebuilt Rep Pay
15 tap handles after a full push with money, trips, and every incentive they could find. 150 handles in 60 days once the reps were paid on objectives instead. Gus Doll, owner partner at Doll Distributing, joins Bud, Mike, and Ross to walk through how a third-generation, four-state wholesaler moved its entire sales force off cents per case without losing the room. Gus came back to the family business in 2023 after West Point and five years with the Army Rangers, and found a comp plan built in the 1980s. Volume was down, so incentives went up, and the reps did exactly what they were paid to do, which is how a German beer ends up on tap in a Mexican restaurant. The fix was not blaming the reps. It was putting the Doll family into the pay plan for the first time: 25 to 30 percent of rep pay tied to five company-level objectives. Getting there meant cleaning up six locations with six ways of paying people, winning a unanimous partner vote, running two test months plus an extra training month, and having one Doll where the buck stopped when reps asked how they'd get paid. If you're thinking about changing how your team gets paid in 2027, this one is for you.
