More Farmers, Less Farm: Why Our Drinks Professionals Choose Their Own Territory

We want to be transparent from the start, so there is never room for a mistruth.

A drinks professional in Long Island coined a proposition that reshaped how we build LATE(ish). He looked at our model and said, “You've got more farmers, less farm.”

He is what we call a Business Development Manager (BDM), the sales rep or feet on the street. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the industry, working with distributors turning over billions of dollars.

We spent months going over that proposition. As the saying goes, a fish is the last to know it is surrounded by water. We were too close to our own model to see what he saw straight away.

The Map Was the Problem

LATE(ish) started with the idea of owning a territory. One person in Orange County gets you to a level of revenue. You reinvest that revenue in the next market, then the market after that. Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County each stood as a separate market on that plan.

The reality looked very different. Within a few weeks in market, we met drinks professionals who could cover all three as a collective.

The model limited the brand owner and the talent. It stopped professionals from earning what their relationships were worth. It held brands back, because we had drawn lines around people who could sell well beyond them.

The data backs up what we learned the hard way. Only 36% of companies consider their territory design effective, and balanced territories alone drive 10 to 20 percent productivity improvements without adding a single person.

There is a finite number of distribution points relevant to any brand. If your sales model restricts the people building those points out with you, your model is harming you.

What We Built Instead

Making the change set our tech build back a few months. We're glad of it. The process surfaced many additional features, and on reflection we are much better for having gone through it. It also reminded us how easily a simple idea gets overcomplicated.

We came into LATE(ish) as brand owners, first in breakfast, then through raising capital with Diageo for a tequila brand. Whether it's a bottle or a jar, broken distribution is broken.

So we kept asking one question: what tech and fractional support would we have wanted on the other side of the table?

The answer became a platform built on transparency. LATE(ish) now gives brands the tech and the talent to launch in markets. The drinks professional chooses their territory, and the farmers work the land they actually know.

That transparency runs through our tech. What shifts in a Chicago account has a real-time impact on your Profit and Loss, Trade Marketing and Supply Chain, to name a few, and you see it as it happens.

Here is what that looks like in practice. If you are the person who owns Michelin-star wine accounts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, you are that person on our platform. You know the buyers. You bring the most value to brands, and the brand builds its book out with you.

Take a second example. We work with one of our Elite Talent in Upstate New York, with 22 years in the market up there. She knows exactly where, who and why a brand placement matters, and she can run demos. As brand owners, that is who we would have hoped for: someone who comes in, looks at the opportunity and the portfolio, and decides to build her own portfolio of brands.

This matters because niche expertise delivers disproportionate value. A professional working their strongest relationships beats a generalist working an arbitrary geography, and companies using fractional sales strategies see a 24% increase in sales revenue on average.

Both Sides Win

Even the slight shift to this model has been massively beneficial for the brands we work with. They cover a greater range of accounts with the same people, and the drinks professional sits in a far better position to succeed.

Small beverage brands need this most. Distributors prioritize large brands with high volumes, which leaves emerging producers fighting for attention in a consolidated three-tier system. Flexible, relationship-led coverage gives them a real path in.

What This Means for You

As a brand owner, you want to be part of something that gets you to more revenue and more profit. Build your coverage around where your salespeople's relationships already live.

As a drinks professional, you want to set the agenda on the accounts you own and choose the territory you cover. Your book of business is your asset. Work with partners who let you grow it across every market you genuinely know.

As a distributor, you can bring in brands that may not yet have the data or the upside to support a wider listing. You know the brand is investing in its sales strategy in a sustainable way. You get to see how they win, where they win and why the wins keep stacking.

Our role is to facilitate all three, giving brands the tech and the talent to launch in a market. It takes a while to build something you are truly proud of, something beyond a cash grab. “More farmers, less farm” now sits in everything LATE(ish) builds.

Diolch yn fawr,
Asher