Why Poor Field Sales Planning is Costing Your Brewery, and How to Fix it
- Katie Nguyen
In today’s increasingly competitive beer market, having the right brewery CRM software can make all the difference for breweries across the world, who are under more pressure than ever. The craft boom may have opened doors, but now those spaces are crowded. Staying on top means being sharper, faster, and more efficient than the next brewer, and the next, as well as the non-alc brands that are redefining the category.
According to SIBA’s 2025 report, over 100 breweries closed in the past year despite continued consumer demand for independent beer. In short, margins are tighter, stakes are higher, and efficiency matters more than ever.
While much of the industry focus has been on brewing innovation and branding, there’s one overlooked piece of the puzzle that’s quietly draining time, money, and opportunities from breweries every day: field sales planning.
From missed deliveries to inefficient route planning, poor sales coordination is costing your brewery more than you think. But with the right tool (one your team will actually USE…) you’ll both reduce your reps’ admin time and increase your sales and data output.
How Poor Planning Hurts Profitability
Every minute your sales reps spend zig-zagging across the city, sitting in traffic, or juggling admin tasks is time they’re not spending in front of buyers. That means fewer visits, more missed opportunities, and lost revenue.
Fuel costs alone can add up quickly when routes aren’t optimised. But the real price is in the relationships: missed follow-ups or late deliveries can damage trust with key accounts like pubs, bars, and retailers. And in such a relationship-driven industry, that trust is everything.
Top Brewery Sales Planning Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
We’ve seen it time and time again. Great beer, strong branding, but sales teams stuck using outdated systems. Here are just a few of the most common field sales pitfalls:
- Manual Route Planning: Google Maps and Excel spreadsheets may get the job done, but not well. Without automation, reps lose time every day on basic logistics. For example Google limits your routes to 20 at a time, and doesn’t optimise the most efficient order of which locations to visit first. You also can’t save routes, we dread to think how many times the same pub names have been typed into a rep’s Google maps.
- No Visibility Into Rep Activity: If you don’t know where your team is or what they’re doing, you can’t improve their performance. Lack of transparency also makes coaching and accountability harder.
- Admin Overload: When reps are buried in reporting or paperwork, they’re not selling. And that’s a huge waste of talent.
- Poor Targeting: Without a clear, updated view of accounts and prospects, reps can’t prioritise their visits effectively, meaning high-potential leads may fall through the cracks.
How CRM Tools Improve Brewery Sales
Thankfully, poor planning isn’t a permanent problem. With the right tools, breweries can quickly transform their field sales operations from chaotic to coordinated. At Bowimi, we specialise in brewery field sales, from Beavertown to Lucky Saint, helping teams across the UK streamline their sales processes.
Here’s how Bowimi helps breweries get there:
Bowimi takes the guesswork (and the Google Maps tab) out of your reps’ day. Based on account priority and geography, our platform builds optimised daily routes, so your team spends more time with buyers and less time on the road.
Want to see where your team is, what visits have happened, and what’s next on their list? With Bowimi, you get full visibility into rep activity so you can identify gaps, spot high-performers, and make data-driven decisions.
No more hunting through spreadsheets or sticky notes. Bowimi acts as your mobile CRM, giving reps instant access to customer details, call notes, and visit history. On the road, in real time. Everything they need is at their fingertips.
Bowimi syncs directly with top brewery management systems, so reps always have up-to-date customer and order data at their fingertips. No double data entry, no bouncing between systems, just one connected workflow across sales, ops, and distribution.
How Breweries Use Bowimi to Grow Sales
Don’t just take our word for it! Some of the most respected breweries in the UK are already seeing the benefits of Bowimi.
Beavertown
As Beavertown’s field sales team grew, spreadsheets and disconnected systems couldn’t keep up. Reporting was manual, visibility was limited, and data-driven decisions were tough to make. Discover how they transformed their operation with Bowimi, saving hours in admin and centralising reporting for a smarter, faster, more effective sales process.
Budweiser Budvar
Kristen from Budweiser Budvar UK discussed how her team leverages Bowimi for various field operations. The platform assists in route planning, prospecting, data capture, and task management. Additionally, Bowimi's insights and reporting features help track daily KPIs and overall business performance, enhancing the efficiency of managing on-trade accounts
Lucky Saint
Aaron from Lucky Saint highlighted the benefits of Bowimi in providing an easy-to-use system for sales representatives. The platform offers the necessary reporting capabilities to understand field activities, aiding in winning taps for their non-alcoholic beer.
Curious Brewery
The platform enables the sales team to log every customer interaction, including technician visits, ensuring a comprehensive view of each account. This approach provides the sales team with supportive oversight, facilitating better customer relationship management.
By reducing time spent on admin and improving visit targeting, these breweries have freed up their sales teams to do what they do best, build relationships and grow the brand into something that every bartender knows by name.
In a crowded market, every conversation counts. And without smart planning, your brewery could be missing the moments that matter most.
Field sales isn’t just about showing up, it’s about showing up efficiently, consistently, and with purpose. That’s where Bowimi comes in. With tools designed specifically for field teams in the beer industry, we make sure your reps are in the right place at the right time, every time.
Ready to give your sales team the tools they need to win?
Join the likes of Lucky Saint, Budweiser Budvar, and Beavertown Brewery in using Bowimi to plan smarter routes, strengthen customer relationships, and grow your brand with less admin and more impact.
Book your demo through the calendar below, and one of our experts will walk you through how these features work as part of Bowimi’s powerful, easy-to-use platform.