There’s a Saubel’s Market tucked just under the Mason-Dixon line in the northeast corner of Maryland. You can drive away from that location, a mile or so in any direction, and you’re more likely to run into a horse than a human.

Whiteford is about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore, its closest city, and about 50 miles north of Annapolis, although you’d need water skis the way the crow flies. Double and a half the miles to gauge an accurate drive time due to the maddening Maryland traffic.

Bourbon lovers gladly make that sacrifice on a regular basis.

On any given Friday morning, you’ll find a line of between 10-20 fellas waiting for the Saubel’s Liquor Store to open at 8:00. They’re there to chat with manager Nick Roberts about his latest barrel pick and to purchase hard-to-find brown liquor.

“In annual sales, they (Saubel’s) were doing about $1.5 million (before I started),” Roberts said. “We’re doing almost $4 million a year, and that’s huge growth. In my 12 years, we’ve only had a down year in sales, once.”

There are a number of foundational marketing tactics that Nick employs that any small business owner should utilize if business growth is the number one goal.

This store has a unique footprint. A customer can walk from the liquor store section to the bakery or fast-food aisle without leaving one building to go to the next. Because of the location, at one time, this was the only store, for miles, where customers could get gasoline, groceries, and, yes, wine and spirits. When the laws changed, Saubel’s Market was grandfathered in. You can grab a bottle of hooch and snag a dozen donuts for breakfast. How great is that?

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS?

The liquor business here wasn’t always robust. Before managing Saubel’s Market, Nick oversaw a liquor store in an upscale part of Maryland.

“It was kind of perfect timing that I took over that store (Saubel’s) a little before bourbon became huge,” Roberts explained. “The store already sold a ton of regular bourbon in general, like Makers Mark, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam. They sold a lot of it compared to the store that I ran in Perry Hall (MD), where it was a big wine store. I had to learn that language. Then, going up to Whiteford, no one cares about a good cabernet, they want to know about a good bourbon.

“I had to transition to that, and I had to learn the clientele of that store’” Roberts continued. “In that (bourbon) business, if you do it correctly, you have to know everything. I might not like everything, but I have to at least know something about it, know how to talk about it, know how to explain it to someone, and know how to sell it. Bourbon was king, so I learned that. Then I wanted to learn more, so I tried things, I knew a few guys who were into bourbon, and I learned from them. I grew as the category grew.”

And then, COVID upset the apple cart. The old saying about making lemonade out of lemons…well, Nick created the largest lemonade stand in three states.

“I had done a store pick of Makers Mark, and that was our first big store pick, and it was pre-Covid,” Roberts said. “I did it knowing that I wasn’t going to sell it out in a week, like things do now. It was going to be around, but it was a super fun experience. It elevated where we were at, and I thought it might bring in some outside people. We sold half a barrel in a couple of months, which was great, and then we sat on it for a while. Then Covid hit.

“Everybody’s at home, they’re looking for things to do,” Roberts went on. “A lot of guys got into bourbon, and they were like, now I have time to go around and see what stores have. That’s when some of these bourbon pages popped up on Facebook. I was not a big Facebook guy, we didn’t advertise the store on Facebook. But a buddy of mine says, hey, there’s this Maryland Bourbon Society page and there’s a couple hundred guys on it. Maybe you should post in there. The administrators of the page said I could advertise the store, so I put in there that I have this Maker’s Mark pick. Guys were off work, so they were driving 45 minutes to check out the Makers Mark pick.”

That was the beginning of Nick’s great revelation.

“I was, like, okay, this is working, right? This is bringing people in that I’ve never seen before. I’m like, who would drive an hour to come here for bourbon? This is crazy, right? Then around the same time I had done a Woodford pick, and it was really coveted, you didn’t see them that much. So, I put that out there. But it was still Covid and there was a twofold reaction. People were like, oh my God, I really want to come and get one, but it’s still Covid and we’re worried. My local crowd definitely came in and picked up bottles and it was a huge success. Brought in a ton of people. But there were a lot of guys that didn’t want to come in. So, I pulled some off the shelf and saved it. I said to myself, I’ll release this later when things change. That’s really when things started to pick up.”

The Maryland Bourbon Society page grew to thousands of people, and Nick kept promoting the unique brown liquor that he was able to offer to his customers. People were driving between an hour and two. The bourbon business was booming. Nick continued to offer bourbons that customers couldn’t get at their local store.

RISKS CAN BE GOOD TO TAKE

As the bourbon market grew, Nick grew his marketing chops. Sometimes a small gesture might seem inconsequential but turns into a big deal. For example, when you walk into Nick’s store on a Friday or Saturday morning at 8:00, Nick has two empty barrels set up in different areas, with bottles opened. Most often he’ll have a few of his most recent store picks open. Sometimes he’ll add a couple of unique bottles that he has left over from a previous project. Nick will pour you a sip of whatever he has open so that the customer can decide whether or not they want to spend $89.99 on a bottle. Naturally, the regulars gravitate to the barrel heads for free sips and for conversation.

“I just throw things out there and see what works, I don’t have any formal training,” Roberts said. “I’ve worked in a few different areas of retail, so I’ve seen a lot of different angles in different areas. What I do at my store may or may not work in another area. Everything I do is a test run. If it works, great, and I roll with it, and I do it until it fails, or I’ll do it until I find something better. I talk to other stores and see what they’ve tried, what works and what doesn’t.

“You can’t have everything open for them to try, but with store picks…you know they’re coming here to buy it. But if they try it and hate it, then that’s probably twofold. Either I didn’t do a good job of picking something that is good, or that might not be that customer’s style. If it’s not their style, that’s where I try to at least know and remember everybody that comes in. I can say, hey, this is definitely for you, or this might not be for you. But having the bottle open for them to try, gives them that satisfaction right away.”

WHAT CAN YOU STEAL… POLITELY?

Another cool concept that Nick introduced is his Fresh Case Fridays. If you’re a Facebook follower, you’re absolutely tuned in to your feed on Friday morning.

“I was on some of the pages, and there are guys who do a Fresh Crack Friday. When they get a new bottle, they open it on Friday night (and share it on FB). I was like, that’s kind of a fun play on words. How do I use that? Maybe I’ll do this Fresh Case. It works out with the way my trucks drop. I get the majority of my stuff on Thursdays. So, I’ll put out what I have on Fridays and call it Fresh Case Friday. I do it a couple of weeks in a row and it’s a huge success. Big uptick in sales.

“Originally, I’d put it out there and by lunchtime, maybe a little after lunchtime, a bunch of guys would come in. It continued to grow, and now guys get here before the store opens. And now distillery reps call me and ask how they can get their products in my fresh case on Friday.”

Other strategies that Nick employs are lotteries for hard-to-get bottles, and this year he’s going to introduce a new barrel pick before each professional golf major. Many of his customers are golfers, so he’s trying to introduce a store pick in April before the Masters, in June before the PGA Championship, in July before the U.S. Open, and in August before the British Open. He’s not sure the timing is going to work, but he’s going to try. He also tries to tie into events that the grocery store is conducting. For example, a couple of months ago, the Boy Scouts were sponsoring a food truck in the parking lot, and the store had a barbeque event.

Nick’s first adventure into barrel picks was a risk the owners were willing to take. The cost of having one barrel pick can be between $8,000 – $12,000. His thoughts, at the time, were that it would a. generate a good profit, b. it would increase foot traffic, and c. it would raise the profile of the store. This year, Nick is going to have between 15-20 barrel selections.

A SHOESTRING BUDGET WITH POWER

All of this success has been built and continues to thrive, with no marketing budget. The store, itself, has a Facebook page, which Nick rarely uses for brown liquor.

“I ran with this whole thing on the bourbon (Facebook) pages because of the feedback and I saw what it did for the store. It’s paid off. The pages that I’m on are not my own pages. They’re pages that other people and customers have set up. There are pages for Pennsylvania, the Maryland page that I’m on is a big one, and there’s one for the county that we’re in. It’s crazy. It’s huge.

“I will comment, and I try to be accessible so people feel like they can reach out to me. When someone sends me a message or a question, I try to answer as quickly as possible. I don’t know everything, but I’ll tell you what I know. That has garnered me a lot of acceptance because people see that I’m not just trying to sell something.”

He doesn’t spend a ton of time on the socials. Much of it is a gut feeling. For example, he knows that oversaturation is a bad thing. He knows that advertising every day would be a bad thing. He knows that when he shares about a new bottle that he and his buddies are sipping on a Saturday afternoon, it will get attention. He always will post for Fresh Case Friday, and that’s something he does plan for. The other event that he is very strategic about is his barrel picks.

How do you measure success? Numbers are important. But there are other ways to evaluate what you’re doing.

“I look at it based on where we’re at. We’re literally in the middle of a cornfield. We’re not in a community. We’re not in a complex with other stores. We’re our own thing. The business that we do, for not being in a metropolitan area, for not being in a city, not having people around… It’s pretty fantastic.”

FIVE OF NICK’S NUGGETS YOU NEED TO KNOW

This is a great success journey because of Nick’s savvy marketing maneuvers combined with his personal touch. Here are five of Nick’s tactics that you should use in your small business.

  1. Nick is always thinking about his customers. What their tastes are, how far they’re going to travel, how much they’re willing to invest. He’s thoughtful about how he answers those questions.
  2. Nick is never afraid to try something new – a new promotion, a new event, reframing a successful tactic that a parallel business used and transforming it for his own use.
  3. Nick evaluates every marketing tactic that he employs, and if it doesn’t work, he adjusts.
  4. Nick is not afraid to look at what other businesses are doing, even competitors, to see if they’re doing something successful that he might be able to utilize.
  5. Nick focuses on offering Value in every aspect of his operation; whether in a social media post, whether in a new barrel pick, or how to treat customers when they come into the store.

Keep your focus on your customers. Continue to try new marketing tactics. Constantly evaluate what you’re doing.

If you’re doing those things and you need someone to tell your story to the masses, just give me a shout and I’ll get a couple of wizards to make that happen.

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