BEVERAGE JOB BOARD CASE STUDY
Building a Sales Team at Slate Milk
Slate Milk sells delicious high protein, low sugar drinks that are better for people and the planet. All of Slate’s drinks are all-natural, lactose-free, contain no added sugar, and are keto-friendly. Slate drinks are packaged in 100% recyclable aluminum cans, and Slate products are Plastic Neutral Certified. The brand’s drink offerings currently include an assortment of high protein chocolate milks and high protein lattes. For more information, visit slatemilk.com and follow @slatemilk on Instagram and TikTok.
Challenge
Slate Milk's team recognized early on that having salespeople in the field was fundamental to their long-term growth strategy. The proof was in the numbers: on average in that first year of launch, they saw a large increase in sales by having team members on the ground selling the product.
Initially, the majority of Slate Milk’s recruiting efforts were largely from team member referrals and LinkedIn job postings. As the business grew, and more startup beverage companies entered the market, the competition for talent was heightened. The company's old hiring model didn’t work as well for them and they struggled to find qualified candidates.
As a small, growing company, the co-founders had a tough time justifying hiring a recruiter to work on sales representative roles that typically have a higher turnover than others.
Solution
After posting on ForceBrands' job board, Slate Milk's team received a few 100 qualified people within the first 90 days. Many of these candidates came from the industry, which benefitted the team from a training perspective.
Leveraging the job board, Slate Milk added five sales representatives from across the country — from California to Florida.
ForceBrands was able to send Slate Milk qualified candidates without the company having to invest resources in an internal recruiter, saving the team both time and money.
“The team is great to work with. Dustin Cherry is the best. Not only does he deal with recruiting but anything you need in business, any connections he can make, he’s happy to help. It’s more than just a company. He genuinely wants you to be a part of his network, even if you haven’t bought anything from them yet. I think the whole team is very much like that, which is awesome. They just want to help startups grow. For any startup founder, hiring is one of the hardest and most important parts of the job. Finding good people is very hard and there are only so many hours in the day. One of the things that ForceBrands has done for us is send much more qualified candidates without having to spend crazy amounts of money on an internal recruiter.”
- JOSH BELINSKY
Co-Founder