Desperados is a unique brand, positioned between beer and spirits. Our ambition is to grow disproportionately in Spain and but we realized that we needed a Horeca sales team that lives Desperados values and has the same unconventional spirit to beat the ambition. A team that matches the consumer profile in terms of age and lifestyle (millennials) but at the same time has commercial skills and experience.

Therefore the recruitment process also had to be like Desperados, unexpected, daring, mold breaking to assure candidates felt really engaged with the brand. So we designed an unconventional process searching for “The Crew”: an unexpected selection process where candidates did know neither the company nor the brand even when taking the decision to join us.

The conventional recruitment phases were turned into an emotional journey to make candidates live and experience the brand without unveiling it: changing the typical corporate job posting into a blind one, cold interviewing locations for unconventional places dressed in a special way to feel the brand mood, generic assessment tests into daring dynamics, the final decision of joining us in a Leap of Faith and the first team meeting into a brand experience through a Desperados party where the mystery was finally revealed.

It’s still soon but we can feel invigorated by the engagement and results of this “crew”: 80% of candidates left their jobs before knowing the brand, volume sales boosting going up by 86% in the Horeca channel and the number of new customers significantly increasing.

“The Crew”

Candidates’ journey started with a blind job posting for young commercials willing to accept the challenge of joining a multinational company to work in the on premise channel.

We went through thousands of resumes and interviews to get 150 candidates that joined us in The Assessment Center. These were group tests and interviews in unconventional places , locations dressed in a special way to make them feel the brand essence without unveiling it. At the end of the day, final candidates had to take “The Leap of faith”: joining us having only information about their role and package.

We brought the “employees” to an event in Madrid where we finally introduced them the company and brand they would be working for. Afterwards they enjoyed their first Desperados party and they were geared with a pool of brand tools and elements to make them the perfect brand Ambassadors.

We know what we have to do, we put together the best team ever and we have the most effective sales tools to win in the marketplace. It’s still soon but after two months we can already feel invigorated by the results of this “crew”.

It could not be otherwise, 80% of the 42 selected candidates had left their jobs before knowing the brand they were committing to sell and build. They were excited and enthusiastic with their new challenge and so was Desperados.

We already see the first numbers behind this exercise, just during their first two months in the field, volume sales are boosting, going up by 86% in the Horeca channel compared with the previous year. We have significantly increase the number of new customers and these new team is also giving a boost to all the key brand health indicators.