I have tons of tricks and gimmicks I have used over the years to locate vending machines . Every thing from upfront commission (payola) to "gorilla locating" etc.. I have tried them all.

This blog here I want to share my favorite buddy in locating. I started using him a few years ago and I even spoke during the seminars at BOSS show in Baltimore I elaborated and it was even quoted in the Vending Times and Playmeter. Just a mention of it of course.

The buddy I'm referring to is "Microsoft streets and trips software with GPS locator"..Im sure there may be other forms of GPS for locating but this is by far the most effective. All you need is a laptop and the software. He is updated every year but someone could buy an old version off of ebay with locator GPS for 20-30 bucks and 2009 is just as effective as the brand new 2012.

The reason I think he is the most effective tool for locating on the planet is some of the features he offers. The designers didn't know they where designing a locating tool but they sure did a good job.

The first reason i prefer it over dashboard gps is the feature to zoom in on a town, and then use the "show nearby places" tab and actually pick the radius from your location.. So if I choose "restaurants" if will show me a little "fork" for each restaurant in that radius. Now the little red icon on the screen is my position and I can choose to "create GPS trail" and every where i drive it will leave a blue line.

Now when I approach a location I can enter the location,make my pitch and either sell it or not but glean as much information from the owner, gatekeeper or manager that I can during my facetime with them. If the gatekeeper stops me cold and ask me "What is this regarding,the manager is really busy." I can brush her off with a response " Oh its nothing very important, Ill come back later,and by the way,,what was the owners name again? and when is the best time to talk to him in person?"

I then return to my van and choose the option "drop a pushpin" and select a yellow pushpin(yellow is what i use for follow ups) and drop it on my position. A little cartoon looking text window will pop up and I will enter the information. In this example it would be "House of Gyros, William is owner, come back on weekdays before 10 o'clock, has 1 double with gum balls and candy,William drives a yellow dodge truck, Has several charities on wall and has NFIB sticker on door." these are all sales related comments to help me with follow up. I could elaborate but that would be longer post and you would quit reading!!

I will continue this throughout my day and save this map as "Locating , Jackson TN map" and the next time it is time to service this area I will have all the comments to read over a few days before making my service trip.

I also use these same files to create my route sheets and routes for my drivers. I can open the "master file" which contains all of the locations I have sold and located but none of the notes. I then can choose each pushpin location and "add to route" in the route planner feature of the program. The software will choose the shortest route for the trip and re-allign locations for service based on distance or fastest time. I then save the route to my drivers thumb drive and they install in their laptop with same program in their vehicle. They are all trained to use the program and will head out to service without me standing there giving 100's of directions.

The feature of "dropping the pushpin" is the best feature of the program. Because if you have street address for a location it is not always the actual physical location based on GPS coordinates . I would say with commercial locations its not correct even 50% of the time! Before I discovered this method and used a Garmin I would have route people calling all day with the same response "Hey boss, Im here at the address and its a field? where is this place again?".. The pushpins give 100% accurate location as I dropped the pushpin on my location when making my master file.

Its cheap and it works. How do you lay out the logistics for your routes?