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The Charity vs Commission Game


Jax Snacks

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I have been trying to get into a restaurant for 3 months. I made a number of sales calls with the owner and left professional vending fliers with him. I even had a reference from another hair salon location in the same plaza. The hair salon owner talked to the restaurant owner as a favor to me. I was told that the restaurant owner said, “Yes”. It was pitched as a commission rack. This place has great traffic and is open late at night and in a great area.

Well the restaurant owner kept putting me off and said, “Come back another day”. He did this about 3 times. Got a bit frustrated since a “Yes” was given. Why would he tell the hair salon owner one thing and me another? I obviously did not connect with this restaurant owner and there was a language barrier as well. As a former software tech, I know that my sales skills are not a strong as others.

A few weeks ago I was in that plaza and guess what? There was now a charity machine there! Now my head is really spinning. So I decided to pass this on to my locator as a lead. This time it was pitched as a double-head charity machine. It was approved by the restaurant owner that same day! The machine was placed 3 days later. Go figure.

I thought I was doing the “right” thing with a commission setup. But in this case it was the charity that got me in. This just reinforces (for me) my hybrid model in doing both commission and charity. The trick is knowing which technique to use and when/if to flip them at the appropriate time. Sometimes only the commission will get you in and other times only the charity will get you in. I guessed wrong on the first try in this case.

So at this point I neither love nor hate either approach. I just use them both and recognize the pros and cons. And accept the fact that I may guess wrong sometimes.

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This just reinforces (for me) my hybrid model in doing both commission and charity.

This is something I've preached for years. There is nothing wrong with doing both, in fact, its a necessity if you ask me.

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This is something I've preached for years. There is nothing wrong with doing both, in fact, its a necessity if you ask me.

Sent from my Android using Tapatalk.

Yea i mean my hawaiin spot asks for a commission since day. 1. Now at first i didn't understand it but i consider myself lucky to be there because the tama gachi and spiral gumball guy has to pay a commission too. So I think it's best to have both tactics for your strategy. You can try both, it gives the business different incentives.

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Your thought process is dead on Jax, I placed a double yesterday at a conveient store that could not care less about a commission but wanted to help a charity and a single gumball in a chinese restaurant, first it was pitched charity then got a rack approved by offering commission, just don't let Havending know cause it was only 25% he might try do get me booted, just busting your chops Hav. ;)

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Your thought process is dead on Jax,

Thanks mainor. I have swung both ways on this over the years. When I started, I was a charity extremist and wanted nothing to do with commission vending. Then 6 years later, I was a bit dismayed with charity and only wanted to do commission racks. After accessing my own skill sets and realizing there is no perfect system, I am happy to be somewhere in the middle. Nothing wrong IMO with starting a location out with either approach and flipping it if/when appropriate.

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If a spot does 20 bucks a month, i feel that offering a commission is a waste of time for both ends. Commission only when worth it.

20 bucks for what type of setup? A double with candy and gum? Sure, doubles are usually not suited for commission. But if the location is family friendly and has space available, then upgrading to a 5 way toy/sticker rack and gumballs in a shootin hoops will usually exceed $20. Then the commision is justified.

Pros and cons, young Grasshopper. Pros and cons.

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Your thought process is dead on Jax, I placed a double yesterday at a conveient store that could not care less about a commission but wanted to help a charity and a single gumball in a chinese restaurant, first it was pitched charity then got a rack approved by offering commission, just don't let Havending know cause it was only 25% he might try do get me booted, just busting your chops Hav. ;)

Lol its all good. Have you gotten service booted from the China buffet yet?

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Service Vending is rediculous. There is this mexican place in town where they are paying 50% and traffic is mediocre.

Does anyone here know if they are in financial trouble? How do these big guys survive?

They are not paying 50% some one is being dishonest with you. They have a 30% cap.

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Ditto! Or maybe Service is playing the percent-of-net game in this case.

Bingo -- My guess is that's EXACTLY what they're doing.

There's at least one vendor doing that around here.

Creates all kinds of havoc on my locating efforts.

It's tough explaining 50%-off-net vs 25%-off-gross to owners/managers who hardly want to give you the time of day to begin with.

Their heads are too wrapped up on 50% vs 25% and they don't care about further details.

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Bingo -- My guess is that's EXACTLY what they're doing.

There's at least one vendor doing that around here.

Creates all kinds of havoc on my locating efforts.

It's tough explaining 50%-off-net vs 25%-off-gross to owners/managers who hardly want to give you the time of day to begin with.

Their heads are too wrapped up on 50% vs 25% and they don't care about further details.

Mitchell vending does that also. They do 50% of net less 20% for product and when I was in school that's 40% of gross.

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Mitchell vending does that also. They do 50% of net less 20% for product and when I was in school that's 40% of gross.

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50-20=40?

Wow a lot has changed since you were in school! :D

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As far as commision goes, what kind of numbers do you guys generally use? Is 10% enough to get into a business, or do you really have to go up as high as 30%? And following that, is charity built the same way? Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm just trying to learn as much about this as I can :)

Thanks!

-bryan

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