kandyking Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Day 14 UPDATE: Rising Star has come through with 2 very interesting locations. I am cautiously optimistic as another potential contender emerges in this race. Let the games begin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Day 14 UPDATE: Rising Star has come through with 2 very interesting locations. I am cautiously optimistic as another potential contender emerges in this race. Let the games begin! Good job them stepping it up a notch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dperry Posted May 16, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 16, 2012 I don't get it. Anybody who has $30-$50 to give to a locator to find a location, has $30-$50 to plop down on the counter to give to the location owner as a commission or finders fee. This has many benefits over a locator: 1) You know whether or not the location would be worth it, since you are in the location and are able to evaluate it properly. 2) You are much more able to get a YES where a locator would get a NO. 3) You won't get the runaround about there being some sort of miscommunication between the locator and the owner. 4) Your success rate would be MUCH higher. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 I don't get it. Anybody who has $30-$50 to give to a locator to find a location, has $30-$50 to plop down on the counter to give to the location owner as a commission or finders fee. This has many benefits over a locator: 1) You know whether or not the location would be worth it, since you are in the location and are able to evaluate it properly. 2) You are much more able to get a YES where a locator would get a NO. 3) You won't get the runaround about there being some sort of miscommunication between the locator and the owner. 4) Your success rate would be MUCH higher. No one is arguing that a locator is better than doing it in person. Some common problems people have are: 1) They need locators to supplement their in person locating 2) They have a full time job which makes it impossible to locate enough to keep your route growing 3) They can not deal with rejection and/or are poor at sales 4) They are doing such a large volume of new locations that finding them would be a full time job. That being said, doing it yourself or sending someone in person is always preferable to the over the phone locators. By the way, I offer a finders fee to anyone who gets me a location. I usually give the owner a gift card or cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rdendy Posted May 16, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 16, 2012 I offer a finders fee to anyone who gets me a location. Dang another missed opportunity, if I was anywhere near your area I could have me another part-time job, would make about 8 part timers now, I must be Jamaican! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dperry Posted May 16, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 16, 2012 No one is arguing that a locator is better than doing it in person. Some common problems people have are: 1) They need locators to supplement their in person locating See below. 2) They have a full time job which makes it impossible to locate enough to keep your route growing I have a full time job, and I still find time to go locating. 3) They can not deal with rejection and/or are poor at sales Then this isn't the business for them. 4) They are doing such a large volume of new locations that finding them would be a full time job. Think about it. You are doing the work anyways. How are they saving you any time? How many times have you secured a location from a locator, and gone out to place the machine, but found that was refused, or closed, or decided not to place it because it was in a one-man auto shop? You just wasted all that time for no returns. Just placing the machine takes time too. If you have a full time job, where do you find the time to do even that little bit of work. If you can do that little bit of work, you can do a little bit more and go find the locations that you actually want. Your thread is showing exactly how locators do NOT help grow your business. By your counts, you have been testing 6 locators, for a total of 33 days and have gotten a total 11, and you admitted that at least half of those are mediocre at best. That's more than 5 days to get just 1 and iffy location. Since you are doing a test, why don't you test your own abilities, and see where they fall with regards to these locators. Even taking one day off a month to go do your own locating should net you better results than the typical locator. If you try my idea and offer a commission, (signing bonus, finders fee, whatever you want to call it) to the owner, you could increase your closing rate dramatically. Giving that money to the locator to find you some good locations does not guarantee that you will get good locations. Giving that money to the location owner of the location that you really really want is much more efficient. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 3) They can not deal with rejection and/or are poor at sales if this is the case you are going to have a tough time in any business for yourself. 99% of business is sales not technical expertise. Even if you have built the better mousetrap you still have to sell it. Its not insurmountable but the best thing to do is find a quality salesperson and compensate them based on the performance of the locations. If you are paying ssomeone a commission for finding a location the incentive is to just get a yes, if their income is tied to yours their incentive is to invest the time in developing quality accounts. Additionally a lot of people have problems with cold calls, I know I do. While I am now comfortable making cold calls it takes a lot of time and energy. i prefer to make "warm calls" and have someone else weed out the crap. I probably miss a few opportunities doing it this way but its much for time saving IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Allow me to clarify: I do quite a bit of my own locating and also have a sales team that does locating for me. I was just giving 4 reasons why SOMEONE would want to hire a locator. My problem is that I have reached a point in my growth where I have more machines to be placed than I have locations. Just this month alone I have acquired more than 100 triples to place. My main job is to manage my real estate investments ( a handful of plazas) and that takes up 8 hours a day easily. I saw this bulk vending opportunity as a nice passive stream of extra income. What was supposed to be my passive income is anything but passive due to my rate of growth. The setting of infrastructure, training employees, finding locations, servicing new and located machines, and getting additional machines takes me 5 or 6 hours after an already full work day. If you add in the scavenger hunt to find these raffle tickets for the rack, that is another 3 hours a day I have little to no time to locate on my own. If I go out to dinner with my family . . . I pitch the restaurant. If I get my car tuned up . . . I pitch the repair shop. If I buy my kid a birthday cake . . .I pitch the bakery. Aside from convenient locating, I just can't fit it into my schedule. Nothing is better than locating in person. I agree whole heartedly with that. I have 100+ machines to place and my in person locators are batting 10% success rate (terrible, I know). I am still tweaking the system but regardless of my on staff locators, I see a place for hiring telephone locators in my business. The reason: I need locations by any and every means possible. All of that being said, I will take dperry's suggestion and start offering a signing bonus to owners of a business. I will catalogue my trials and tribulations along with my triumphs as they occur in all future posts. Thanks for the suggestions Dperry. If it means an eventual Brinks truck full of quarters, I will try any valid suggestion. You get a well earned "like" for that one buddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Allow me to clarify: I do quite a bit of my own locating and also have a sales team that does locating for me. I was just giving 4 reasons why SOMEONE would want to hire a locator. My problem is that I have reached a point in my growth where I have more machines to be placed than I have locations. Just this month alone I have acquired more than 100 triples to place. My main job is to manage my real estate investments ( a handful of plazas) and that takes up 8 hours a day easily. I saw this bulk vending opportunity as a nice passive stream of extra income. What was supposed to be my passive income is anything but passive due to my rate of growth. The setting of infrastructure, training employees, finding locations, servicing new and located machines, and getting additional machines takes me 5 or 6 hours after an already full work day. If you add in the scavenger hunt to find these raffle tickets for the rack, that is another 3 hours a day I have little to no time to locate on my own. If I go out to dinner with my family . . . I pitch the restaurant. If I get my car tuned up . . . I pitch the repair shop. If I buy my kid a birthday cake . . .I pitch the bakery. Aside from convenient locating, I just can't fit it into my schedule. Nothing is better than locating in person. I agree whole heartedly with that. I have 100+ machines to place and my in person locators are batting 10% success rate (terrible, I know). I am still tweaking the system but regardless of my on staff locators, I see a place for hiring telephone locators in my business. The reason: I need locations by any and every means possible. yeah it seems simple buy some machines and product, hire a locator..lol if it was everyone would do it what do you pay the in person sales staff? do they install the equipment right then and there, if not why not? anyway if you have 3 street locators out every day and they are getting an abysmal 10% close ratio why not pull one of them into the office and have them front for the other two. wouldnt it make more sense to have your street locators going to qualified appointments with people who are actually interested in your propostition rather than knocking on doors. send them out with a full schedule and equipment and u get closer to a passive income model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 They are all commission based. Granted it is a fairly generous commission but not a dime without a location. They are still in training currently because, as you can imagine, there is quite a bit of turn over in the position. They take machines with them and place it upon acceptance. I am going to start to implement Dperry's idea of a "signing bonus" to location owners and see if that helps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 Day 15: As of tomorrow I will be adding "self locating" when convenient into the mix with the added twist of offering the money I would have spent on a locator to the business owner as a "signing bonus" as per the suggestion of dperry. Kickstart: Finally 2 locations out of kickstart after a dozen days of dormancy. One is a restaurant that looks promising and the other a dry cleaner. This puts kickstart at 13 out of 24. Some have been great, some good, and some terrible. It is a roll of the dice. (What in the world possessed me to give kickstart 24 locations?!?!?) Locators R Us: No new locations out of the new and improved LRU today. They missed a prime opportunity to overtake First Choice but still they have delivered 3 in 3 days and are currently at 3 out of 10 locations but all 3 have been stellar. First Choice: No new locations out of First Choice today. They currently stand at 4 out of 5 (actually 4 out of 10 because I made a re-order of 5). All of the locations have been good with some of them having the potential to be great. Eddie Bauer: No new locations out of Eddie who currently stands at 4 out of 6 with 3 of the 4 being mediocre at best and the 4th having the potential to be decent. It looks like they just want to drop these machines any and everywhere. General Vending Services: It has been 8 days and nothing out of GVS. They currently stand at 0 out of 3 and I haven't heard a peep out of them yet. Rising Star: They gave a couple of locations yesterday and currently stand at 2 out of 5 with both of them looking very promising. These guys have entered into this race swinging for the fences. First place is up for grabs. In the running is First Choice, Locators R Us, and Rising Star. Eddie is performing but the locations are not something worth paying for. Kickstart would be worth giving a shot at half of their current lofty asking price (around $50) but, even then, may not be worth it. General Vending Services may end up on the back of a milk carton because they have been missing for 8 days and I am starting to worry. FEEL FREE TO LET ME KNOW OF ANY OTHER LOCATORS YOU WANT IN THE MIX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 General Vending Services may end up on the back of a milk carton because they have been missing for 8 days and I am starting to worry. They appeared out of nowhere, didn't do very much, were exposed as a potential scam operation, and then disappeared. If they want to save the precious little face they have left, they should really come clean now. Hopefully they don't have too much of your information Kandy King, I'd hate to see you get ripped off. Good luck Kandy King! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 They appeared out of nowhere, didn't do very much, were exposed as a potential scam operation, and then disappeared. If they want to save the precious little face they have left, they should really come clean now. Hopefully they don't have too much of your information Kandy King, I'd hate to see you get ripped off. Good luck Kandy King! They don't have ANY of my information. They don't know Kandy King from Burger King. That being said, I still hope they come clean and start locating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 They don't have ANY of my information. They don't know Kandy King from Burger King. That being said, I still hope they come clean and start locating Good to hear! Keep us Posted Kandy King! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dperry Posted May 17, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 17, 2012 Allow me to clarify: I do quite a bit of my own locating and also have a sales team that does locating for me. I was just giving 4 reasons why SOMEONE would want to hire a locator. My problem is that I have reached a point in my growth where I have more machines to be placed than I have locations. Just this month alone I have acquired more than 100 triples to place. My main job is to manage my real estate investments ( a handful of plazas) and that takes up 8 hours a day easily. I saw this bulk vending opportunity as a nice passive stream of extra income. What was supposed to be my passive income is anything but passive due to my rate of growth. The setting of infrastructure, training employees, finding locations, servicing new and located machines, and getting additional machines takes me 5 or 6 hours after an already full work day. If you add in the scavenger hunt to find these raffle tickets for the rack, that is another 3 hours a day I have little to no time to locate on my own. If I go out to dinner with my family . . . I pitch the restaurant. If I get my car tuned up . . . I pitch the repair shop. If I buy my kid a birthday cake . . .I pitch the bakery. Aside from convenient locating, I just can't fit it into my schedule. Nothing is better than locating in person. I agree whole heartedly with that. I have 100+ machines to place and my in person locators are batting 10% success rate (terrible, I know). I am still tweaking the system but regardless of my on staff locators, I see a place for hiring telephone locators in my business. The reason: I need locations by any and every means possible. All of that being said, I will take dperry's suggestion and start offering a signing bonus to owners of a business. I will catalogue my trials and tribulations along with my triumphs as they occur in all future posts. Thanks for the suggestions Dperry. If it means an eventual Brinks truck full of quarters, I will try any valid suggestion. You get a well earned "like" for that one buddy. I just wanted to point out that I was not trying to attack you, or single you out. I too was just pointing out what I see is the fallacy of how locators actually helping a vending company grow. But, I do like your method of hiring local people and turning them out to do locating only for you. That sounds like a very "Rich Dad" thing to do. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 They don't know Kandy King from Burger King. You crack me up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniocinisi Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 if you want to make endless trips to the zip codes provided just to get to the location and no one knows anything about you coming with a machine hire ends group,they are great at wasting time and money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Day 16: Kickstart: 1 of the 2 locations I got yesterday was not suitable for placement so Kickstart is back to 12 out of 24 in 7 weeks. Not very impressed with these guys. Locators R Us: 4 new locations out of LRU today which catapults them into the lead. The new LRU is on fire giving an abundance of quality locations quickly. This puts them to 7 out of 10 and well on their way to another order. Take a bow the new LRU, you deserve it. First Choice: No new locations out of First Choice today. Locators R Us has seized the opportunity and taken over for first place. I am hoping for a good rebound tomorrow from First Choice who has currently placed 4 out of 10. Eddie Bauer: Nothing new from Eddie today and one of the 4 locations I got does not seem suitable and keeps giving me the run around so I may have to reject them. That will leave them at 3 out of 6 General Vending Services: It has been 9 days and nothing out of GVS. I am beginning to assume that they are gone and will re-emerge in a few months as 11 girl scouts from North Dakota looking to start a locating company. 0 for 3 and flat lining. Rising Star: Although I got no new locations today, I did get a follow up call about the two they gave me to place and they also gave me a status update to tell me that they have some promising leads for tomorrow. 2 out of 5 and both great. Rankings as of today 1st - Locators R Us 2nd - First Choice 3rd - Rising Star 4th - Kickstart 5th - Eddie Bauer (The reason for Eddie dropping below Kickstart is that kickstart sometimes gives you a location that looks promising. I have never received one from Eddie thus far) 6th - General Disappointment . . .I mean General Vending Services FEEL FREE TO LET ME KNOW OF ANY OTHER LOCATORS YOU WANT IN THE MIX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kandyking Posted May 18, 2012 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 18, 2012 THIS JUST IN - It seems that General Vending has suffered some kind of nervous breakdown or mental break. I have never seen someone ranting and raving like that before and coating the message boards in a cloud of dishonesty. As the first person to send General Vending an order, allow me to also be the first person to retract my order. I will no longer be dealing with General Vending due to the river of lies I find myself drowning in with every post they make. The King has left the building 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 It's too bad- and a little strange. They just collapsed in on themselves- I've never seen that happen on any forum before. It's too bad really, but what can you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 It's too bad- and a little strange. They just collapsed in on themselves- I've never seen that happen on any forum before. It's too bad really, but what can you do? Thanks for the report, just remember that sometimes things are not quite what they seem. Looking into the matter.... and for now GVS's posting ability has been limited to mod review status. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dperry Posted May 18, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 18, 2012 and for now GVS's posting ability has been limited to mod review status. That's too bad. They should have the ability to shoot themselves in the foot if they want to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mission vending Posted May 18, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted May 18, 2012 I'm fine with letting someone shoot themselves in the foot. Its when they start dragging others into their cesspool that some intervention is called for. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kandyking Posted May 19, 2012 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 19, 2012 Day 17: Between yesterday and today, General Vending Services totally self destructed. Aside from lie after lie, they attempted to claim a connection with LRU. After that obvious spite move, I have opted no longer to deal with GVS. I do not want people who would sink to that level representing my company. Kickstart: Nothing new from kickstart today. The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that I get a refund for any machines not placed within 2 months of the order and that day is only 10 days away and they have only placed half of my orders thus far. Locators R Us: After delivering 4 yesterday, the new and improved LRU gave me yet another location today. There is no stopping LRU and, at this rate, these guys are about to run away with this competition. This puts them to 8 out of 10 and guaranteed another order. After their rough patch to start this competition, LRU has come out of with a vengeance and is the cinderella story that I was hoping for. Rising out of the ashes of two weeks of no action due to phone issues, the new LRU has risen like a mighty phoenix and is giving me quality locations as fast as I can hope for. Well done LRU . . . Well done. First Choice: One new locations out of First Choice today. Locators R Us has seized the opportunity and taken over for first place but First Choice is contributing a steady stream of average to great locations. They currently placed 5 out of 10. Eddie Bauer: Nothing new from Eddie today and they remain at 3 out of 6 with all being mediocre. General Vending Services: After their array low class moves yesterday, they are no longer in the competition. It is such a pity because I was really rooting for them. Rising Star: I got another call from Rising Star stating that they had a location that was en route. I am very impressed with their communication and the quality of the locations thus far. This new one seems to be a high end women's clothing store so I am not sure it will be a good fit for a candy machine but I will give it a shot. 2 out of 5 and both great. Rankings as of today 1st - Locators R Us 2nd - First Choice 3rd - Rising Star 4th - Kickstart 5th - Eddie Bauer 6th - Leaving my machines out in the rain 7th - General Vending Services 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandyking Posted May 20, 2012 Author Share Posted May 20, 2012 Day 18: I did the route collections for many of these new locations and I am thankful that I had way more winners than dogs. That being said, the dogs need to be replaced. Kickstart: Nothing new from kickstart today but they did have 2 of my 3 dog locations that I submitted for replacement. The first was a salon that could barely crack $10 and when I went to service saw a vendstar sitting next to my machine. There is not enough meat on that bone to split two ways so I yanked it. The other was a mechanic shop with 3 other machines that pulled me $5.75 in a month. Locators R Us: Even after a few days, the locations they gave me have yielded promising results and are on pace to hit or shatter my $20 minimum requirement monthly. They still stand at the top of the heap with 8 out of 10 and all appear good to great First Choice: The First Choice locations also yielded some solid results looking to hit or slightly exceed my $20 goal. They currently placed 5 out of 10. Eddie Bauer: Nothing new from Eddie today and they remain at 3 out of 6 with all being mediocre. Rising Star: Rising Star got me a location that was placed on Thursday and I got a call that it needed to be removed today because corporate would not allow it. The machine was in the back of a restaurant for employees and I went to collect it today and it had $17.00 in it after just a day and a half. I almost wept at the thought of losing that location but, thus far, Rising Star is giving some serious quality at a fairly steady rate. This puts them back to 1 out of 5 but still high on my list with regards to quality. Rankings as of today 1st - Locators R Us 2nd - First Choice 3rd - Rising Star 4th - Kickstart 5th - Eddie Bauer One month from today I will start including the average income per location for each locator once each of them have had a 30 day cycle on their machines. If anyone has a locator they would like to suggest to replace General Vending Services in this competition, please let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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