Locating Businesses

[gcobio]

I have seen where many of you talk about obtaining small to medium (25-100 person) size accounts. What are the processes being utilized to sell/obtain/convince the decision makers to use your vending service?  Additionally, is there a tried and true method for getting to the person that makes the decision to use your service?  All responses are appreciated!!

[orsd]

Sales is a numbers business

[AZVendor]

If you will go to the main forum page that lists all the sub forums you can perform a search of the entire site for locators or locating terms. There have been numerous threads on this very subject and if you will read those threads you will find several answers to your question.

[allen watson]

You can pray for them. My wife swears by it.

[moondog]

You can pray for them. My wife swears by it.

That's funny - I always ended up swearing AT them 

[snack dude]

You can pray for them. My wife swears by it.

So when they turn her down does she say

"I will pray that god has mercy on your soul"

Can I get an AMEN brothers and sisters,

[allen watson]

lol. No, when she prays for a location we get it.

[reel]

Theres no particular sales method that works for everyone, the key is to get to the decision maker and being able to extract sufficient information and then being able to tailor your response to the level your actually selling too, this is where you do need selling skills. Selling is a numbers game and walking the street and door knocking is the best first approach that works for me, although sometimes I call and make an appointment.

 

One thing I always do is consistently followup and this is what many fail to do, I continue to followup sometimes for a year or more whatever it takes to win. Persistence persistence and never take no for an answer, just keep on following up it does work but you do need some selling skills though.

 

I ask the contact when can I call you again, I note it in my diary and then call them, sometimes I email them as well. If theres something new I am am offering whether its a new product release or credit cards etc I will email them with pics, anything to try and tempt them into making a decision.

 

Cold call.........persist .....followup.......and never take no for an answer 

[moondog]

Theres no particular sales method that works for everyone, the key is to get to the decision maker and being able to extract sufficient information and then being able to tailor your response to the level your actually selling too, this is where you do need selling skills. Selling is a numbers game and walking the street and door knocking is the best first approach that works for me, although sometimes I call and make an appointment.

 

One thing I always do is consistently followup and this is what many fail to do, I continue to followup sometimes for a year or more whatever it takes to win. Persistence persistence and never take no for an answer, just keep on following up it does work but you do need some selling skills though.

 

I ask the contact when can I call you again, I note it in my diary and then call them, sometimes I email them as well. If theres something new I am am offering whether its a new product release or credit cards etc I will email them with pics, anything to try and tempt them into making a decision.

 

Cold call.........persist .....followup.......and never take no for an answer 

You almost sound like a pest Ron 

[reel]

Hahahaha well Moondog there is a fine line with that.............what i do is is  call my contact back in the time period that they suggested when we previous spoke, and it works. The mistake here is calling every week or every few days now thats what i would call a pest and being labelled a nuisance and you  will get nowhere.

 

If they dont suggest a callback time i may ring them in a month or so, that way it doesnt become to frequent  and they always take my call. Sometimes you have to get through the gatekeeper/ receptionist which needs a bit of skill and bs but i just tell them that the contact knows me and its service we have discussed that they are interested in etc.

 

After a period of time selling can be enjoyable you can test your skills with different approaches and see the result and tweak it where necessary. Moondog you probably have secured all those huge accounts in Southern California  unlike us little guys here in Australia on struggle street lol. 

[moondog]

I have no huge accounts Ron - don't want them.  Every scumbag swill eating mega vendor on the planet is here prospecting 24/7 for those huge accounts.  I'm just happy with a few good medium sized accounts that don't care about all the bells and whistles as long as their machines are stocked and working.

[snack dude]

I have no huge accounts Ron - don't want them.  Every scumbag swill eating mega vendor on the planet is here prospecting 24/7 for those huge accounts.  I'm just happy with a few good medium sized accounts that don't care about all the bells and whistles as long as their machines are stocked and working.

Now that gets an AMEN

[mission vending]

We have a number of accounts that would qualify as a huge account, 6 of them generate about 1M in sales. They are a very different animal, getting them is very difficult......, keeping them is exponentially more difficult.

[reel]

Moondog, yes I understand what your saying and I agree with you, I find here the average account that has a turnover of $100  to $200 can be a lot better as you have more control and you can generally  achieve higher retail prices then  larger accounts that's turning over say $600 plus each week. 

 

Mission accounts of that size here are very rare and difficult to find here, you having a larger population would make it a lot easier to find accounts of that magnitude..  I know theres a major airport in a eastern state that Coke wanted it so much they bought the operators whole business just to secure this particular airport, the location has an annual turnover of 4.5million..  

[mission vending]

Moondog, yes I understand what your saying and I agree with you, I find here the average account that has a turnover of $100  to $200 can be a lot better as you have more control and you can generally  achieve higher retail prices then  larger accounts that's turning over say $600 plus each week. 

 

Mission accounts of that size here are very rare and difficult to find here, you having a larger population would make it a lot easier to find accounts of that magnitude..  I know theres a major airport in a eastern state that Coke wanted it so much they bought the operators whole business just to secure this particular airport, the location has an annual turnover of 4.5million..

Our metropolitan area is around 2.5M people and you would think that there are a lot of mega accounts but that is not the case. The last time I looked there were only around 300 businesses that have 250 or more employees.

[reel]

Unfortunately here is very much the same, so many companies I know in recent years that  has reduced their staff numbers through outsourcing, general downturn, quest to cut costs and  relocating a part of their business overseas in particular manufacturing which is basically on its death bed here. 

 

The above plus we find the average person is far more careful where they spend their cash now and in all its becoming harder and harder to find a great location, and  large staff numbers doesn't guarantee it will be a good location at all. Few years ago you can look at a location and have a rough idea whether it will be ok or not, however now its impossible.

 

Here you are doing reasonably ok if all your machines are averaging $100 per week in sales, of course some do loads more and some are slower and requires  relocating but that's a never ending story.