Locators for snack and healthy snack machines??

[MBvendor]

Hello everyone, hope all your business are prospering. I am looking to place my very first machine, planning on finding a location first then buying a machine. Any good experiences with snack and healthy snack machine locators?

[AZVendor]

Go find them yourself.  If you can't find your own locations then you won't be in business very long.

[MBvendor]

4 hours ago, AZVendor said:

Go find them yourself.  If you can't find your own locations then you won't be in business very long.

Why do you have to be so rude - I honestly told myself it was a bad idea to join a forum because people are generally so negative on these but I went ahead because my mentor advised it. I don't need you to tell me how long i'll be in business, goodbye.

[orsd]

14 minutes ago, MBvendor said:

Why do you have to be so rude - I honestly told myself it was a bad idea to join a forum because people are generally so negative on these but I went ahead because my mentor advised it. I don't need you to tell me how long i'll be in business, goodbye.

The thing is, we could say what you want to hear to be "nice".

But that would actually be screwing you over, by setting you up for failure.

We are giving you the cold, hard truth.

AZ has about 30 years industry experience. For the last 15 he's been a tech. He's seen countless operations come and go, and some stay. He knows what works, and what doesn't.

Personally, I think that your plan is somewhat flawed. Snacks are a lot of work, and you have to watch the dates like a hawk. Healthy, just doesn't sell well. Unless there is a good reason not to, do drinks as well.

But, to answer your original question, there are very, very few good locators for snack machines. It's a lot of work, and is best done in person. The only one that seems to do good work is Bev (poplady on this board) from Blue Moose Vending Management. But, depending on where your are, she may not be taking on more clients in that area.

So, give it a shot. You may surprise yourself at how you are at sales.

[AZVendor]

I was not being rude, I was being honest and trying to get you to understand that spending your money on locators is going to crush your bottom line.  I used a locator only one time - when I first started.  He found me 10 locations for leased Pepsi machines (in 1985 when you could just call Pepsi to get machines placed) and he got me okay locations, but all were types that a confident vendor could easily get on their own.  All were blue collar with employee counts that the bottlers weren't interested in which were also accounts that didn't make me much money on the whole.  But I was new and I didn't know this yet.  The locator worked fine in the beginning, as most do, and then I began to find misrepresentations on my contracts and then he began to ask for money up front.  Before I knew it he was gone with 2 advance location fees and that was the last time I used a locator.  

Locators are expensive - I paid $300 per location in 1985 - and they haven't got any less expensive.  You will be shocked at what Bev's company asks for as well as one other guy on the forum that tried to find someone to place several combo machines for an outrageous price.  I don't blame Bev and others for getting what they can but as an experienced vendor I would never pay those kind of fees.  The interesting thing is that experienced vendors are who these current locators work with, and  I understand why - it's less expensive to pay a good locator a high fee for a good account than it is to have a salesman on payroll who either doesn't produce or you have to pay some stupid residuals to.

PS: Have your mentor teach you how to sell vending accounts.

[Poplady1]

Just to give you an idea of the expense involved in working with large accounts (250 AND UP).  It takes on average 5 years of follow up contact to get an account like a Corp in Santa Monica with 2500 on site employees plus trainees of about 500 a day.  They took 23 machines.  We are fortunate enough to work with some of the largest vending companies in the country and they don't bulk at our fees.  Our fee for that account $15K.  They made it back in the first 2  months of servicing.  Projecting at the end of the contract it will come in at $500K.

Average account 2 machines blue collar 85 emp.  $900 fee  Average follow up income report  $70 per machine per week.  Our fee paid back in 6 weeks.

Plus we rarely can take on a new vendor.  We are not a match for a new vendor.  Canteen, Premier Vending, Dependable Vending and others have been with us since we started.  Yes, you are right, they use us rather then pay full time sales people.  But you do get what you pay for and if you want to be successful you have to learn and earn.  Our companies trust us to find what they need to stay in business.  We know our stuff and have an experienced staff of retired vending executives, me included.

We have worked with Disney properties, Sea World, Casino's and more which gives us the best vendors can offer.  The down side.  We have to employ people for several important areas. We have two full time employes that follow business expansion articles in S. Ca.  They contact new businesses, read the local papers daily to clip articles for the sales department.  We pay fees to 15 Cambers.  We support several little league programs, we have golf outings and run thank you ads in the vending journals.  We do not use telemarkets.  We have 24/7 customer service staff which is used by our vendors for repairs or other problems.  On any account we contact our staff has done income research, employee counts up or down over the last 5 years, company and executive credit rating, Yelp reviews, BBB report.  We are members of several data base companies. Our average monthly costs to do our work with employees runs around $7200.

We also give away accounts in our area with less then 60 employees to several single moms/dads and a couple of disabled vendors.  We give.20 cents of every dollar earned to our school teachers to buy supplies for their classes.  I know there are a few vendors on here that received help or locations in their area, which we found for them and gave them free.

We have great people, great companies but we work hard.  We have also tried to train veterans or people down on their luck to start their own business finding locations, and often it works out.

With that said, MBVendor give us a call 909-583-9068 office or 513-923-1414 cell. let me see if we can help.  This forum was started to help new vendors get started and learning to find accounts, how to talk to new accounts is all part of it.  We do not charge any Forum members for any help or location.  Ask for Randy, Dave, Ruth, Matt, Bill or Bev.  If we are out you can just tell the staff that you are from this forum and one of us will call you back, no charge.  It also helps if you can hire a nice sales person.  It doesn't matter how they look, just be nice.  We hired Lou, a trans person, kinda of manly, who seemed she would be happier welding but she brought us so many accounts and everyone loved Lou.  When she passed she broke a lot of hearts.

Actually AZ we still charge $330 for a combo location when we get them and it is out of our area.  So its all good. Happy Vending.

 

 

 

 

 

[Poplady1]

21 hours ago, MBvendor said:

Why do you have to be so rude - I honestly told myself it was a bad idea to join a forum because people are generally so negative on these but I went ahead because my mentor advised it. I don't need you to tell me how long i'll be in business, goodbye.

Listen everyone on here is not that way.  We mihgt be able to help out.  See my posting below and we can get you started, that is what this forum was suppose to be about, helping new vendors and current vendors do a better job. I can run you a data report for your area which will help.  It is amazing how a quick couple of hours can payoff.

[putrevus]

On 6/4/2018 at 1:09 AM, AZVendor said:

I was not being rude, I was being honest and trying to get you to understand that spending your money on locators is going to crush your bottom line.  I used a locator only one time - when I first started.  He found me 10 locations for leased Pepsi machines (in 1985 when you could just call Pepsi to get machines placed) and he got me okay locations, but all were types that a confident vendor could easily get on their own.  All were blue collar with employee counts that the bottlers weren't interested in which were also accounts that didn't make me much money on the whole.  But I was new and I didn't know this yet.  The locator worked fine in the beginning, as most do, and then I began to find misrepresentations on my contracts and then he began to ask for money up front.  Before I knew it he was gone with 2 advance location fees and that was the last time I used a locator.  

Locators are expensive - I paid $300 per location in 1985 - and they haven't got any less expensive.  You will be shocked at what Bev's company asks for as well as one other guy on the forum that tried to find someone to place several combo machines for an outrageous price.  I don't blame Bev and others for getting what they can but as an experienced vendor I would never pay those kind of fees.  The interesting thing is that experienced vendors are who these current locators work with, and  I understand why - it's less expensive to pay a good locator a high fee for a good account than it is to have a salesman on payroll who either doesn't produce or you have to pay some stupid residuals to.

PS: Have your mentor teach you how to sell vending accounts.

I might be wrong but landscape in my experience has changed a lot in last few years.You just cannot walk in to locations anymore , you need prior appointments  and for that you need to have a calling team calling to get appointments.

[Poplady1]

There is a certain amount of saturation for sure.    Just don't give anyone upfront money on drink snack stops.  You need to visit them, talk to the management, discuss products, pricing, seer the location of the machine and if they bring it up commission.  Then once everyone is okay, you have a signed agreement or a installation date you can put the fee on deposit with the understanding it will be refunded if something prevents installation.  We work with established vending operators because they don't have the time and they don't want to add another employee (taxes and insurance) so they work with management companies to build some of their route or they buy routes.  

You have to keep growing in this business because accounts close, another company offers lower pricing or some other gadget you don't support and they switch (even if service is 5 star).  Vending is like any business, lots of work but it is yours!