Need some advice... lost big account -- now what?

[Boazcat]

We have had a multi-story office building for 2 years with 4 electronic combos.  They called today to say that they are dumping us and going with a centralized service for all their office buildings (they have 6 buildings in our city.)  We have to be cleared out by the end of July.  This account was half of our business income, so losing them is extremely tough. 

My wife and I love vending and were just in the process of getting ready to expand... 

So...  now what???

The way I see it, I have 2 options:

1.)  sell the combos.  Use the proceeds to purchase used pop &/or snack and have them located.  We have a service tech friend who will let us make payments to him for refurbished machines, so we won't technically be added any debt.

2.)  Pay to have the combos located.  This would be less money, but woud require  a bank loan probably.  I realize combos are limited to the size of the location. 

Crap, crap crap.  This stinks.

What do you all say?

Thanks,

Michael

[Sparta_Automation]

Sorry to hear about you lost account.  Personally, I would go with the selling of the combo's and get full size snack and soda machines.  Start locating them and replace the income. 

Travis

[mission vending]

Sorry to hear the bad news.... yeah it really sucks to lose an important account. Why not go about locating the combos yourself, it will only cost you time and effort? Outside sales is tough but you know best what it is you want in a location and you are willing to do to get a location, best of all the only cost will be time, effort and some gas.

You as the business owner are and always will be the best representative of your business. You need to know how and be willing to go out there and get business for yourself if you want survive, not only in this business but any business.

So it you want my opinion, get your hustle on, you've got 30 days to find those machines a home that's is better than your garage.

Mike

[NinnJinn]

Wow!  that is always rough!  at least they gave you 30 days instead of 3 or 4 days!

[mizugori]

Personally I would contact a locator immediately. They don't cost THAT much.. don't you have any cash reserves? You can even pay a locator with a credit card...

If you act now you could have the machines re-located before you have to remove them. That will save you an extra expense of moving from point a to storage, then from storage to point b when you eventually get them re-located (because you can just have them moved from point a directly to point b.)

Did you try to make a counter-offer / bid to service all 6 locations?

[Boazcat]

- I didn't make a counter offer, because I'm not in a position to grow that much that quickly.  This is a part-time job for my wife and I.

- I do have my eye on some places... you are right, I should get out there and see what I can do. 

Thanks folks! 

This forum is awesome and I always get good answers and advice!

Michael

[MrEen]

Hey Boazcat,

   You're really not in that bad a position (IMHO.) I work for a full line vendor and we just recently acquired (and placed) our first combo machine. I was somewhat nervous regarding the performance of the machine but it's been humming along nicely since we placed it. Since then, I've noticed NUMEROUS places that could use a machine like this (some of which we already have full sized equipment in.)

   You just need to hit the bricks and get those puppies located. You are selling SERVICE. You can't compete with the big guys on commissions, but you can clobber them on service!

Just my two cents,

Scott