Coke Commission at Church?

[Boazcat]

I'm getting my ducks all lined up to go after the pop machine in my church.  There are 4 coke machines in the large church I attend.  One machine seems to always take their money and I saw another one have an "out of order" sign for over a month. 

I'm assuming Coke is paying them a commission... if so -- how much?  Do they have a fairly standard percentage? 

I finally found the name of the person who makes the decisions and I am ready to hit them with:  Quick & reliable service, full machines,  larger selection....  Plus I'm a member and they would know the name and face of their contact.

Thanks for some insights!

Michael

[JEREMYTINA]

You tithe I assume, so 10% would be a good starting point IMHO.  Depends on how the meeting goes, but I would try and find out what Coke is paying and match that if you don't think they'll go fo 10%.

[RJT]

Some points to consider.

First how "BIG" is the church? One of my old companies did the owners church as a favor and it did terrible revenue. He only did it because Coke and Pepsi would not do it.  It was on schedule every three to four weeks.

Second, Coke usually pays around 35% to 38% commission.

Third, I would NEVER mix business with personal relationships like a Church, work place, with friends and family. Not unless they approached you first. Asking first can cause problems if things dont work out.

[Boazcat]

Thanks for the good insights - I've had great relationships mixing church and work in previous experiences and I don't see it being a problem this time. 

Fairly big church - averages 4000 per weekend.  They've got 4 pop machines and I've heard talk of wanting a snack machine by one of them.  People are there with various groups at least 5 days of the week (counting Sundays)

38% - Wow!  I can't compete with that...  I would have to turn that down.

Thanks,

Michael

[RJT]

Hey, I have seen it higher than that from the bottlers, that is just an average...  

That is a BIG Church and might be a good account. You might want to offer to do the snack only as a way to show them your great service. If the snack machine goes well and Coke keeps messing up then they may go with less commission and ask you to do the drinks. Sometimes people would rather have good service than bad service with high commissions. One selling point is to always tell them that you are not a manufacturer of product and cant pay the high commissions but you can offer them a fair commission, and top quality service because you are a small family owned business and each of your customers are very important to you.Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[JEREMYTINA]

Maybe offer less commision and focus on your service, and that you are an active member of the congregation.  Also,  the snack machine would be a good idea to pitch to them, and that's something coke doesn't offer.  We attend a very large church as well, it's split into 2 sections, adult and children's (not sure if yours is like this), and they have a cafe in the main sanctuary (stocked by coke with 20 oz bottle sales), but the childrens section has 2 Antares machines stocked by a private company.  We haven't gone after this, as I have not been able to ascertain if they are owned by the church or a member yet.  I won't take income from another church member, or even attempt to try to take it from the church, but if I find out it's a company with no affilliation  with the church, I will be agressively trying to get it.  More to the fact, that it will allow us to gain increased revenue, and further support our church.