Vending Sales Networking

Vending Sales Networking

Vending Sales Networking is a company that already sells a service or product  to  a  potential customers to a potential account that you might want?    Uniform Companies, Office Supply Companies . Office Coffee Services, Staffing Companies, and janitorial companies.  If you just sit down and think about it I can name a few more such as landscaping companies, the Chamber of commerce and how about architectural  firms?.  When staffing companies are providing more employees, it may mean you need to service that account more frequently or if you don’t have that account with more employees might be worth pursuing. .Give all your network buddies  leads as well and it will be a win win situation.  Vending Sales Networking is a lot easier than beating the bushes by yourself.    Vending Sales networking is that extra set of eyes that might see a new customer just coming to town or just moving in.  Remember the first company that talks to the potential customer usually gets the business.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT :

Tom: I’m Tom with the Vending Business Show here with Larry Towner who is a vending business consultant. He’s been actually run his own operation in the vending business for quite a while, a couple of decades and recently sold his vending business in 2012. So we’re happy to have him on the show today. Thanks for being here, Larry.

Larry Towner: Oh, I appreciate it, Tom.

Tom: Today we’re talking about Vending Sales Networking and  how the vending business works. A lot of times, people that are new to the vending business think they have to buy a vending machine first. But, what’s the most important thing to start with, Larry?

Larry Towner: Well, Tom, I always like to say that the first thing that’s most important in any business venture that you undertake is to do a little bit of planning, number one   . The second thing is before you go and buy equipment, how about have a place to put it? When I say that, what I mean is go out and do some sales and actually get an account first. This is where Vending Sales Networking is important.

Tom: Yeah. So, yeah, let’s say, what are some of the good places to find or to locate … What are some of the better places?

Larry Towner: Well, there’s all kinds of places. I mean, you see vending machines out there in the world, you see them everywhere from on street corners into businesses, retail shops. Some vending machines are becoming retail shops. This is kind of where we have to get into a little bit of the planning thing like we were just talking about. You can go into a planning situation, you kind of decide what do you think is going to be best for the for the business and to help you make money. Perhaps the reason you’re actually watching this video is just to find out that kind of information. So we’re here, you and I, we have these discussions on a fairly regular basis to discuss some of these things.

Larry Towner: So when we get into that planning thing, you should sort of develop an idea of what you want to do and then you decide what businesses or what the vending types of locations are going to do to do your best. That’s kind of a roundabout way around your question there, Tom. But in effect it’s the same thing. I can answer what the best locations are for me, but that’s not necessarily what the best locations are for you as one of our potential viewers.

Tom: Well, that’s a good point, Larry. So let’s just say if you were starting a vending business today, where would you … How would you go about finding locations? What would you go for?

Larry Towner: Well look, what would I go for? I’d be looking for areas where there’s growth in business and to that, while that sounds broad, it’s where you’re looking for. There’s less competition and growing businesses and things like that. In business cycle, they come in and out. They go through various different stages of growth. Right now we’re in a somewhat depressed real estate market or at least the construction industry and real estate is off a little bit, but it’s going to, it’s starting to make its motions back. So some of the things that I would be particularly looking for would be into accounts that might supply the construction industry and things like that, in the current, this is 2013 under the current environment. So those might be some things that I would be looking at. A lot of it’s going to depend on what are your particular ideas. Do you want to be in schools? Well, school vending is going to be there for quite some time as long as there’s school. So really depends on what your particular goals and objectives are.

Tom: Okay. Now let’s say you land a placement, you get a deal with the business or organization that wants your vending machines. What’s next?

Larry Towner: Well, you get this business, now you need to actually go out and it sounds like you need to go buy the equipment. Of course there’s probably a thousand choices on equipment. One thing that people need to understand in vending is is that you have to keep your expenses low. So if you’re new to vending, my suggestion is you go for refurbished equipment and you go to a quality supplier, someone that’s been doing refurbished equipment for quite some time. My particular choice is A&M Equipment Sales, which is probably where you’re looking at this video from.

Tom: Okay. So after you’ve gotten your equipment, then what?

Larry Towner: Well, then it actually comes time to actually install the equipment, that be a simple or difficult job just depending on the location. Usually, there are several people in a [inaudible 00:04:55] area or actually anywhere that can actually move equipment for you. I would suggest if you’re starting that you have someone that knows what they’re doing, move equipment, vending machines are heavy. There’s a lot of real tricks and moving vending machines that if you’ve been doing it for unfortunately 30 years, like I have, you know all of the tips and tricks to actually getting them through doors, how to do it without taking them apart and so forth and so on, but I suggest you just hire somebody to do it. There’s plenty of qualified people in any given market that’ll move things for you. You move it in, you’re going to set it up. At that point, it doesn’t walk into that account completely filled and completely working and completely priced out. Now, again, depending on where you purchased your equipment from, some of those issues might be done for you, but you will eventually have to learn how to do those things anyway, so.

Tom: Right. So yeah, I guess, supplying your whatever products fit that particular business, you’ll have to find out what those are and find a way to learn what works in that particular machine, right?

Larry Towner: Well, one of the great things about that, Tom, is I think we’re going to do another video on that in a future installment, aren’t we?

Tom: Yeah, absolutely. We will get to that one.

Larry Towner: So say that so that you all come back and take a look, but we’ve got all kinds of tips and tricks that are going to come on to teach you what products you should be considering when you go and put them into a machine because a lot of it, it’s its own topic, but there’s lots of variety and lots of choices. So we’ll do that in another one.

Tom: Okay, great. Tell us a little more about what you do, Larry, and then we’ll sign off.

Larry Towner: Well, we do vending consulting for particularly for startups and also, but for people that are looking to maximize their operations, get the most money out of their operation that they have now and try to help them, give them some consulting services. We’re available at [email protected], if you care to contact us, that’s all one word. [email protected].

Tom: You’ve been watching Vending Sales Networking at the Vending Business Show, a publication of A&M Equipment Sales.

For great vending machines for smaller accounts go to Dixie Narco 501E and Automatic Products 111

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How The Vending Business Works

How the Vending Business Works with An interview with Larry Towner, vending business consultant

How the Vending Business Works is well first thing that’s most important in any business venture is do a little planning. The second thing is before you go out and buy equipment, how about have a place to put it – go get an account first.

What are some of the better accounts for vending today?

I would look for businesses that are growing. Businesses that supply the construction industry in the current economic environment, but it depends on what you want to do – your goals.

When you land an account, what’s next?

Now it’s time to go buy the equipment and to keep expenses low I would go for refurbished equipment from a quality supplier.

After you buy your equipment, then what?

Have someone who knows what they are doing move your equipment because there are lots of tricks in moving vending machines through doors, etc. Then you’ll need to setup the equipment.

In a future video we’ll be covering what products to include in your vending machines that really sell.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS:

Tom: I’m Tom with the Vending Business Show here with Larry Towner who is a vending business consultant. He’s been actually run his own operation in the vending business for quite a while, a couple of decades and recently sold his vending business in 2012. So we’re happy to have him on the show today. Thanks for being here, Larry.

Larry Towner: Oh, I appreciate it, Tom.

Tom: Today we’re talking about how the vending business works. A lot of times, people that are new to the vending business think they have to buy a vending machine first. But, what’s the most important thing to start with,On How the Vending Business Works Larry?

Larry Towner: Well, Tom, I always like to say that the first thing that’s most important in any business venture that you undertake is to do a little bit of planning, number one. The second thing is before you go and buy equipment, how about have a place to put it? When I say that, what I mean is go out and do some sales and actually get an account first.

Tom: Yeah. So, yeah, let’s say, what are some of the good places to find or to locate … What are some of the better places?

Larry Towner: Well, there’s all kinds of places. I mean, you see vending machines out there in the world, you see them everywhere from on street corners into businesses, retail shops. Some vending machines are becoming retail shops. This is kind of where we have to get into a little bit of the planning thing like we were just talking about. You can go into a planning situation, you kind of decide what do you think is going to be best for the for the business and to help you make money. Perhaps the reason you’re actually watching this video is just to find out that kind of information. So we’re here, you and I, we have these discussions on a fairly regular basis to discuss some of these things.

Larry Towner: So when we get into that planning thing, you should sort of develop an idea of what you want to do and then you decide what businesses or what the vending types of locations are going to do to do your best. That’s kind of a roundabout way around your question there, Tom. But in effect it’s the same thing. I can answer what the best locations are for me, but that’s not necessarily what the best locations are for you as one of our potential viewers.

Tom: Well, that’s a good point, Larry. So let’s just say if you were starting a vending business today, where would you … How would you go about finding locations? What would you go for?

Larry Towner: Well look, what would I go for? I’d be looking for areas where there’s growth in business and to that, while that sounds broad, it’s where you’re looking for. There’s less competition and growing businesses and things like that. In business cycle, they come in and out. They go through various different stages of growth. Right now we’re in a somewhat depressed real estate market or at least the construction industry and real estate is off a little bit, but it’s going to, it’s starting to make its motions back. So some of the things that I would be particularly looking for would be into accounts that might supply the construction industry and things like that, in the current, this is 2013 under the current environment. So those might be some things that I would be looking at. A lot of it’s going to depend on what are your particular ideas. Do you want to be in schools? Well, school vending is going to be there for quite some time as long as there’s school. So really depends on what your particular goals and objectives are.

Tom: Okay. Now let’s say you land a placement, you get a deal with the business or organization that wants your vending machines. What’s next?

Larry Towner: Well, you get this business, now you need to actually go out and it sounds like you need to go buy the equipment. Of course there’s probably a thousand choices on equipment. One thing that people need to understand in vending is is that you have to keep your expenses low. So if you’re new to vending, my suggestion is you go for refurbished equipment and you go to a quality supplier, someone that’s been doing refurbished equipment for quite some time. My particular choice is A&M Equipment Sales, which is probably where you’re looking at this video from.

Tom: Okay. So after you’ve gotten your equipment, then what?

Larry Towner: Well, then it actually comes time to actually install the equipment, that be a simple or difficult job just depending on the location. Usually, there are several people in a [inaudible 00:04:55] area or actually anywhere that can actually move equipment for you. I would suggest if you’re starting that you have someone that knows what they’re doing, move equipment, vending machines are heavy. There’s a lot of real tricks and moving vending machines that if you’ve been doing it for unfortunately 30 years, like I have, you know all of the tips and tricks to actually getting them through doors, how to do it without taking them apart and so forth and so on, but I suggest you just hire somebody to do it. There’s plenty of qualified people in any given market that’ll move things for you. You move it in, you’re going to set it up. At that point, it doesn’t walk into that account completely filled and completely working and completely priced out. Now, again, depending on where you purchased your equipment from, some of those issues might be done for you, but you will eventually have to learn how to do those things anyway, so.

Tom: Right. So yeah, I guess, supplying your whatever products fit that particular business, you’ll have to find out what those are and find a way to learn what works in that particular machine, right?

Larry Towner: Well, one of the great things about that, Tom, is I think we’re going to do another video on that in a future installment, aren’t we?

Tom: Yeah, absolutely. We will get to that one.

Larry Towner: So say that so that you all come back and take a look, but we’ve got all kinds of tips and tricks that are going to come on to teach you what products you should be considering when you go and put them into a machine because a lot of it, it’s its own topic, but there’s lots of variety and lots of choices. So we’ll do that in another one.

Tom: Okay, great. Tell us a little more about what you do, Larry, and then we’ll sign off.

Larry Towner: Well, we do vending consulting for particularly for startups and also, but for people that are looking to maximize their operations, get the most money out of their operation that they have now and try to help them, give them some consulting services. We’re available at [email protected], if you care to contact us, that’s all one word. [email protected].

Tom: You’ve been watching the Vending Business Show, a publication of A&M Equipment Sales.

Check out our remanufactured Dixie Narco 501E Drink Machine

Finding Good Vending Machine Locations

Finding Good Vending Machine Locations ?   Perhaps a better question is what areas might you be most effective in by account demographic and account type?

The work force has shrunk and a lot of industries have down sized. How do you get the tactics to get accounts that remain profitable for you in smaller type accounts?

  • 50-100 person range with the right demographics
  • Be cognizant of your geography to limit drive time between accounts
  • What’s your service interval that makes the account profitable?

Examples of good small accounts:

  • Small logistics warehouses with lots of truck drivers coming and going
  • Knock on all doors in an industrial park for opportunities – get in one facility and you might get into all in the industrial park

What about saving money on the equipment?
Return on investment is important but consider operating costs and turn.

Episode Transcript:

Tom Shivers: Hi, I’m Tom with The Vending Business Show. And I’m here with Larry Towner, who is a vending business consultant and been in the vending industry for closer to three decades. He’s sold the majority share of his vending business in 2012. So thanks for being here, Larry.

Larry Towner,: You’re welcome, Tom. It’s always a pleasure.

Tom Shivers: Yeah. I noticed an interesting question in a vending group. Basically went like this: Finding Good Vending Machine Locations right now? And it was a good question because there’s a lot of people, a lot of vending operators who are struggling to find those. So I thought maybe you could help us figure that one out.

Larry Towner,: Well yeah. It’s a multi-tasking approach. Finding Good Vending Machine Locations. It comprises marketing and sales. Vending is largely a sales effort. So you want to focus in on your sales skills. Basically if you knock on enough doors, you’re going to get accounts. I think what this gentleman’s looking for is what areas might you be most effective in. And so, and meaning by account demographic and account types.

Larry Towner,: There’s a bunch of different ways to go about Finding Good Vending Machine Locations. Traditional vending has always wanted the 150 plus population of account peoples. Meaning that they have at least 150 employees there all of the time for, again, for traditional vending companies. And traditionally, that works for the models that they use for their traditional vending operations where you need larger facilities.

Larry Towner,: But Tom, what’s been happening to the workforce and the workplaces in America?

Tom Shivers: Yeah. Things have shrunk. You know, more people working from home. Things like that.

Larry Towner,: Yeah. So what we’re seeing is we’re seeing workplaces out there, particularly vending always was kind of a smokestack industry. It was done with a lot of industry and a lot of manufacturing and things like that. And a lot of those industries have gone away. And particularly, not so much gone away, but they’ve downsized. Like everything has downsized.

Larry Towner,: And so the number of facilities that have large numbers of people has been steadily declining. So how are we Finding Good Vending Machine Locations I guess the thing is, is how do you, there’s a couple ways to look at it, but how do you get the tactics to get new accounts that remain profitable for you in smaller type accounts?

Larry Towner,: There’s always been a huge market in the 50 to 100 person account range. And if the demographics are right in those accounts, they can be highly profitable. And I say demographics, and that’s age, sex, ethnicity, who actually is working in your account? Are they good vending purchasers?

Larry Towner,: And lots of times on those types of accounts, you’ll get a good mix. You’ll get white collar plus blue collar. Vending is largely a blue collar event. You’re looking for blue collar workers.

Larry Towner,: Examples of these types of accounts. If you, first off, let’s set the stage. If you’re gonna go after smaller accounts, you need to be very cognizant of your geography. And you might ask what do I mean when I say geography. You’re gonna want to limit the amount of drive time you have between your accounts.

Larry Towner,: The other thing in small account vending that you need to be thinking about constantly is what’s your service interval? How long between my stops makes it profitable for these accounts? And that issue sometimes has to be done by trial and error.

Larry Towner,: But in general, you can draw some, there’s some numbers and some equations we can use that’ll give you an idea of what your service interval’s gonna be as per the number of people that are in your account.

Larry Towner,: So between geography and scheduling, those are the two things that’ll keep you profitable in small account vending. You’ve got to have accounts that are close together. Because you don’t want to spend time behind the wheel, you want to spend time in front of the machines, filling machines and dealing with your customers.

Larry Towner,: So those two issues are biggies, but after that, the industries that are smaller that are increasing are things like small logistics warehouses where they have a lot of truck drivers that come in and out. And they might have 20 to 50 employees that work there. They might have another 20 to 50 truck drivers that are dropping product off and getting it ready for their distribution. Or they have 20 truck drivers that are out on locations.

Larry Towner,: We had a bunch of these actually in retail stores. There were some retail furniture stores that gosh, you look at the furniture store and you say, “Boy that’s not much of a vending account.” And if you looked at the number of people that actually worked in the retail side of it, it wasn’t much of a vending account.

Larry Towner,: But they also had about 12 trucks on the road every morning with three guys on each truck. So what happened was is you didn’t really realize that unless you were out doing your sales prospecting at 6:00 in the morning like I often did. Where I’d be driving through industrial parks or I’d be driving around and I’d see all these trucks parked there.

Larry Towner,: Well if I saw all these trucks parked there, I would stop in just to see what was up with all those trucks. So that’s one of the tactics that I used. But that is the kind of accounts that are out there. They’re somewhat plentiful. And they’re generally very close together.

Larry Towner,: I had a habit of when I would go out and I would go selling, I would knock on every single door in an industrial park. I would go door to door. Do what I call walking and talking. And I would hand out business cards. And I would just be looking for any opportunity.

Larry Towner,: And sometimes you would get into one facility in a small industrial park, and by the end of the year, you end up with ’em all. Because they’re having terrible service, and then they start to see your trucks and then employees talk to employees. And the next thing you know, you’re getting an opportunity to service a different company. And you end up with a really nice little piece of business where you go spend one day every two weeks in that industrial park and you walk away with decent profit.

Larry Towner,: The converse of that is you’ve got one on this side of town and one on that side of town and you spend all your time driving back and forth and you don’t make any money doing anything.

Larry Towner,: So a couple of quick tactics there on how to go out after small account. Traditionally what they call small account vending.

Tom Shivers: One other question.

Larry Towner,: What other questions, Tom?

Tom Shivers: About that. There’s sometimes. So like this one fellow responded to this question with he’d located 20 Sega Office Deli Two’s on small locations. And I guess he was saving money on the machine. What is your take on that?

Larry Towner,: Well it’s like anything. It’s all relative. If you’re looking for return on investment, which is a financial concept, but you have this amount of equipment that you’re gonna put into a location. And you’re gonna spend whatever it is you spend on that equipment. And you expect to get a return on your investment. Meaning if you put 1,000 dollars out there in the field as a tool, it needs to be generating whatever it is you deemed to be profitable every single day so that you get a return on investment. If you get a machine for free and it works. Key phrase being that it works. And you can place it, your initial investment is zero so your return on investment is unlimited.

Larry Towner,: Now that’s hard to get. You know, you won’t get ones that are free. But then you also have your operating costs, meaning for every piece of product that you end up throwing, you lose your profitability if you have to throw product away. So you have to look at it more as, it’s not just placement, it’s also turn. Turn is sometimes more important than actual placement. How many times you roll your inventory over in a year determines your actual profitability in the end. And also determines your profitability on that particular set of machines.

Tom Shivers: Okay. Yeah. So.

Larry Towner,: Did that make sense? Did you understand what I said there?

Tom Shivers: Yeah. I think so. And the equipment is, sometimes can be a hazard if you don’t get the right stuff up front.

Larry Towner,: Correct.

Tom Shivers: So tell us a little more about what you –

Larry Towner,: And it can cost you the wrong equipment placement. Well I’m in the consulting business. What I do is I take questions like these and I help people solve these types of problems. How do you go about getting new accounts? How do you maintain the accounts that you have? How do you stay profitable? How do you deal with other issues? These are all things that I work on. I’m available at servicegroupinternational.com. Just drop us an email.

Tom Shivers: Thanks, Larry. And you’ve been watching Finding Good Vending Machine Locations  on The Vending Business Show, a publication of A & M Equipment Sales.

You can Look at a great snack machine the Automatic Products 113 Snack Machine

10 Curious Places To Find A Vending Machine

Vending machines have come a long way since the first one was invented in ancient Egypt, when a mathematician invented a device that dispensed holy water in return for a bronze coin.  Here are 10 Curious Places To Find A Vending Machine

First Up on our 10 Curious Places To Find A Vending Machine Is  Vending at the bottom of a ski slope. Reminds us of our  AMS 39 “Outsider 

 

 

Vending machine (1)
Japan is the kingdom of vending machines  At slightly over 5 million nationwide, vending machines are everywhere in Japan.They are on nearly every block in Tokyo and dotted across even the most spartan landscapes in the country’s vast rural expanse 
vending machines stand in a line.

 

The person who thought of the vending machine is a genius for 2 simple reasons: you don’t need to hire personnel to man a vending machine like you would a store, and this keeps things in stock and available for the masses, 24/7. While most of the vending machines you are used to would dispense coffee, soft drinks, packaged food and snacks, these days we can find a lot more variety being offered. Milk 24/7 – Vend-A-Moo

Vend-A-Moo

 

Another corner in Japan to get your vending done

Vending Machines in Kyoto

 

Possibly the most remote vending machine in Iceland

” Inside the hut is a vending machine and a guestbook to leave comments about this hidden tourist attraction.”

The Greatest Vending Machine in the World!

 

Hikers at the Mid-Hike vending machines

Mid-Hike Vending Machine?

 

Green tea anyone?

vending

 

Sometimes you just gotta have a Pepsi

Vending Machines?

 

Behind bars

Vending Machines Behind Bars

While you’re thinking about it, if you’d like a good deal on a vending machine we’ve got that too.

Vending Accounts – Post Sale

AN INTERVIEW WITH LARRY TOWNER, VENDING CONSULTANT.


An interview with Larry Towner, vending consultant.

Larry is a veteran vending operator who has had success in all areas of the vending business. Listen in as he answers another good question.

“Ok, so somebody says yes, I want your vending machines in my office, then what do I do?”

With vending accounts This can make or break a lot of vending companies.

B2B sales involves an agreement, be careful what you agree to do.

A good rule of thumb is to under promise and over deliver.

Give yourself enough time to arrange the move.

Have everything ready to go ahead of time.


EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:


A VENDING ACCOUNTS CONVERSATION

Tom: All right. Well, do we have time for another question here?

Larry: Sure we do.

Tom: Okay. Well, yeah. Let’s see, somebody says, “Yes,” and they want … They’re saying, “Okay. I’m ready to get started with your machines.” Then what do you do?

Larry: Yeah. This is a great question because this can make or break a lot of companies. If you go out and you have to be real careful in your presentation as to what exactly you’re agreeing to, I guess I want to say.

Larry: This is a business to business sale in general. It’s a business to business sale. You’re going to be placing your business inside of somebody else’s business. That can get a little … I don’t want to say touchy, but people want the right things put into their business. They have a preconceived notion of exactly what’s going to happen and how things are going to go. You have to be very careful with what you say when you actually do the sales presentation and what you’re agreeing to in your vending account.

Larry: As somebody says, “Yes,” so here’s the thing. This is one of my rules. I was taught this in selling many, many, many years go. That’s under promise and over deliver. That’s one of the first things.

Larry: So whenever I’m talking to a customer and the customer says to me a question like, “Hey, that sounds great. We’d love to get started right away. When can you move the machines in?” I always counter back and say … I usually ask questions with a question. It’s an old sales technique. But I say, “When do you want them?” And they say, “Well …” That’s the first question. That’s the first question. It’s like when do want them because if they have somebody in there, they’ve got to make arrangements to get them out of there and things like that. All of this takes a little bit of time.

Larry: The second thing is, “Do you have your equipment ready? Is it ready to go?” If it’s not ready to go, how much time is it going to take you to get your equipment ready to go and your inventory and all the things that you need?

Larry: As you know, these vending machines don’t fill themselves and walk into the vending account. You have to have a means to move them. If you don’t happen to have the equipment that it takes to move vending machines, you’re going to have contact one of your local suppliers who will probably have several choices of machine movers for you to contact so that he can move equipment into the account because it’s not easy. Soda machines weigh 600 pounds and getting one through a door can be a very interesting experience. I’ve done it many, many, many, many times. I did move most of my own equipment.

Larry: One of the first things is give yourself enough time to get done what you need to get done. That is arrange for the move. Make sure if you’re trying to schedule somebody else’s move time, be really, really careful of when they can get in. We always told people because we never moved machines in the rain. We say, “We can do it at such and such a date provided it doesn’t rain.” We always gave ourselves an out because if we did have inclement weather, rain or snow actually, too. But anytime that you’re moving big piece of equipment, you got a safety factor you have to worry about. Anyway, that’s just a little bit of an aside. But I always gave myself enough time.

Larry: Then what I would do is I would go in and say … I would have the equipment ready to go and hopefully I would have it ready to go much … Probably a week before they actually needed it. At that time I would call the customer and I would just say, “Hi, Mr. So-and-So. This is Larry from, my company’s name.” And I’d say, “We’ve got your equipment ready. When you’re ready for us, we’ll be there.”

Larry: Sometimes what you’ll find is you say, “The guy came in yesterday and picked up the equipment.” So he is now without vending and your equipment’s ready. You go and you move it in. Now you bring your equipment in a week before you were supposed to and because the customer actually has the need for it at that time, you’re already starting off a long way towards getting very positive referrals because you delivered before you said you would.

Larry: If you think about that, Tom, when you do business with somebody you like to get a little more out … If you make a deal and you’re satisfied with the deal, but they bring you a little more, doesn’t that mean something to you?

Tom: Yeah. I had the expectation of getting what they said, but then they gave me something additional? That’s always cool. You got to love that.

Larry: Yeah and what that does is, is that builds the confidence in you as a businessman from your company standpoint into their company. He says, “This guy’s all right.” Even if you start off on that foot. Now, you come in a week late, then what happens?

Tom: That is like, “Uh-oh.” I’ve lost my time. I’ve got to reschedule things. Stuff like that.

Larry: Exactly. Exactly. That’s where when somebody says, “Yes,” it’s critical that you absolutely make sure that you’re i’s are crossed and t’s are dotted. I mean, your t’s are crossed and your i’s are dotted. I went backwards there.

Larry: But just you want to make sure that you can deliver at least on time. Now, in a worst-case scenario, say, who knows? Something happens and you can’t get the equipment. You’ve planned for the equipment to be there two weeks from today. In your mind you say, “No problem. I’ll have it there for a week from today,” but something goes wrong. You don’t get it there until that week. At least you’re still on time.

Larry: That’s why you want to as we say, promise, extend out how long you can do it, but deliver it early. Promise … Make your promises small, but deliver big as it were. If you do that, you’re on the right foot.

Larry: One of the other good tricks in the vending business is to at the time that somebody says, “Yes,” you say, “Hey,” and you make up a form. It’s really just a real simple form. You take your inventory list or what you think you’re going to sell there. Just make up a list and say, “Hey, can you pass this around? We want to make sure that people get what they want.” You put your product list on there. Your Lay’s potato chips and Hershey’s candy, Snicker’s candy bars and M&M yellows and things like that. You write all that down. They just make check marks by it. “Yeah, we want this. Yeah, we want this. Yeah, we want this.” That’s a really good tip. That starts you out on the right foot. These are all marketing concepts, by the way. This is marketing. This is not sales. This is actually vending machine marketing.

Tom: There at the bottom, do you put a little blank line for add your own or something?

Larry: Absolutely. You are always open to take suggestions. Doesn’t mean they’re going to get it. But you’re always open to take suggestions because they might have one item there that you’ve never thought of that you buy and you find out it sells really well there. You take it off to another location. You find out it sells there. All of a sudden you’ve got a sleeper unit that generates you extra sales that you might not have known about. We’ll get into some of that. That’s a lot more of what I call machine marketing.

Larry: Marketing at the machine level because you can market at the machine level meaning your product selections and things like that is a different type of marketing. That’s how you generate the most profits out of your machine.

Larry: Just from the general account sales standpoint, you put that stuff out and it helps to build your credibility. It also gives them what they want. Giving people what they want is how you make sales. You don’t walk in and dictate to them because they’re going to say, “Right. See yeah.”

Tom: Yeah. Good stuff thanks for sharing, Larry. Tell us a little about your consulting business.

Larry: Well, like I say, some of the tips and tricks that you’re seeing here are a lot of what we offer in our consulting business. We specialize in making vending companies very efficient from a sales and marketing standpoint and how to generate maximum profits both operationally and via the various different marketing means. That’s what we do.

Larry: We are available at [email protected]. If you have any questions and we are working on a website that will be up pretty soon. At least we hope.

Tom: All right. And you’ve been listening to the Vending Business Show. A publication of A&M Equipment Sales.

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