4 replies to this topic

[Dennis-23]

Landing the large account is a step by step procedure that many of you have honed to a fine art. Today I'm going to give you the way I like to approach the process.

My first step is to put a tray of brownies together that I will be giving away as a door opener. The company I work for is one of the larger companies in the US and our catering side of the business buys a frozen brownie that is to die for.

I deliver the brownies to the receptionist and along with the brownies I give her a pocket folder that has literature about our company. I ask her to give them to the person in charge of the vending service.

Once she takes them from me I tell her I like to follow up with a phone call in a week or so to see if the person she is going to give the brownies to is interested in talking with me.

Within a week I follow up with a phone call to the contact and tell them I would enjoy being able to stop by and visit with them about some of the positive things that are going on with our company.

You would be surprised at how many will say yes if you approach it as I have stated. Another thing I like to do is to give them choices of when they would like to meet with me; say next week or the week after and just keep dialing in on a date by narrowing the choices.

At the first face to face meeting what I am after is a second meeting where I will bring my boss along with me and we tour the breakrooms. He does some idle talking while I get a list of what machines we will need to service the account. If I can get the contact to allow me to buy them a meal it really does help.

The next step in the process is to come back with the proposal you have designed for their account. I will normally bring my boss along with me and he likes giving the proposal.

The secret to landing the large account is to make a freind. It is harder for them to turn down a friend than some complete stranger that walks in thinking they are going to land the account the first or second time in the door.

My way is not the only way to get the job done and I would truly enjoy hearing how you approach landing the large account or any account. I like to say you are never too old to learn.

[RJT]

Dennis,

Not exactly sure I understand your poll and the questions asked in it.

No offense, but I find it strange that you are posting so much on this forum all of the sudden. Most of which is on old post up to three years old. It smells a little like SPAM.

Let’s be honest here for a minute. The info you are giving on your site is "free" for people to read, except you are getting paid by advertisers and through the sell of the honor boxes. Which is fine with me, because that is the American way of capitalism. However, there is one catch from the vending side of things. You have some advertisers that most professional vending companies would steer clear of. On your site you advertise for some of the mechanical and combo type machines that have been talked about many times on here about staying away from them.

I am all for helping people out on this forum with "free" information even though I own a for fee consulting company. As long as the information is accurate and people are getting the real facts about vending and who and how to do vending the right way. Mechanical and electronic combo machines are not the way do vending. If you work for a large vending company I am sure that you guys and willing to bet they are not running mechanical and electric combo machine at any accounts. Why do professional vending companies not use these type machines? I am not sure how you can promote these type machines but it is known in the “real” vending world to not use them. If a barber/ beauty shop wanted to do their own vending then maybe they would be ok for that but not as a way to operate a profitable vending operation. A “LARGE” vending company is trying it with limited success and already loosing accounts because of the limitations of the combo machines. I have already taken two accounts from them and working on a few more. Combo machines are NOT they way to make a living in vending.

It is hard for me to take you too “serious” when you allow advertisers that most professional vending operators would not buy from. I mean $1300 for a mechanical combo machine? Really? People are better off buying a nice used full size USI, National for that kind of money. Have a combo machine in a decent account and I will take it from you with ease along with any other professional vending operator.

I think you will find that if you participate on this forum and "help" people without trying to sell them or drive them to your website with every post you will find that in the long run you will earn peoples respect and they in turn will spend money with you and give you business. I participate on this and another forum offering "free" advice yet I have garnered many paid customers also

Not trying to pick a fight but part of "helping" people for free or other wise is to give them good,accurate and correct information and that is what I intend to do in my personal and professional life......

[RJT]

A few things have been left out in this post about large accounts. First off most small start up vending operators are not equiped to handle most "large" accounts. They do not have a cold food program that can earn and retain the largest of accounts. Second the other problem is most are not educated enough to handle the day to day operations and service of these type of accounts. Can small companies land and keep these type accounts? Yes, they can and do but it is few and far between and most either had right info going in or had worked for a large company in the past.

I am not sure how you classify a "large" account but to me a large account has 100 or more people and a full bank of equipment to incldue cold food, coffee, bill changers, condiment stands, snack, and drink. These accounts are VERY demanding and highly sought after by vending operators and are hard to get and hard to retain long term.

So before most of you go and spend to much time and money chasing these accounts research and know what all is involved and what it will take to get one and retain it. If you are not educated and equiped to handle these type accounts you will be wasting your time or could be lucky enough to land one only to loose it a short time later. You could lay out thousands of dollars (40,50K in some cases or more) and then loose the account because you didnt know what you were doing. I know because I have seen it done and people loose a huge amount of money.

[jblvending]

I'll add my 2 cent worth here. although I find Dennis approach a little old school they do work, but most large accounts do business with vending compaines thru referral's. This is basically how I landed my last 3 large accounts. So it's essential when you do land a large account, you need to treat that account, as well as all accounts like gold, because it will generate new business for you.Now what we consider as large is 300 or more people, 100 or more is considered small to medium depending on there hours of operation ( ex : 24-7 account vs. 9 to 5 ). I firmly believe that the new generation of young people look to the internet to search for vending compaines, so this is where a web site and being on the internet can benefit your company.

[Dennis-23]

Hi RJT,

I agree with you about mechanical machines and I have removed the mechanical machine from the right column you are talking about. Thank you for helping me make the desision to take that machine off my site.

I posted the comment above because I am in hopes that others will share thier technique of selling the larger account with the forum and we can all gain.

I owned my own company until August 1st of 2009 when I sold out to a regional company because of my health. I have enjoyed the last two years because it has been a learning process for me. They have taught me their way of selling and I would like to share that with the little guy as I spent most of my life as the little guy.

My largest account when I was self employed was 350 employees and since selling out they have said the service is not as good as when I owned the account. Large companies have an achilles heel and that is: the employees don't have the "fire in the belly" that the small independent has.

The accounts the large vending companies are looking to pick up are 100 employees or more. Most of the accounts I have in the sales cycle right at this time are in the 500 to 1,000 employee range. That is what I consider a large account. I will never subscribe to the little guy not being able to slay the giant and as long as people are willing to read what I have to say I am going to do my best to steer them in the right direction.

I wish someone would have shared with me what I have just shared with the members of this community. I had no clue that a box of brownies could open doors like it does. If I'm wrong for sharing what the large company has shared with me then so be it.

I truly believe the next large regional vending company could very well be someone on this forum. The company I work for today was started by two young men just out of high school who probably didn't realize at that time how much the odds where stacked against them. They had that "fire in the belly" and others out there today also have that fire.

Don't ever believe that you can't do something because "that is the beginning of the end".

Dennis Slack