Читать книгу Wake Up and Sell the Coffee! - Martyn Dawes - Страница 12

The only reliable way to secure locations quickly was to get out on the street and literally knock on doors. I bought a cheap A4 presentation folder and knocked up some simple sales pages.

I practised my sales pitch – “High quality drinks at affordable prices for your customers” – and worked out what share of the revenues the shop could keep depending on how many drinks they sold. The more they sold the more they kept. There was a digital drinks counter in the machine so once a month I would visit, take a reading and then invoice them for my share of the sales.

In South London I started walking in off the street and asking to speak with store owners. There were lots of responses such as “Not interested”, “It won’t work” or “I have no space”, but after several weeks I had a small list of independent stores who were willing to try it out. I had prepared a checklist to assess their suitability. Did they sell morning goods? Did they have a lottery terminal to bring in footfall?

I figured that for all the No’s, the Yes’s would come, but I do remember days of getting absolutely nowhere. Many of these small shops were not modern retail to say the least and I did think that many of them lacked the motivation to develop their offer to be more attractive to the consumer. One winter’s day in particular stands out – it was so cold, it started to snow and I thought to myself that there must be an easier way to make money.

Despite this – and several of the stores who at first said yes then backing out – as 1996 drew to a close I had the first machines installed and trading. I scribbled in my notebook “We are a retailer not a vending machine operator.”