Your ability to land great vending machine locations will make or break your vending business. Once you have come up with a list of potential profitable locations, you must pitch your vending machine business to the location owners and property managers in a professional manner. You can do this using a comprehensive vending machine proposal.

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Ideally, you want to customize a vending machine proposal to the particular location you are pitching. In this post, you will learn why you need a vending machine proposal, what the proposal should include, and how to find great locations for your next vending pitch. We have also included a downloadable machine placement sample proposal that you can customize to fit your needs.

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How Do You Pitch a Vending Machine?

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When you find a great potential vending machine location, you will need to approach the location owner or the manager in charge to sell them on the idea of having your vending machine on their property. That's crucial when you're starting a vending machine business and landing great vending locations requires you to have decent deal-making skills.

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A significant part of excellent deal-making is solidifying win-win business partnerships. The location owner should benefit tangibly from having your vending machine on their premises. You can use a vending machine proposal to communicate what these benefits are.

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Further, the location owner may have reservations about installing your vending machine on their premises because of an unfounded perception that it will disrupt their business. They may also fear that the vending machine will require them to commit time to maintenance tasks and other responsibilities. A comprehensive vending machine proposal will help allay these fears and make it a lot easier to reach an agreement.

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What Should a Vending Machine Proposal Include?

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The vending machine proposal aims to persuade the location owner to partner up with your vending machine business. You should focus on selling the benefits a location owner stands to gain from having your vending machine on their property and address any objections they might have. The following are the sections a vending machine proposal should have.

Title Page

The title page introduces your vending machine business and sets the tone of the proposal. It should have your name, the name of your vending machine business, and the date you submit the proposal. Further, include the details of the individual the vending machine proposal is addressed to, such as their name, job title, and name of their business.

Letter of Intent

The letter of intent summarizes why you are reaching out. It should be able to stand on its own. If the location owner reads nothing else but the letter of intent, they should know what you want.

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In this summary, state that you are seeking to put a vending machine on their property, describe your vending machine business, and outline how they stand to benefit from this partnership.

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Also, state what you expect the location owner to do as the next step. Include your contact information if you want the location owner to get back to you.

Benefits of Your Vending Machine Business

For this to be a win-win partnership, the location owner should derive tangible benefits from having your vending machine on their premises. These benefits will depend mostly on your vending machine business plan and model. Some of the likely benefits include:

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• Attract customers to their business. The presence of a vending machine will likely bring new customers who would otherwise not stop at the business.
• Provide customers and employees with needed products. Employees or customers looking for snacks and drinks will be able to access them conveniently. 
• Monthly commissions. As the location owner will be paid a percentage of sales, they will have a new reliable source of income.

Further, consider highlighting the features in a vending machine business plan that make your venture better than the typical vending machine business. A great example of how this is best done can be found in our vending machine proposal template above. Just make sure these features include:

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• A wider range of products in a vending machine
• Healthy snacks and drinks, if you offer them
• Cashless modes of payment give customers greater flexibility 
• Energy-saving features that can help keep electricity bills under control
• Timely payment of commissions to the location owner.

The vending machine proposal should make it clear that you have considered the location owner's concerns and needs. Imagine yourself in their shoes and figure out what they care about.

Contract Brief and Terms of Doing Maintenance

Most of the objections the location owner will have will revolve around what they have to do to keep the vending machine business running. This is where your vending services should shoulder themselves. In the vending machine contract brief, you can give them a brief of what the contract will likely look like.

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Make it a no-brainer for them by communicating that your vending services take care of most responsibilities, such as maintenance and when and how you plan to stock machines. Further, state that you are committed to maintaining and restocking the vending machines in a timely manner.

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With modern vending machines, you can monitor your stock levels and mechanical issues remotely as long as you have an internet connection. If your vending machine has remote management features, include the information in the vending machine proposal. This way, the location owner knows you will respond to issues as soon as they arise.

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Also, the location owner may fear that these maintenance tasks may interfere with normal activities at his place of business. Consider running your vending services like scheduling, restocking and maintenance, for when they’ll have the least disruption to normal business activities.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials can help you build trust with location owners. If you run an established vending machine business with several locations, use it to your advantage.

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Case studies and testimonials will give your machine placement proposal teeth and make it easy for a third party to believe you can deliver the benefits you are promising. For case studies, you can include data such as:

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• Your average monthly vending machine revenue
• The average commissions due to the location owner
• The products customers like the most on vending machines
• The number of vending machine breakdowns, the fewer the better.

You can include testimonials from other location owners in the vending machine placement proposal in one section or in several sections using call-outs or graphics.

Footprint

The location owner will want to know how much space your vending machine will take. To figure out the footprint, take the dimensions of your vending machine and then consider the space required for electrical plugs and free air circulation. 

Ideally, you should leave four or more inches between the back wall and the vending machine. It is okay to have no space between the vending machine and side walls or other vending machines.

Explicitly state how much space you will require. For instance, tell the location owner that your vending machine is 40 inches wide, 60 inches high, and 36 inches deep.

Product and Service Description

Under this section, you can describe your vending machine business model, including the products you intend to sell.

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The description should be consistent with the market needs you intend to fulfill. For example, if you are targeting a health or fitness studio, it is counterproductive if your vending machines carry unhealthy snacks and drinks.

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Beyond detailing the products you intend to vent, this section should also communicate that you understand the market you will be operating in and that there will be adequate demand for the products. Pay attention to factors such as:

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• The target audience at the location - demographics, income levels, interests, etc
• Vending features that interest the said market
• Popular brands in the area
• What makes your vending machines different from other vending machines in the area
• Time of day when people are most likely to use the vending machine
• Where customers would most prefer the vending machine to be located - if it is an office building, would workers like the vending machine at the exit or next to the office kitchen?

You want to look at your vending products from the perspective of your potential clients. If you are new to the vending business, it will take time before you find a product mix that works. Therefore, do not restrict yourself in this area.

Aligning your products with the needs of the location owner’s customers and employees will make it easier for them to agree to a deal.

Other Issues to Cover

Depending on how you structure your vending machine proposal, the following issues may earn a section in your vending machine proposal.

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• Costs. The location owner will likely be paying for the electricity consumed by the vending machine. Most vending machines, at least modern ones, have energy-saving features that ensure low power consumption. The location owner should be able to take care of this cost comfortably from their commission.

• About your vending machine business. If yours is an established vending machine business brand, it may be beneficial to have an ‘about’ section describing your business, its history, its successes, and even information about vending machine industry.

• Obligations of the location owner. If not covered in the vending machine contract brief, you can state separately what you expect the location owner to be responsible for. For instance, within reason, you expect the location owner to take steps to ensure their employees don’t vandalize the vending machine.

• Maintenance schedule. If you have a specific pre-determined maintenance schedule, you may want to include it in the vending machine proposal. This is essentially a promise, and you must stick to it.

• Insurance Policy. If you carry commercial liability insurance on your vending machines, your location prospects will benefit from knowing that their customers and employees are covered in case of an unfortunate event.

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Get Our Vending Machine Proposal Template 

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We’ve made a machine placement sample proposal you can download and customize to fit your needs. Our vending machine placement proposal pdf is a great place to start writing your own with an impeccable structure in place.

What Else Do You Need to Land Vending Machine Locations?

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Landing great vending machine locations is a process. You should take this exercise seriously as location is one of the most important factors that make your vending machines profitable. You can land great locations by following the four steps below.

1. Find Potential Vending Machine Locations in Your Area

Not all locations make great vending machine locations. The best vending machine locations are secure and have a lot of foot traffic (e.g., main streets) or a large captive audience (e.g., office complexes).

Examples of great locations for your vending machines are:

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• Large apartment complexes
• Large office buildings
• Service businesses with waiting lounges
• Car dealerships
• In front of businesses on walkable main streets
• College dorms
• Hospitals
• Construction sites
• Warehouses
• Factories
• Nursing homes
• Malls.

If you have the time and grit, you can go about finding these potential vending machine locations on your own. Alternatively, you can hire a vending locator service to help. For instance, our service, Vending Locator, can build a list of 50 to 200 potential vending locations within a 15- to 25-mile radius of your ZIP code. 

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With enough time and decent research skills, you can find great potential locations on your own. You will make great progress if you do the following:

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• Drive and walk around the area. A physical search of potential locations can yield great results. You can talk to business owners on the way, leave your business card, and build relationships. Besides locations with no vending machines, you can also approach those with old vending machines that could use a new modern one.

• Search using google maps. As you already know the kind of places that make great vending locations, e.g., car dealerships and nursing homes, you can search for these locations on Google Maps. Search strings such as “car dealerships in XYZ City” or “nursing homes near me” will give you good results.

• Use local business directories. Online directories have lists of local businesses and their contact information. Websites like Yelp, Google My Business, and TripAdvisor can prove very useful.

You will need permission from the owners or managers of these locations before you can put your vending machine on their premises. Usually, you will have to sign a vending machine agreement or vending machine contract to seal the deal.

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2. Reach out with Cold Calls or Emails

The contact information of these businesses will usually be online. The most effective way to reach out about your vending machines is to make cold calls. Ask to speak to the owner or manager if a gatekeeper (secretary or assistant) receives the call.

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Cold calling is a skill, and you can refine it with time. Some of the things you can do to increase your chances of success include:

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• Writing a cold calling script
• Calling at the right time of business, depending on the industry
• Researching the person and their business before you call
• Leaving a voice mail if they don’t pick up.

When you can’t reach a decision-maker by phone, send them an email at their direct email address. Tools such as Anymailfinder make it possible to find the direct email addresses of any person if you know their name and the name of their organization. Also, make sure you have a contract ready so you can push the deal to a conclusion as soon as possible.

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3. Schedule a Meeting with the Decision-Maker

The goal of the cold call or email is to schedule a meeting with the decision-maker. You don’t want to be pushy on the call. You can discuss the finer details of your vending machine business face-to-face.

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You should have a personalized vending machine location proposal ready. As I have detailed above, the proposal should describe your business and explain how the location owner stands to benefit from the partnership.

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The location owner expects a cut of sales as their commission. The commission is a significant selling point. You can highlight it by drawing sales projections based on comparable vending businesses.

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4. Close the Deal with a Written Agreement

When you reach an agreement with a location owner, you want to formalize the relationship by putting pen to paper. I recommend you secure a written agreement before you buy a vending machine.

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You can sign either a vending machine agreement or a vending machine contract. A contract is more legally binding and is enforceable in a court of law. The agreement should spell out your obligations, the term of the agreement, limitations of liability, as well as details about ownership and interests.