You’ve tried everything else……….. Try lowering your prices
Before you accuse me of being totally off my rocker, read on:
Mr. Client, I know you have read all the same stuff that I have about employers helping their employees’ cope with the dramatic rise in prices at the gas pump. Some employers are giving stipends based on commuter mileage, offering work at home Fridays and company sponsored car polls. I was wondering if there was a way I could help you help your people and I came up with an idea I would like to explore with you. What if you agreed to a reduction in commissions and I agreed to a corresponding reduction in the retail price of vended food and beverages?
Not everywhere, but, at some accounts this could be a win-win.
As same store sales continue to slide most folks I talk to blame lack of discretionary dollars. This is only part of the cause of lost sales. Consumer resistance to higher prices is a big factor here. Even if the amount of the commission reduction is exactly equal to your drop in the price, I am betting that the vending operator will experience increased sales as consumers return to lower priced products.
Tom Britten
Analyst . Intermediary . Consultant
3922 Bubba Drive, Zephyrhills FL 33541
Phone 813.469.5437
Fax 813.783.7908
E-Mail tombritten@msn.com
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Biography of Tom Britten:
Analyst, Intermediary, Professional Consultant. A full service resource to large and small operators "Helping Vending, OCS and Food Service Operators to Grow and Profit" 813.469.5437 tombritten@msn.com
Featured Speaker: Business Meetings, Trade Associations, Fraternal Groups, and Government Agencies
Topics: Security, Loss Prevention, Acquisitions/Divestitures, 25 Things That Don’t Change, Time Management, Effective Sales Prospecting
Consultant: Establish strength in the market place, significantly improve profitability.
Areas of Interest: Systematic Sales Prospecting/Booking New Business, Account Retention, Expense Management, Acquisitions and Divestitures/Exit Strategy, Increased Productivity, Right Sizing, Loss Prevention, Improved Internal Controls, Security Analysis, Executive Recruiting
Career Synopsis & Credentials: Tom Britten has broad-based operations and marketing experience in food service, vending and distribution. The client base he has served and sold extends to business / industrial, education, government, health care, and corrections facilities. He has worked in key positions both domestically and internationally and was instrumental in the introduction of Canteen’s full line services in Japan and reorganization of operations in Spain.
He successively progressed through executive positions at Macke, Service America, and Canteen where he became Vice President. He also served for eight years as Vice President of Sales and Operations for the Haddonfield Group, Management Consultants. In this assignment, he designed and implemented profit improvement programs for clients in retail and service businesses. In 2003, Britten formed Britten Management Services LLC, a profit improvement firm.
Professional Associations: Mr. Britten was a member of the Board of Directors of the state vending councils in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Washington. He is a former recipient of the NAMA chairman’s award for legislative action and has been widely published in a number of trade journals. He published the popular “25 Things That Don’t Change” which has been adopted as essential reading by many food and vending companies. He now serves on the editorial advisory board of Automatic Merchandiser magazine and holds a certificate of appointment as a Federal Contracting Officer for the Veterans Administration, where he is an appointed representative of the American Federation of Government Employees. Britten is also a past Chairman of the Human Relations Board of Hillsborough County.
He can be reached at tombritten@msn.com
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July 21st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
If the offer is compelling enough they will buy. If our industry would return to the Leadership style that created it, we would all be better of. It’s the “Sales of small indulgent” Can’t afford the trip to England but I’ll take that Chicken balti pie in the window. Read Faith Popcorn”s book Eveolution to catch my drift. Listen to the customer they pay our salaries!