I stopped, raised a door and grabbed a six pack of canned Coke. I went in and asked to see the owner. There were two men there and they looked at each other and said he wasn’t there and what did I want? I told them what I wanted to do by placing a machine at this business. I left them the six pack and told them that I would stop back again to see the owner. When I got back to the truck I checked off that I had stopped at this business and who I talked too. I did this at several businesses and had hopes at most, that I would gain their business. I kept this up everyday, and finally they started to fall in line.
I had returned to the gas station three times, every time leaving a different six pack of my product. On the fourth week one of the two fellows admitted that he was the owner. He said that he wanted to make sure that I would come back just like I had said. He allowed me to place a vending machine in the prime location, right by the door. He proved to be a very valuable customer as he had a great location at a major intersection with competition on two other corners and they didn’t have Coca Cola, yet. We displayed products between the gas pumps and had a display inside the store. Back at this time there were no convenience stores. Most gas stations were full service which meant they pumped the gas and the stations had two or three bays in which they did repairs on cars. The station that did the best service for their customers did the most business.
I followed up with my list of potential accounts and my persistence paid off. I was growing my route every week with at least one new account. I called on every business where I felt people gathered, gas stations, drug stores, schools, hospitals, clubs, golf courses. Where people gathered was the key. Remember that it still hadn’t been that long since the strike, only a couple of years, repair was still needed with some customers. This posed some challenges in overcoming objections mostly about service. Returning to these accounts consistently at about the same time and the same day of the week helped to prove that you would be there to service them.
The route had grown larger and it took time to make all of those new account calls, I was leaving first and coming back last most of the time. It was the paycheck that kept me going. It made it possible to do the repairs on the house and pay the bills. Owning a home and raising two children had its cost. The money we were making was very good at that time. We were able to eat out and to have a new car. We were starting to live a better life, we however didn’t think ahead and save. The next thing we knew was the furnace went out and we had to get a loan to get a new one. We could still afford it though. Darlene was the smart one of the two of us and therefore she handled all of the bills.
