Imagine spending 20 or 30 years building your vending business. A buyer comes to you, so you decide to do the deal without an advisor. You are happy. The transaction closes. Ready to move on. Then, six months later, you hear what the new owner has been doing, and seller's remorse sets in. At VBB Advisors, we have seen this before, but not with our clients who thankfully take our advice.
The buyer has installed dozens of AI-powered smart coolers in smaller accounts that you had been servicing for years. They’ve implemented an AI-driven business development program that is producing qualified prospects. They’ve introduced AI-powered loss prevention in the micro markets and reduced shrink. They’ve begun using data more effectively to improve product selection, inventory management and route efficiency.
Revenue is climbing. Margins are improving. You ask yourself a simple question:
“Why didn’t I do that?”
That’s exactly the situation operators approaching a sale should try to avoid.
Sell the results, not the opportunity
When preparing a business for sale, owners naturally focus on financial statements, equipment, customer contracts, employee retention and operational efficiency. Increasingly, there should be another item on that checklist: Have we taken advantage of the practical AI tools that can increase revenue and profitability before we sell?
The point isn’t to turn your company into an artificial intelligence laboratory. Just implementing technology simply so you can tell prospective buyers that you’re “using AI” isn’t going to increase the value of your business.
What matters are the results
If AI helps you generate additional revenue, reduce shrink, acquire customers, improve margins or operate more efficiently, those improvements can ultimately show up in your financial performance.
That is something a buyer will notice. That is something that can be put in place long before we start marketing your company to prospective buyers.
Start with smart coolers
For convenience services operators, one of the most immediate opportunities may be AI-powered smart coolers. Think about your existing customer base. How many locations are too small to justify a traditional micro market? How many could support a better food and beverage offering than traditional vending provides? How many locations have shrink concerns that make an open micro market problematic? Those locations may represent untapped revenue sitting inside your current book of business.
Smart coolers give operators another option between traditional vending and a full micro market. More importantly for an owner considering a sale, they provide an opportunity to generate incremental revenue from customers the company already serves.
If you have 25, 50 or 100 locations where smart coolers make economic sense, why leave that opportunity for the buyer? If you are holding off on the investment because you are selling – that’s a mistake. Deploy them, develop a performance history and let additional revenue and profit become part of the story you’re taking to market.
Build an AI-Powered sales engine
Another significant AI opportunity is business development. AI tools can help sales teams identify prospects, research companies and decision-makers, develop customized outreach, prepare proposals, analyze territories and maintain a much more consistent prospecting effort. For an owner preparing to sell, there’s an additional benefit.
Many privately held businesses remain heavily dependent on the owner for sales. The owner has the relationships. The owner knows everyone in the market. The owner is often the company’s best salesperson. That can represent risk to a buyer.
A documented, technology-supported sales process sends a very different message. It demonstrates that the company has a repeatable method for finding and winning new business that can continue after the owner leaves.
You are not simply selling a customer base. You are selling a customer-acquisition engine.
Attack micro market shrink
If you’re operating traditional micro markets, AI-powered loss prevention deserves serious consideration.
Modern systems can use artificial intelligence and video analytics to identify suspicious transactions and walkouts, making it possible to address theft much more efficiently than manually reviewing hours of camera footage. Again, think about what that communicates to a prospective buyer.
You’re demonstrating that management understands where profit is leaking from the business and has systems in place to address it.
Reducing shrink by even a relatively small percentage across a sizable micro market operation can translate directly into improved profitability. Just as important, a sophisticated loss-prevention program tells a buyer that this is a company focused on protecting every dollar it earns.
Use your data to improve the product mix
Most established convenience services operators are sitting on an enormous amount of transaction data.
The question is: Are you using it? AI and advanced analytics can help identify slow-moving products, potential stockouts, changing consumer preferences, location-specific product opportunities and items that should be replaced.
The old approach was often based on experience and instinct: “This product usually sells well in an account like this.” Experience will always matter. But today, operators can increasingly supplement that experience with actual location-level data.
Improving the product mix doesn’t necessarily require dramatic changes. A few additional dollars in weekly sales or gross profit multiplied across hundreds of locations can become meaningful.
Give yourself enough time
There is an important caveat. Don’t wait until three months before going to market and suddenly install a collection of AI tools. Give yourself enough time to demonstrate results.
Ideally, an owner preparing for an eventual exit should identify the right opportunities well in advance, implement them thoughtfully and establish a track record. Then, when it’s time for VBB Advisors to present your company to prospective buyers, you’re not saying:
“We think AI could help us increase profitability.”
You’re saying: “Here’s what we implemented. Here’s what happened to revenue. Here’s how much shrink declined. Here’s how our sales pipeline improved. Here’s how our profitability improved.”
That’s a much more compelling story that will dramatically increase the value of your company.
Positioning is key
For the established operator who is just a year or two away from selling, the resources to invest should be there and the process of positioning your company for sale should be underway. An article I wrote last year for Vending Market Watch, “10 important points to consider when it is time to sell your business,” addressed the importance of positioning a company for sale following an initial valuation.
After the valuation process is completed, we ask – “Where do we want that valuation to be when we market the company and how do we elevate the business to that level over the next 6 to 12 to 18 months?’ We then establish key benchmarks to enhance the value of the company along the way. One of those benchmarks should now be to show measurable results from AI.
Our approach gives operators access to our team and our resources. That means quarterly calls to review the financial statements and periodic conference calls to discuss capital expenditure. We are looking at every aspect of the business, positioning a company for sale, taking steps that will make a business as desirable as possible during the marketing process. The goal is multiple offers.
Take that critical first step. That is often the toughest one to take.
Order my free 2026 Exit Strategy Planner. At the very least, it will provoke some thought, and this is a good time to think about your future.
Whatever your reasons are to sell your company - the timing, a sense of frustration, the desire to enjoy life or an interest in rewarding yourself for years of hard work – VBB Advisors can help you realize your goals.
I am Mike Kelner, the leading sell side intermediary in the convenience services industry. Let’s sit down and have a conversation. Use this appointment scheduler to set up a meeting with me.
Or – give me a call at 704-942-4621
