Category: Routes for Sale Blog

Advertising and Marketing Route Businesses

The Route Exchange specializes in the advertising and marketing of route businesses. These routes include bread routes, snack routes, vending routes, pool routes, ATM routes, and other wholesale distribution type routes. Common companies that sell these types of routes are Pepperidge Farm, Snyder’s-Lance, Bimbo Bakeries, Flowers Foods, Mission and independent owners.

There are great opportunities to advertise these types of businesses through online services. We work with many of these organizations to get route business listings in front of as many people as possible. Our advertising network has 100+ partners that will generate interest in the listings. These partners include BizBuySell, BizQuest, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Business Journals and many others.

If you have any questions regarding our advertising service or any other details, please contact us today. Thank you.

How The Route Exchange Finds Buyers

This article will quickly cover some of the strategies that we use to find qualified route buyers.

First, we create a listing that is used to advertise your business. The listing will have general information on the route so that potential buyers can decide if it is the right opportunity for them
Next, we distribute the listing through a number of ways:
1. The listing is shared with existing nearby buyer leads in our database. The buyer database currently consists of over 5,000 potential buyers
2. We also post the listing on various business sales services. This includes BizBuySell, BizQuest, Wall Street Journal, USA Today Network and many others
3. Search engine advertising and optimization is utilized to find individuals that are interested in purchasing route opportunities
Once a lead expresses interest in your route business, we put that individual through a qualification process to make sure they are serious about moving forward

All of these efforts are conducted before the route owner is ever involved. We want to make sure quality buyers move through our process, saving the owner time and frustration. There are absolutely no upfront costs and we are never compensated unless one of our leads purchases your route. This is a no-risk, no-cost service unless we succeed. If you have any questions please contact us today.

How We Find a Route Buyer

How We Find a Route Buyer – The Route Exchange

Generating Interest

The first thing we do is create listings and start running online advertising to generate interest in your route. We reach out to potential buyers that we have already spoken with regarding other opportunities. We contact any other services that may be able to help us find a buyer. Every marketing strategy and resource will be utilized to ensure your listing receives maximum interest.

Qualifying the Leads

Once we have someone that is interested we require a non-disclosure/non-compete agreement to be submitted. At that time we will discuss the details with the contact and go over the account list/sales report or any other information we have on file. We make sure they understand how the routes work and what they should expect moving forward.

If we feel that they are a good candidate we then ask for a verification of funds. The lead has to provide us with financial verification documents so that we know they have the money necessary for a purchase. This is an important step since most sellers do not want to offer owner/seller financing.

Connecting the Parties

Once the lead is qualified we typically reach out to the seller with the lead’s contact information. At this point they have been qualified and generally just want to check out the route in person. Usually a ride along on the route is scheduled. Many buyers just want to meet the seller and make sure this is a legitimate business.

Offers/Negotiation

After a meeting/ride along we would expect the lead to make a purchasing decision. Their offer can be communicated directly to the seller or through our service. If an agreement is reached then we can move forward toward the closing. We will help both parties through the offer and negotiation process.

Closing Process

In many situations the company (Bimbo, Pepperidge Farm, etc.) will handle any necessary purchasing paperwork. In those scenarios we are unable to assist in that process. However, if you want the buyer to submit a down payment/deposit and Letter of Intent then we can provide template agreements. That is completely up to you and is not required.

If the route is independently owned (vending, ATM, landscaping, etc.) then we can provide template agreements for the closing process. Of course the seller can consult with an attorney to draw up those documents if they choose to do so.

Final Closing

We make sure that the buyer is prepared for the closing and has any information they need on that process. If we are acting as an escrow agent then we can handle the disbursement of escrow funds. Our commission is always due after the final route closing takes place.