Vishaal Pandya & Team: XS Blast Mixer Event Sales Success

In the wake of widespread economic woes that have hit Corporate America, Vishaal Pandya was let go last year from his sales and marketing post at an office automation company.

At the time, he decided to turn his attention to Blast! Energy Mixers—and earn more from his own efforts in the process.

The results have been nothing short of exceptional. He has led a team of IBOs that have racked up tremendous profit - at one event after another. Pandya is earning, part-time, at least as much as he previously made in his full-time job.

Their goal is to be the biggest Blast! Energy Mixer and XS Energy Drink movers, as well as the highest compensated. At a recent meeting, he and his team set a single-event goal of $10,000 as they set their sights on the New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey nightclub scene.

They have built their momentum around the Blast! Cran-Grape and Electric Lemon Energy Mixers, which have ‘energized’ their wildly popular fruit smoothies. A huge hit with all age groups, including teens and young adults throughout Pandya’s home state of New Jersey, the energy smoothies come sliced-and-diced together before the eyes of customers.

At a high school drum line competition in March, Pandya and his team whipped up hundreds of smoothies over an eight-hour period. Take hundreds of orders from a 1,200 attendee event; blend in the two flavors and two sizes and the net result…a very nice profit!

“We had 480 pounds of bananas, and we also got strawberries, mangos, and other fruit,” he said. “We were kept busy all day long.”

Their efforts were rewarded further when five of the 20 schools represented at the competition asked Pandya and his crew—IBOs Josh Comiskey, George Oberhofer and Amar Ahluwalia—to be vendors at their future events.

“When we do a smoothie event, it’s all about the money,” said Pandya. “We bring in everything…which means we keep all the profit.”

“With clubs, it’s all about the PV. Yeah, walking in to some of the hottest clubs and selling your product is an amazing feeling, but remember, they are doing the work so they will make the lion share of the profit.”

Each case of the Blast! Energy Mixer has 24 PV. With 10 clubs ordering five cases apiece monthly, that amounts to more than 1200 PV. “We both make a profit…and that’s a good thing!”

With smoothie events, he added, “we make sure that we make our investment worthwhile, taking into account the cost of all the ingredients that we need as well as the equipment.”

“Can you imagine you and your team of energetic IBOs retailing thousands of dollars on some cut-up fruit and Energy Mixer?” he said. “This is an amazing way to go.”

Pandya attributes the success to finally listening to his parents, Kanti and Anju Pandya. They are Ruby IBOs and for years have encouraged their son to sell his own product, rather than somebody else’s.

The Turning Point

The motivational turning point came in November 2008, after his parents came home from a swanky diner. While there, they came across a “Have a Blast” promotional flier at their table.

They brought it home and left it on his pillow.

“It got me negatively motivated,” Pandya recalled. “Someone else beat me to the punch.”

“It’s the clean-your-room syndrome,” he explained. “If your mom tells you to clean your room you say, `Whatever, mom.’ But if your friend says, `Dude, your room’s a mess,’ you listen.”

In January 2009 at an IBO holiday party, representative friend spoke about doing some Event Sales.

The next day, Pandya and his team put together a plan of action, going to XSGear.com and XSBlast.com to invest in marketing tools and visiting area businesses to market the XS product line.

“We went to the small places at first, then built up some confidence and momentum and started to hit the big businesses,” said Pandya.

With his prior sales efforts, Pandya never was comfortable with selling a product that “not everybody needed.”

“It was my job literally to go and convince the customer to buy,” he said. “What’s great about Blast! Mixers is we have a product that clubs and other venues really need. This is a product they can use and benefit from. It’s not even selling.”

Instead, said Pandya, he focuses on “going in there and telling the clubs and whoever else that if you don’t have this product, you’re not on the cutting edge.”

And because none of XS’s competitors can tout anything approaching the energy drink’s distinctive qualities—such as no carbs and no sugars and great taste—it’s easy to differentiate from the rest of the pack, said Pandya.

Pandya likens the product to a top-shelf option, such as Grey Goose vodka. “We look for any club that has their options open to looking at our product as a top-shelf product,” he said. “The standard energy drinks are basically a mid-shelf product.”

“Whoever sells Red Bull Energy Drinks will understand the benefit of going with Blast! Energy Mixers,” Pandya continued. “When you order a Red Bull Vodka, that’s what you get, a Red Bull and vodka. There’s nothing different about it than any other club that sells that.”

“So we don’t say that a club has to promote it as Blast!,” Pandya noted. “Instead, we have a proprietary brand of energy drink mixers that the club can sell as its own Signature Brand.”

Momentum Builds

Success has begotten more success—the profitability of clubs using Blast! Mixers has sparked attention from other companies that are now making inquiries with Pandya about working with him.

“We have a product that helps them move their product,” said Pandya. “Once a club takes ownership of the beverage, they start to understand its true value. Any club willing to understand how this concentrate works is a sweet spot for us.”

A few months ago, a club agreed to make a substantial purchase of the Blast! Energy Mixers. Later, Pandya learned that they selected Blast! over Monster energy drinks.

“That was such a major boost for us,” he said. “I told my team, `We just beat a major conglomerate.’ That’s the day when I realized the potential of this product.”

He urged other IBOs to get going sooner rather than later.

“I wish I had begun the process a long time back. This has brought my team closer together and has helped us to develop leadership skills and learn responsibility,” said Pandya. “It’s taught not only myself and my team, but also our cross-line, that if we can do this, you can definitely do this.”


“Nowadays when we walk into a club, bar or lounge, we look for an opportunity to sell “my” energy drink,” said Pandya. “XS is a brand name; the opportunity is mine.”

Some closing tips from Pandya:
• “Don’t wait on it. If you think too hard about it, then it’s not going to happen. Get out there and get your feet wet. If you make mistakes, learn from it. If you mess up at one club, you can always walk in to the next one.”

• Go to XSGear.com and know the product. Study up on the competition, so you know with confidence that you have of the most powerful SKUs at your fingertips.

• Invite your friends to join you in the journey.

“They are an integral part of it. Everybody plays a role,” said Pandya. “A lot of people say, `Don’t go into business with your friends.’ We’ve had our differences, but it’s made us stronger as a unit. The friends in this type of environment stay together. I have never, ever lost a friend in this business, I have only gained.”

So what’s your Retail Sales story? Got one…please send it to us at success@xsgear.com