The Real Franchise – Ep22 – Standing out in the marketplace

Rhiannon
Hello and welcome back to The Real Franchise, a video series designed to deliver real information, real answers and real insights into franchising. The series is brought to you by James Home Services Australia. I’m the CEO and Justin is one of our owners and our head of new businesses. Together in this series, we tackle all of the big topics completely unscripted, unplanned and unfiltered.

There are no sales and no fluff. We just give you information straight out. Today’s topic is all about standing out in the marketplace. It’s a big topic. It’s one that really was highlighted to me in a recent experience that I had. Justin, you’ve just had a couple of weeks of holidays. You’ll come back refreshed. But you’ve come back to me telling you all sorts of things about my experience in that two weeks.

Justin
Yes. Yeah. And, yeah, it was interesting because our last episode that we did, you shared that you picked up three things that the questions, you know, there was a couple of hundred people that have inquired over the two weeks that I was away that you were speaking with. And. Yeah, I think this third one is an interesting one.

And so what was the third sort of point that you found that most people were asking about?

Rhiannon
Yeah. So while you’re away, obviously I handled all of the inquiries from people with an interest in joining James and not a role that I had filled before. And it was so fantastic to actually get to just speak to about 200 people who are interested in joining our network and just doing some research. And it was really interesting to, hear what their questions were.

And there were three questions I got asked on almost every single call, three questions that just completely overrun everything else. First price. And we’ve already done a video about our subscription model. So go back. It’s like episode maybe two or 3 or 4. Go back and check that one out because we are super upfront about the cost of our subscription model and getting in.

The second question that I always got asked was leads. How many do you generate? How do you send them to me, and who is responsible for generating leads? And we just answered that question in detail in the previous episodes. So if you’re interested in understanding our approach to leads then go check out that one. But the third one was I will I’m going to I’m going to be honest, it really surprised me in almost the first call I had with someone, the biggest concern or question for me was how will you help me stand out in the marketplace?

And it took me by surprise, I think because I know our model, I know what we do and I know how we stand out. To me, it’s really obvious and it just was such a really timely reminder for me right at the beginning of all of those calls to say that, you know, people who inquire are literally just looking for more information.

And I have to put aside the fact that I know how we work, and I just have to take it back to ground zero and I just have to build, understand from the ground up. And so this question, how do we help people stand out was an interesting one to me. And I thought about it quite a bit since, because to give a really broad, unhelpful answer, everything we do helps a business owner stand out to be a little bit more helpful.

What I mean by that is our entire system is designed, purposely designed to help someone stand out. Our branding, purposely designed to help you stand out according process, designed to be different and to help you stand out. Our Gold Medal Service promise to help you stand out the way that we encourage you to contact, liaise and follow up clients designed to help you stand out and all the things I’ve just mentioned.

To some people listening, you might just think, oh, that’s really basic. And yes, it is. And the reason why it’s so basic is because and and again, I’ve got to be brutally honest here, the bar in the services industry for great service is painfully low. Like when is the last time, Justin, you called a tradie or a service provider and you got a call back within five minutes?

I mean, when’s the last time you even got a call back on the same day, let alone five minutes? When’s the last time they actually showed up? He has to do a face to face, personalized quote. When’s the last time that if you left a message for them, they actually contacted you back to answer additional questions you had about that quote?

When’s the last time they showed up to do their work when they said they were going to? And when’s the last time you actually had a detailed, itemized, fixed price quote provided to you that couldn’t change? If you’re anything like me, I’m scratching my head to actually recall a time where a service provider delivered good service. So to help out business owners stand out in the market, all we do is we teach you how to deliver good service, and by design, that means you will stand head and shoulders above the competition in your market.

Justin
Yeah. So true. But I yeah, as part of the process when people are looking and we spoke about that that process in an early episode. But one of the things we do is do a zoom meeting with, you know, 3 or 4 of our existing franchisees who are in the same businesses, the people that are sort of looking at doing the investigation just to introduce them and have a chat and and I had one just recently.

I’m thinking of where, the person’s concerned, which is a great, totally valid concern is, you know, I live in a regional town. There’s so many other businesses out there that do this.

And I asked the air franchisee, hat how how do you face all the competition and who’s in a regional town? She answered competition. If you follow the system, there isn’t competition because you’re a totally different business, you know, like and she was and I was on another one of these meetings last night with her. And she said to, a couple that, in Melbourne looking at joining us, and she said, you know, round ten.

Now we’re known as the business that actually calls you back quickly, she said of how many people ring or leave a message. You send me a text and I’ve called them and they’ve gone, well, it’s true. You actually call straight back.

Rhiannon
Oh, I love that.

Justin
And it’s and that’s a simple thing, right? And that’s you think it’s a no brainer. But one of the challenges, I think, when you’re in your own independent business is we all get we all slide into a rut. All right. And I think the good thing about the coaching and our whole system is it helps keep you on point.

And for areas where you’re not strong, like you were saying in our previous episode, you know, that technical expertise with the marketing and, and SEO advertising and getting the ranking and things, you know, the wording, right, so that we get found, we take care of all that. So the person doesn’t it just set you apart, you know, when you turn up for a quote and you turn up in uniform and you’re in a sign vehicle and you look sharp and you know, you might have your iPad out with the system ready to go to do the quote.

Your competition turns up in a singlet, you know. Oh, pants, you know, beat up our car and yeah, it’s just chalk and cheese. Yeah. It’s it’s we have this saying. I use it all the time. The little things that make the big difference. No, one thing is rocket science, but it’s putting it all together that make you stand out in everyone.

Rhiannon
And it’s having someone guide you on what all those little things are. Because if you’re new to business and you’ve never had experience owning a business, how are you meant to just magically know what a customer is looking for in a service provider or in a franchise network? You don’t have to magically know, because we we’ve designed a system that actually delivers all of the things that they’re looking for.

We understand what our customers want, and we understand what the rest of the market is providing. So therefore we know how to make you stand out and we teach you those things. And it’s having that guidance there, having someone to guide you and say, hey, A, B and C makes a huge difference when it comes to actually being able to win a quote or get in front of a customer in the first place, or win a quote at a high price point.

Someone that I spoke to and took a little waste through our process. He was making inquiry about a loan and garden care business in a regional area. One of his key concern was there’s so much competition in my area. Rhiannon, how he actually his question was, I don’t know if there is enough demand for another lawn care service provider.

And my response to him was, well, let’s be honest, everyone is rolling around with a lawn mower on the back end with a super in the back and everybody’s calling themselves a lawn care provider. Is there enough demand in your area? Is your market saturated already with lawn care providers? Yeah, probably, but it’s saturated with low value lawn care, provided it’s saturated with the blokes that roll around for 30 bucks an hour and actually aren’t making any money.

So they do it for six months and they can’t make a dime, they can’t pay their mortgage. And so they flick it and they go on to something else because they don’t understand why it’s not working. The market is saturated with those types of businesses in lawn care and in cleaning. There is an absolute saturation, make no mistake about it.

But also don’t be put off by that because you’re not. If you’re looking at James, you’re not one of them. They are not your competition. Well, you know, the average hourly rate that our guys are making is sometimes up to three and four times higher than that rate that I just quoted. If those other guys rolling around and we achieve that because we are they they professional service offering and we we set ourselves apart as being professional, which means that we aren’t in a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.

And people often come to us when they’ve tried the others and couldn’t get someone to return a phone call or show up on time. The number of times I have that feedback from franchisees to tell me that, you know, a customer has come back to them 6 to 6 weeks after, you know, rejecting a quote because it was too expensive.

The number of times I come back 6 to 8 weeks afterwards saying, I tried the other blokes and they were very unreliable. I’m ready to try you now. So I ended up talking to this man about, well, yeah, there is a saturation in the market for low value service providers, but what I think is probably a more astute question to be asking yourself and researching in your area is who are the high value service providers, and is there still remaining demand in the market for another high level service provider?

And the easiest way to research this is to actually ring some of them, ring the blokes that, have got the website, have got the proper trailer, have got the really nice new signed vehicle who show up on time, who return your phone call and ask them when their next availability is, watch them fumble for their calendars and try and say to you they don’t have availability for three and four weeks.

Guess what that tells you? They are so busy because they’re high quality and because that’s what market is demanding. So our business model is designed to position you as a high quality service provider, which there is almost always more demand for high quality service providers. People will try the low cost people and then they will switch to a higher cost person.

When they when they experience what low cost means, you know, you get what you pay for in life. It’s beautiful. Saying sums up pretty much every aspect of life. You get what you pay for and with us. With James, we set you up so that you are delivering great service and you’re also receiving a much higher value for your time in return.

Justin
Absolutely. And in a practical sense, you know, just for people who are listening, you know, we’ve talked about our subscription model, but one of the things I love about it is it opens the door for people who might not be flush with cash. You know, they don’t have 50 grand sitting in the bank. But what it does, if you’re approved the thousand upfront, will we go and spend a couple of grand and so on.

Right. Your vehicle. Right. We provide uniforms. Right. So immediately when you turn up, you look and shop. You’re looking professional. I mean, that’s why we do it. It’s also one of the best local things you can do for marketing in your area. When people see you, you know, my own vehicle and my wife’s vehicle with a high percentage on both, because when we go down the shops, people see it.

It generates brand awareness. I call and I get one of the local franchisees, that generates word, uniforms, you know, business cards, brochures, all those sorts of things that are all about helping you stand out. And I think for a lot of we talk about using the lawn and garden example, you know, I live in a very small regional town.

We don’t have a traffic light in Atherton, so it’s a small town. And I’ve been here in James for since 2010. So nearly 15 years. And I have observed, like we’ve always had two good lawn businesses and James here, you know, they’ve resold a few times over the years, but the guys are always flat out. And there’s always this churn, I call it every year.

You see, you know, it won’t be a bloke sick of going to work in the mines once more time with his family. He’ll just. I’ve got a trial up. I’ve got, you know, 6.45 it a little lower. I’ll start mowing up and you’re putting out a couple of things on his printer. Do a brochure drop, get 1 or 2 jobs, cut what you say.

Can’t make enough income to support himself. And then winter or the dry season comes and work. He’s gone back to another job and it’s just a churn. But we will always have probably 21 businesses in our little town. Yeah. Our guys, if they want extra work, it’s there. I mean, we just resold one of our loan businesses here with the guy.

He’s also had a farm, so he was just not going at it, The new Gordon’s brought his business, wanted to grow it, and literally overnight, he’s nearly tripled it, like, wow, in the same little town. And it’s like people say to me like. And it’s a valid concern when you don’t understand how things work. Oh, I see so many lawn businesses around this.

It’s a glut. It’s like, no, no, no. Like you said, this is a club for the low value. And they come and go and those customers get sick and tired of. They just don’t turn up. They don’t know what’s happened to them. They don’t know when their loans are going to get married or, you know, but it’s the same applies to cleaning what they eventually get to the point of, particularly our elderly get to the point of death.

I just want someone who’s going to show up, be professionals that they can trust. You turn up looking shop, they go, oh thank God, yeah, but and you follow the quoting process, you win the quote and away you go. Yeah. It’s like this new guy, with us, Mark, that has been his story. Like he’s just I must admit, I’ve been surprised.

You know, I’ve been in this town for 15 years, but he’s just blown it out of the ballpark. And, yeah, we’re going to a Christmas party this Saturday night, and I’m gonna. I don’t have a chance to say anything to him yet, but I’m going to let him know. He’s amazed me, but it’s just it’s just because he said he stands out.

Is it? It’s just been what he has done is exactly what we’re talking about in this episode. He’s just used what is our system?

Rhiannon
Yeah.

Justin
And the parts of it and the branding and stuff and bang, it’s happened in a lot of over serviced.

Rhiannon
Yeah.

Justin
Tim.

Rhiannon
Yeah. It’s, it’s important to differentiate that just because someone offers the same services you does not mean that they are your direct competition.

Justin
Exactly. Yes.

Rhiannon
And those low value service providers, there is a market for them. And there are consumers who, price conscious legitimately because of budgetary concerns or just because they choose to really be mindful with the money that they spend on the services that they consume. There will always be a market for those low cost providers. But what we find is that there is also a significant market for higher cost but reliable, trustworthy, good quality providers.

And that’s the market that’s growing because you get people moving out of the low cost supply market into that market all the time, because they’ve experienced the lack of reliability, they’ve experienced the no. Clawbacks they have experienced the I have no idea when these guys showing up to clean my house on my my lawn, they get sick and tired of that, as you say.

And then because of their experience there, they move into the market that way in. So this market here is ever expanding. And once you’ve experienced a high value service, you don’t go back. So there are always people coming into the high value service market. There’s very rarely people going back out into the low cost market. So I would encourage anybody listening to this and who had had and who’s clicked on this video for exactly that same reason.

Their concern is, how are you guys going to help me stand out? And is there enough demand in my market? Don’t just look at the whole market. Really consider that just because someone offers the same services that you do does not make them your competition. I even consider it. Consider that in the franchising industry, there are lots of other franchised networks that at this at at a high level, offer what appear to be the same services to James.

There are also franchises that I just don’t consider our competitors. You know, there is a market for what they offer, but it’s not a patch on what we offer or it’s different. And people who are interested in what we offer are interested in their offer. People who are interested in their offer aren’t interested and not a great fit for us anyway.

So think about that. Also, if you’re if you’re listening, thinking, oh gosh, there’s too much there’s too many providers already in my area. There may be a lot of providers, but they’re not necessarily your competition. And our system is designed to set you up as a high value service provider. And those are in a market that has almost always got additional demand, and it’s growing.

Justin
Yeah, it’s true. It’s really good. Well, well, that’s all wrapped up really nicely I think too, I.

Rhiannon
Think it does. I think that’s a natural place to leave this conversation here. Hopefully you found it valuable if you are sitting back and you clicked on this video because you have that concern. I hope the video has been helpful and I hope that it’s helped to maybe just even give you a couple more things to think about and go away and research and consider, and I hope that it’s just expanded your thinking a little bit.

So if you’ve got any questions, feel free to get in touch if you’d like to. The type of person that really just likes to have a conversation with a real person, we are also a high value service provider, i.e. the service that we provide to people who inquire or to to our franchisees is high value because if that’s what we teach our franchisees to deliver to their clients, that’s what we also promise to deliver to you as an inquiry or, you as a potential franchisee in our network.

So reach out, have a chat are always welcome, and we’re always happy to transparently answer any questions that you have. So let’s leave this video here and hopefully you join us for the next episode of The Real franchise very soon.

To watch the full real franchise episode click here