Today we’re excited to introduce you to Chris Conner. Chris is the President of Franchise Marketing Systems and is also a content partner. Content partners help Voyage in so many ways from spreading the word about the work that we do, sponsoring our mission and collaborating with us on content like this. Check out our conversation with Chris below.
Hi Chris, so great to have you join us again. For folks who might have missed our earlier conversations, can you please take a minute to briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Chris Conner, I am the President and Founder of Franchise Marketing Systems. For the past 21 years, I have worked with brands to develop, organize and structure franchise systems. My work has centered around working with new franchise models and helping businesses get into the franchise market, although I have worked with mature and large franchise systems as well. In 2009, I started Franchise Marketing Systems with the vision of supporting not only the franchise development process, but also in marketing and selling franchises for these new franchise models. I am married to Dr. Alaina Conner since 2007 and have two amazing kids, Ashton and Jameson.
Where did your vision for the business come from? What inspired you to start Franchise Marketing Systems?
My vision for Franchise Marketing Systems was to be more of a strategic partner to the brands we helped with franchising. There were some great resources as franchise consultants in the market and many fantastic franchise brokers out in the industry but no one was helping the small brands that were just getting started with developing their franchise model and really helping sell the system. My thinking was that if we could help more of these brands not only get into franchising, but also to reach the point where they could become a self-sufficient franchise organization. The most difficult part of launching a new brand into franchising was always getting the first five units and there really weren’t any resources in the industry to support this part of the franchise roll out. Franchise Marketing Systems was developed to focus specifically on this niche and support new franchise brands be successful.
How have you been able to differentiate yourself and your firm’s offerings from competition in the industry?
Franchise Marketing Systems key differentiator has always been the combination of both the franchise development work and the franchise sales support. What has proven to work since 2009 is that the group that puts the franchise together has advantages in selling the franchise vs. having a group put the franchise together then another group sell the system. Franchise Marketing Systems works with a brand to design, architect, organize and document a business model, then manages the sales model with that brand to recruit and close new franchisees. Because we have worked to create the system and understand the model, culture and business well, we are then able to represent the franchise effectively. It also creates a dynamic in the client relationship that is long-term and results driven. This has been our focus and is what has allowed for us to be successful and roll out franchise brands that do get traction and grow.
What would you say your core philosophy is in operating the business and how you have been able to continue operating successfully?
Franchise Marketing Systems is enormously focused on results and experience, our comp model and value add relies on achieving the same thing that the client wants, to sell franchises to the right operators in order to scale the brand effectively. The intangible part of how we work with clients is to do everything in our power to make sure that the experience working with us is as positive and productive as possible. We just don’t let the little things get in the way of creating awesome relationships and everyone on the Franchise Marketing Systems team works diligently in every interaction with the brand to make sure that remains the case both during and after our relationship with a client.
Tell us about your team and your resources as individuals and how they bring value to your clients.
Franchise Marketing Systems has a great team of professionals who are deeply experienced in their respective segment of work and have great backgrounds in franchising. I believe that our group offers the most extensive and broad array of experiences in franchising to a new franchise brand that anyone could hope for. We have worked with brands in all parts of the world and in virtually every industry segment, small to large sized businesses and with every personality type you could imagine. But what I am proud of when it comes to our team is that everyone is just a good person. They care about the experience they create with the client, want people to be happy and enjoy the experience in franchising and ultimately get an end product that gets the job done. The Franchise Marketing Systems team is just a group of really nice people that are easy to work with.
Thank you so much again for sharing all of this with us. Before we go, can you share with our readers how they can connect with you, learn more or show support?
We love to hear from people, regardless of situation, reach out if even just to have a conversation. Certainly, we’d love to talk about franchising, but many times our conversations are about everything BUT franchising!
Visit our main Franchise Marketing Systems site: www.FMSFranchise.com
Or, social media pages:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/FranchiseMarketingSystems/reviews/
https://www.featuredcustomers.com/vendor/franchise-marketing-systems
https://www.instagram.com/franchisemarketingsystems/?hl=en
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.FMSFranchise.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FranchiseMarketingSystems/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/849033/admin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/franchisemkting
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6rGhlMmyEoGUMDWzcBm5g
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/franchise-marketing-systems-cumming
