Strategic Partnerships and Increased Adoption of Sales Accelerator and Operations Products Fuel Success for Leading Provider of Franchise Management Solutions
FranConnect, the leading provider of franchise management solutions for driving success in franchise sales, operations, and marketing, announced that in the first half of 2021 the company achieved its highest-ever revenue growth and rate of customer acquisitions. FranConnect added or expanded relationships with more than 100 franchise brands and multi-location businesses — spanning more than 35,000 franchise locations. Those new clients and expanded partnerships now include nearly half of Entrepreneur‘s Top 50 and Top 100 Franchises.
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“Throughout the challenges of the last year, we worked closely with our customers and the market to help us sharpen our view on the broader technology needs of the franchising ecosystem,” said Gabby Wong, CEO of FranConnect. “Over the course of the first half of 2021, we delivered on an ambitious technology roadmap that goes well beyond franchise development in order to solve the growing challenges faced by brand CFOs and COOs, as well as franchise owners. As the only enterprise-class software company solely focused on supporting franchise and multi-location businesses, we continue to dig deeper to unlock solutions to the hardest and newest business challenges facing this market. Our first-half performance is a reflection of this strategy, with significant planned product investments for 2021 and 2022.”
Technology Innovations
FranConnect continues to invest in technology to better serve franchisors and multi-unit businesses. In the first half of 2021, the company delivered several new enhancements that benefited the market and contributed to the company’s growth:
- Fully automated E-Signature capability for Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD)
- New board-level dashboards and analytics provide a comprehensive overview of franchise development performance from lead sourcing to unit onboarding
- Expanded use of Artificial Intelligence tools to automate lead generation and boost sales effectiveness
- Improved unit onboarding based on more granular control of the opening process with workflow and task management.
- New broker management support to quantify and improve the effectiveness of franchise referral consultants
In addition to customer adoption of new product innovations, FranConnect’s accelerated momentum in 2021 stems from strategic partnerships the company rolled out in the first months of the year. In January, the company acquired FranchiseBlast, creating the industry’s only platform that helps franchise brands and multi-location businesses manage operational success, end-to-end, from the brand to the unit-level. In the second quarter of 2021, FranConnect established a Consulting Alliance Partnership Program with industry-leading consultants Franchise Performance Group, MSA Worldwide, iFranchise Group, and FranNet. These partnerships make customers more successful by pairing the domain expertise of leading franchise consultants with FranConnect technology. Additionally, FranConnect grew its team by nearly 20% overall, particularly in the areas of Customer Support, Engineering, and Product Management.
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FranConnect’s impressive momentum is translating to success for its customers, as well. Paris Baguette, an international, French-inspired bakery with more than 4,000 locations worldwide, beat its own growth goals by closing an unprecedented volume of new deals in early 2021.
“We have been using FranConnect as we nurture leads, streamline overall operations and build roadmaps for our café openings,” said Mark Mele, chief development officer for Paris Baguette. “Our team had set aggressive sales and opening goals for 2021, and we were challenged with a database of leads weighed down with thousands of contacts that hadn’t been contacted in over four years. With the help of FranConnect’s outreach and lead nurture programs, we closed 25 deals in the first quarter alone and added 28 more in April. The support of FranConnect’s robust platform in all areas of our business has made the difference in our success.”