Every week, all IRUN franchisees meet in an online meeting / conference call to discuss business and share success stories. The first point on the agenda is the ‘Brag of the Week’, and what a week it was this week…
One of our newest Franchisees, Jo Rhodes Lewis who also runs a very professional telemarketing / appointment setting service, received a nice order as a result of a sales enquiry from her website. Almost as soon as it went live, when someone searched for copywriting in Stamford – it was reported that IRUN Stamford came to the top… we are not sure what the total value will be, but it looks like it could be a good one. Nice one Jo.
Bill Jordan of IRUN Alcester has ‘shaken hands’ on a deal to deliver a complete marketing package for a client in a potential vertical market, used car sales and leasing, this includes the full suite of marketing tools including CRM (Customer Relationship Management), SEO, (Search Engine Optimisation), Website design and build and ongoing marketing services to help the client each month – this is phase 1, phase 2 will include extending this to the clients other businesses.
George Inch, (IRUN Rugby) and John Minchell, (IRUN Shrewsbury) are working to develop the transport market. They only started this month and already have meetings with two of the largest pallet operators in the UK. At one, they are due to present to the board – will they do a deal? Who knows, but watch this space, (they also hinted at a number of other things that are just about to happen and promised to share more at the next meeting).
Fred Copestake, (IRUN Henley-in-Arden), was not in the meeting but asked Daniel Plowright, (IRUN Bath), to share the news – he believes he is just about to close a deal that includes a £1,500 a month retainer to take the ‘Marketing Directors’ role with a client on a part time basis with an agreed £20,000 success payment – nice one Fred.
Roger Parsonson, (IRUN Farnham), has now coordinated with a number of his fellow IRUN franchisees who have made marketing and Social Media presentations to a number of bodies across the UK, including the British Institute of Inn Keepers – it seems they approached Roger to ask if IRUN would be able to help them and their members… fantastic as this is one of the sectors where IRUN has had some superb successes – pub landlords are generally very poor at marketing and we have some fantastic case studies to share in this sector.
Paul Scott, (IRUN Holme Valley), has secured funding to help a food distribution company in Yorkshire which puts him into contact with over 100 restaurants in the area – this is superb news for IRUN and Paul in particular, as this is another major focus area for IRUN where we are proving again and again, that we can do some amazing things for restaurants who want to be found on page one of Google.
Greg Hackney, (IRUN Cheltenham), has been asked to present at the local group of the BII, the British Institute of Innkeepers. They were concerned about the cost but Greg very generously agreed to waive his normal rates and offered to do the first one gratis. He also confirmed that he has secured the order for two clients who have gone ahead with a CRM System, (Customer Relationship Management). Greg reports that this is the first part of what he expects to be a greater scope of supply.
Then Karen Chapple, (IRUN Newbury), almost embarrassed topped them all with the following success stories, (with the caveat that some of these are only agreed verbally at this stage)
Karen’s success story one: The client is an equine / hunting / fishing retailer currently turning over £1M and making good profit and with superb growth potential as they have a database of several thousand names that is not marketed to and have a very poor online presence, but a superb reputation. This is especially interesting to Karen as her husband is mad about guns, (not literally you understand). The client has offered IRUN 50% of all the profit we can achieve through increasing sales in the store and online – as they operate on huge gross profit margins, this one client could conceivably pay for Karen’s retirement.
Karen’s success story two: The client is an IT training provider. They don’t currently use their customer database very effectively and need a CRM system. Their website needs work to improve conversion rates, but above all, they are currently spending more than £2,000 a month on a very poorly structured pay per click campaign. Karen proposed that rather than charge them up front for the work that needed to be done, we simply take over the £2,000 a month payments, thus boosting Karen’s monthly turnover by another £2,000. Having seen how their campaign is structured, we are certain we can get a better result for half the spend and in a matter of weeks have them on page one of Google for their key search terms organically, (i.e. with no ongoing money going to Google). With a success fee built in, this also looks like a superb opportunity for both Karen and the client – this could also cover Karen’s retirement by next year.
Karen’s success story three: (Don’t you just hate her already?) Karen has taken the time to really master Social Media. A national chain of accountants have retained Karen’s services and are paying her £750 a day to provide a series of training courses nationwide and show their accountants how to use Social Media to market their business, in conjunction with the suite of tools; website, blog, CRM system, IRUN have just set live for each of the local businesses.
Karen’s success story four: (Go on then). Karen has been retained by a local colleague to present a 2 hour session on what Social Media can do for business to about 100 local SME’s – The first session is free, but someone else is doing all the work to get the SME’s to the event and recommending IRUN and Karen into the bargain. They are then going to pay Karen £750 a day to train business owners on various aspects of Social Media and Internet Marketing – i.e. the stuff everyone in IRUN knows and understands well – stuff that works and does not cost, i.e. delivers a real ROI…
Karen then went on to share another two success stories before we had to stop her when she delivered her KILLER BLOW. THIS WAS ALL ACHIEVED IN TWO DAYS LAST WEEK.
I wish we could say this is a typical day in the life of an IRUN franchisee, but as with all things in life, some days go better than others.
Congratulations to all the team, keep up the good work.
If you want to find out more about how your success stories could make "Brag of the Week", call me on 01635 800169 or get in touch at niki.dymek@irunsolutions.co.uk
