Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:09

Hi everybody. Today I'd like to introduce you to Kerry Gilley, the CEO and co-founder of Franchise Fastlane. Carey, welcome.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 0:18

It's so good to be here, lance, thanks for having me.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:20

Well, Carey, I'm very familiar with your company. I love what you guys do. I just have to say that when I work with your company, it's so organized, it's professional, it's thought through and it's effective. I really feel that you're going to find the right people and also that deals are going to happen. I think there's a lot that people can learn from you. Could you take a second and explain what Franchise Fastlane does?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 0:49

Of course, franchise. Fastlane is what the franchise industry has coined an FSO, which is a Franchise by sales organization. We solve the significant problem for emerging and even micro-emerging brands, which is simply generating qualified prospective franchisees, qualifying them and converting those leads into franchise owners. It's the number one problem for emerging brands. The IFA states there's about 4,000 brands now in the US. 300 emerge every year, 300 fail every year. What they said is the benchmark to royalty, proficiency or even profitability is 100 units open. You need to achieve that's what they recommend. You need to achieve 100 units open. The sad thing is under 5% of brands ever hit this goal and the ones that do, on average it takes 10 years. This is the number one problem they're facing. They know their business, they just don't know how to grow.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 1:46

Our mission at Fastlane is to drive extraordinary growth for the chosen few and that's what we do. We solve this problem. We carefully select what we call next big thing brands. We drive their development end to end and we try to find the best franchisees to carry the flag of their brand into markets all across the country. It's been a fun run. We are about seven years old. We've worked with about 40 brands. We've locked about 2,000 franchisees, impacting lives of 2,000 business owners, and impacted over 5,000 communities. Now where we've ushered in a brand in their community and over to a new business via franchising. It's been a fun ride.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 2:23

Well, you know you guys do a great job. Can you tell for everybody? You know people say, oh, a franchise sales organization? You know, aren't they all the same? But you guys are different. Now I just want to take a second and explain that, because there's a reason why a lot of people work with you.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 2:41

You know, last year alone. You're right, you're making a good point and I have so much respect for my competition, for sure. But we did study the industry when we started Franchise Fastlane and we thought about my business partner and I as co-founders. What do we want to do different? And one of the first things we did was established our brand standard very high. I talked to 191 brands last year and we brought in eight 191 to bring in eight. And what I found is, brand after brand, if you ask them about their business, it doesn't matter if it's haircuts or fitness or rental space. It's like if you asked me about my sons, I can talk your ear off right or Franchise Fastlane. But when you ask them now, how are you going to grow? How are you going to find that person to carry the flag of your brand into countries, into territories, nationwide? It's crickets. They don't even know where to get started.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 3:30

And so when we looked at this and thought how are we going to do this different, there were a couple of key things that we did do different. One most of the FSOs in the space at that time it was just a guy beating the phones and he was generating his own leads, registering his own leads. He was driving the process end to end, running his own compliance, his own territory checks, his own marketing, the whole thing soup to nuts. And so that's one thing we did right away. That was different, as we hired a team of specialists. So our salespeople only sell, it's all they do, their calendars managed for them, the FDD cooling period is managed for them. State registrations, compliance, marketing builds brand awareness, runs the deal, announcements, sell, sells. The person who wants to read FDDs all day in compliance is not the same person who's going to thrive in a sales environment. It's all about skill sets, and people will thrive when they're doing what they do very well. So last year we did about 180,000 territory checks. That's different too. That is a skill set, and a sales person cannot focus on what they're doing if they're trying to run a thousand territory checks a day.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 4:39

So not only that, but we also have them specialize. If you are in development, you specialize on one brand, and that was unusual too. Typically in the FSO environment, everybody sold everything, lance, so it didn't matter, you knew every brand. If you had 10 brands, you assisted probably with all of them or most of them, so a lead would come in. It was just who had an open calendar, and we did try that. But what we found is then everybody gets excited about the same brand, right, the one that still has a lot of open territory, a strong item 19,. And everybody gravitates towards that, whereas if you assign somebody to a brand and you say this is your brand, they will eat, sleep and breathe. They will build a knowledge base that's just as deep as anybody at the corporate office. If leads slow down, they'll be concerned. And so what we found is it was better to have kind of brand specialists.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 5:29

And then we invested extensively in technology, both internally and externally. Internally, our entire sales process is managed through our CRM. We've now built literally dozens of customer journey automations based upon how people reply to each call. So you host a call with somebody I'm hosting it with Lance I go over an intro for Koala Insulation and, based upon the feedback I get from you, I automate your next step. That allows a developer. Because of all of those efficiencies we've built around them, they can host 10 to 11 calls a day instead of 6 to 7.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 6:02

And then, externally, we work so closely with the consultants and one of the very first things that I learned was you have to be good at fricking frack, and I want somebody's going to tell me what fricking frack is, and what they mean is really making sure that consultant understands we are partnering together to help this candidate find the right brand. If I get four calls into a process with a candidate and I don't share an update with that consultant, who's also meeting with them weekly, I failed because it's not a partnership at that point. So not only are we still making the calls, but we also launched our own proprietary technology. We call it fricking fast lane, so it's a play on fricking frack, and literally a consultant can dial in and log in and there it's right there at their fingertips. They can see where their lead is in our process. What's scheduled to happen next? Has the spouse been attending calls? Where are they in their FDD cooling period? So really, those were some clear differentiators.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 6:54

I don't want to leave the. I don't want to leave the most important one, though, and that was people. If somebody said what did Fastlane do right, I would say we found the right brands and we found the right people to be in the Fastlane. Our team is just it's grit. They are the hardest working team and they truly have a passion for the brand and for each candidate, making sure that they find a fit for them. So I think all of those other things are so nice the differentiating items of technology and how we assigned people and teams and all that but if you don't find the right people in the Fastlane and the right brands, that will still not add up to success.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 7:30

Yeah, everything is just smooth and dialed in. I think that you've analyzed all parts and removed the friction from each part on all sides. It's great.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 7:41

Now.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 7:42

I know you probably have some things in mind. I have one in mind, but do you have any stories that you want to share? You talk about people rarely get to 100 units. Well, I know that I've sent some people your way that have contributed to the rise of your restoration brand. That is out of that 100 unit figure.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 8:05

It's been a big one all the rise when you're referencing it.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 8:08

Yes. So do you have any stories that you can share with people of what's happened when everything goes right?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 8:14

It's hard to choose. But maybe what's been most astounding to us and I don't know that we knew this would happen when we started the company, but it's probably been these brands that have come in and literally they have less than 30 territories sold and they're stuck. And that can happen you get your first 10, your first 20, your first 30, and then you're just kind of stuck and they can't move forward and they can't grow and it becomes a slow crawl. And then we're able to come in, launch our process, bring them into the consultant networks and deliver success to the degree that private equity notices. And we've now had eight brands go through a private equity event. And that means so much to me because not only are those franchisees now backed by the experience, the financial strength and all of the processes of what private equity can bring, but that founder, him and his team, or her and her team their lives are changed. It's really remarkable.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 9:07

So I think of Monster Tree, which was Josh Skoln, like a good friend of mine.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 9:10

We were just texting over Mother's Day and I think when we signed Monster Tree they had 17 territories and they were pretty stuck and we sold a couple hundred and he moved on to authority brands, sold Monster Tree to authority brands, mosquito Shield, michael Morehouse an incredible partner for 10 years before they signed with the Fastlane and they were 40 territories and really just again kind of stuck.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 9:34

They'd seen some of their competitors in the pest control space make a big move but they were just kind of stagnant in their growth and we came in, sold over 300 territories and they had an exit with Princeton and Five Star. Incredible partner, koala Insulation, scott Marr what a founder Koala Insulation was at three territories when we signed them and we've sold over 300. And they just announced, I think two weeks ago, their acquisition with Empower brands and now Koala will be a part of Empower incredible again private equity partner. There's many more but I think to me that's probably and I wouldn't have even predicted it you just wanted to help these brands grow. But when you grow them to a point that the big players in the industry take note and you're able to change lives at that magnitude, that's really fulfilling.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 10:24

Well, not every brand qualifies to work with you. Like you said, you looked at 195 brands or something and worked with eight. What makes a brand qualify to work with you?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 10:36

Really good question. It took us time, lance, to get it right. I wanna say what? We had some misses early. We didn't know for sure and we studied it and we would go back and look at okay, what worked, what didn't. We thought this brand was gonna go. It didn't, and then the pandemic hit. You know how it is.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 10:52

So eventually we have these strategy sessions two times a year with our LT and eventually we just had to get away from, get out of the weeds of the day-to-day activity of Fastlane and we established two sets of criteria. We call them our necessities and our niceties. And so now with brand recruitment and selection, which is now led by Brent Seabalm. I did it for years, but now we have a VP of brand partnerships and he gets to know a brand and there's a, you know. We put them through a process of interviewing them, reviewing their materials, and if they can't check every necessity, he never even brings it to LT, he doesn't even continue their process.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 11:28

The necessities are some of the things you would expect. They have to have the financial strength, because we know we're going to take them on a run, so they have to have the financial strength for that. There has to be a few franchisees open willing to validate, and they have to love the system. We have to see systems and processes ready. We want to see a decent item 19 earnings claim so that we can tell franchisees what this could mean to them. A reasonable item seven on the investment side.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 11:52

We review item two to make sure there's not extensive litigation and all the things you would expect, something that's differentiated in what they do. So we look at all that and then we bring it to LT. We study the brand and we decide as a group whether or not it's a fit for the fast lane. So yeah, that's been a process over the years getting that right and I wish I could tell you we're back in a thousand today but you still everyone's from I went. Oh, I thought that one was going to be big and it was a miss. But we stay committed. We try hard with our brands once they're in.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 12:22

Well, so say, somebody clicks on the link next to this video and wants to contact you guys and work with you guys. What are the steps that they go through from like day one to implemented, and their role in?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 12:37

Yes, again, we have a team that works on qualifying brands. So if they fill out the form right away, they're going to hear from Kathy Durkin and she's going to give them a call and just walk them through some basic questions and then she's going to schedule them with Brent Seabalm, who I just mentioned, who's our VP of brand relationships and brand partnerships, and so they will work with him for probably a couple of months just really walking through how our process works. He'll probably fly out there, get to know them, look at the brand. Eventually he'll pull me in, we'll look at their FDD and we'll consult around the FDD. That's an important part, that franchise disclosure document. While it's a legal document 80 page legal document it's also our playbook for sales. So it needs to be honest, it needs to be transparent, but it also needs to be reasonable in terms of what we can and cannot say as part of their process. And then we'll move into contract phase.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 13:26

After that we build out everything, their full discovery process. We take all candidates on a series of six to seven calls. So of course, we build out all the materials and the marketing. We take them through an eight week onboarding process, we assign the team and then we launch them into the networks and onto the portals and it's go time. But even post launch our brands will tell you we still assist in their health because it's important that they stay healthy in the midst of the accelerated growth that we drive. So we have these mastermind groups where we put our brands together and they share. We moderate the topic, but they share best practices. They learn from how do I set up a call center? Who should I partner with for marketing? So they really learn from the best of the best. We do quarterly health scoring to make sure they're still in a good position for us to continue to drive growth. So it's an exciting process.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 14:16

Right, it sounds like more than we buy leads and we talk to people about their brand.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 14:23

No More than that.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 14:27

Yeah, so what is the timeframe on that then, like from day one to implement it?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 14:34

I would say usually the brand vetting process is a couple months. We're getting to know you for two to three months and then our onboarding process is two months. We have it down to eight weeks where you're meeting with our team weekly, we're building the materials, we're learning from you, we're assigning the team and then we launch. And so you know you're launching within five to six months. Now it takes us a couple months to build that momentum. As you know, our process of walking a candidate through a brand discovery process is six to seven weeks. So even when we get those leads now we're going to work on and we're really going to make sure they understand the aspects of your franchise brand. So we're probably hosting our first confirmation day, then three months or so post launch, so all together probably five, six months to get started, and then you're hosting candidates at your location three months after that.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 15:22

Is there anything that a brand can do in advance to kind of prepare themselves for the opportunity and to speed it all up?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 15:30

You know, we have signed some brands that have extensive marketing and they've already worked very hard on their FDD and others. One in particular I can think of that I said okay, I need your marketing materials, why don't you send over what you have? And we build a lot of it, but we like to start with where they're at. And I got a logo and that was it. We flew out our media marketing team and it was fine.

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane): 15:53

But really it's important that in that onboarding process sometimes we can get a brand through it in six weeks and sometimes we take a brand 10 to 12 weeks and it's all about how quickly the brand responds on helping on that two minute drill, sharing their resources. The back and forth and the iteration around the FDD and all final decisions belong to the brand and, of course, the brand's attorney. But we're going to work on. Okay, are your IC territories too large? All the time I see fee structures in a position that doesn't protect the brand without any minimums. Little things like that we'll look at, but mainly just staying ahead of that growth.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 16:29

Well, Carey, I want to thank you for joining us today and if you're listening and you would like to try to go https://Franpro. vip/GoFastlane to work with franchise Fastlane, here, fill out your information and someone will get back with you. Thank you, thanks.