X-Press Legal Services
Proven Franchisee Marketing Support
X-Press Legal Services have been recognised as a finalist for the 2010 Franchise Marketing Awards (FMA), in the ‘Best Franchise Marketing Support’ category.
The nomination is recogition for the continuous marketing and business development support offered to X-Press Legal Services franchisees. “Franchising allows the enthusiasm and energy of franchisees to be focused on a business model which is proven to work,” said X-Press Legal Services's Franchise Development Director. “As a franchisor we feel that it is important to support our franchisees in marketing and business development. Every business has to promote itself successfully in order to thrive, we have a put a support structure in place for our franchisees that rewards their efforts and enables them to build strong client relationships.”
The nomination specifically refers to a series of events that X-Press Legal Services Franchisees have organised. Since 2009 X-Press Legal Services has been running training events for solicitors. These educational seminars were launched to inform and update existing and prospective clients of changes to legislations within the personal search industry. The cost of running the events is shared between the franchisees and suppliers.
Last year a series of 28 seminars were scheduled across the UK. The franchisor provided speakers and helped to promote the events with direct mail and e-shots. The combination of shared costs and marketing support allowed for customers to be targeted efficiently. This kept costs to a minimum for the franchisees involved in the events.
Lynne Lister MD explains “solicitors need to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) each year during so running events that offer them a chance to gain free CPD points was always going to get us infront of our target market. The events however also provided a value add for existing clients.”
As part of the franchise package each new franchise attends an intensive two week residential training course at the X-Press Academy within Head Office. During the course the legislation which underpins the industry is covered together with the technical/operational knowledge needed to run the business. Accounts training and an explanation of the sales and marketing process complete a comprehensive introduction to the business but the support doesn’t really get going until the business has started.
The response rate of the 2009 campaign made it the most successful marketing activity that X-Press Legal Services had ever done. Over 1000 solicitors attended the event and each seminar brought and average of a 14% conversion to new client. As a result of this, the launch programme for all new X-Press franchises has been modified so that a CPD event is organised within the first three months of them starting their business. In addition a new series of events has been planned for 2010. 18 dates have been arranged and new content is being added to the programme to keep the seminars fresh.
The 2009 events contributed to a 27% increase in turnover for the year on a franchisee for franchisee basis. While others in their industry have suffered with new legislations and the depressed market, X-Press Legal Services franchisees have flourished through support, dedication and hard work.
The support doesn’t stop after the training course and launch promotion, every franchisee is provided with ongoing technical back up and sales and marketing support. X-Press Legal Services also runs regular training updates for their network and organises Regional Meetings and an Annual Conference.
“Our franchisees come from a wide variety of business backgrounds,” explains Lynne. “New franchisees do not need a legal background as the client is the qualified legal professional. Attention to detail and organisational skills coupled with good communication ability are the key qualities that we look for.” She goes on to explain, “As the business has grown the number of Greenfield opportunities has reduced. We have 42 territories allocated so have 18 vacant areas, we do however have selected established businesses available for resale.”
