Franchises
Herrenkohl Consulting helps franchisors to build a network of strong franchisees who know how to acquire customers, deliver a strong customer experience, and deliver consistent revenue and profit growth.
• How do you select franchisees who have the combination of resources, leadership, and business savvy to make a franchise happen?
• How do you build a network of franchises across the country and across the globe that deliver a consistently high-quality customer experience?
• How do you help franchisees to build a strong team of employees around them to grow their business?
• How do you help franchisees to acquire customers more effectively while maintaining the product and service quality delivered by their franchise?
• How do you create highly satisfied franchisees who see the value of their franchise investment continuing to increase?
These are some of the questions that Herrenkohl Consulting helps Franchisors and Franchisees to answer. We have a specialty in helping franchisors and franchisees to build the right franchise teams. We work with the franchise system to put the right team and leadership in place in order to:
1. Select the right franchisees for the franchise system.
2. Acquire new customers at the franchise level.
3. Deliver consistent, high-quality service across a franchise system.
4. Build a reputation for an excellent customer experience in local markets.
5. Hire and retain A-player employees.
6. Increase the value and salability of a franchise.
7. Improve the franchise ownership experience.
8. Build more effective teams of franchise employees.
9. Create better work/life balance for franchise owners.
Here is what some of our clients have to say:
"Eric has been a tremendous resource not only as a general business consultant but also for his specific knowledge and insight into the specialty running category. His initial general assessment of my wife and I was uncannily accurate with respect to our behaviors, motivations and talent skills. The Clarius assessment test provided a great platform from which we could tackle specific store issues such has hiring, role definitions, marketing and employee development. After being in business for 10 years, Eric helped us tremendously in finding new and innovative ways of structuring our business for the future. Patti and I look forward to continuing our work with Eric who has become one of the most important members of our team."
Rob Calega, Franchise Owner
Fleet Feet Sports, Marlton NJ
“Eric has played a critical role in helping our organization arrive at multiple key hiring decisions over the past two years. He has guided us in developing and deploying a comprehensive recruiting and hiring process for middle management positions. He has also helped us to successfully implement our annual business plan by facilitating leadership development sessions with Middle Management team members. As a result of Eric’s process driven approach combined with his use of reliable diagnostic tools and incredible insight into human nature, he has become an indispensable partner in Senior Management hiring decisions as well as Middle Management hiring decisions.”
Al D’Iorio
CFO
Swiss Farms Stores
“We were mired in the everyday challenges of owning multiple businesses when we discovered Eric Herrenkohl. Eric assisted us in implementing some key tools in our hiring process. Eric’s coaching and guidance has truly allowed us to make better hiring decisions.
When it comes to planning for future growth, Eric has brought a fresh perspective and a big picture approach in helping us to effectively structure our organization. His communication skills and his ability to get to the heart of a matter make his services a “must” for any owner wanting to take their business to the next level. “
Tim and Lori Dreiling, Franchise Owners
Fleet Feet Tulsa
‘‘Eric, I appreciate your being a resource for me over the past two years as I have revitalized Friesen Enterprises. Most successful entrepreneurs know how to surround themselves with talented, effective people and I count you as one such person for me. I have found you to be a great partner in dealing with the leadership and management issues that face a business such as mine. Seeing the business from a distance with the wisdom you bring was so valuable to me. Without it I would have failed to experience this new level of success. Our sessions have been valuable for my own effectiveness as an entrepreneur and leader. I look forward to maintaining our relationship as Friesen Enterprises grows.’’
Ellen Friesen
President
Friesen Enterprises
“You did an excellent job of ‘learning rue21’ and weaving that knowledge into your presentation at our national meeting. You showed a sincere interest in listening and learning about our company. And your presentation style engaged the audience even at a difficult time segment in the day. After the program, people highlighted three take-aways they found most helpful:
#1 The “What, Why, How Method’ of communication: People liked this simple model of communication because it is easy to remember and applicable to every day challenges.
#2 ‘Slow Down to Speed Up.’ We must slow down and take the time to train our associates and in order to explain the what, why, and how of their jobs.
#3 ‘Buddy vs. Boss.’ Many of our District Managers are promoted from within. Your explanation of the difference between being a buddy and a boss was very useful for them.
Thank you for your contribution to our meeting – I look forward to working with you in the future.”
Lori Gillin
Director – Store Operations
rue21
“We have been working with Eric Herrenkohl of Clarius since last year's summer Fleet Feet Sports conference. In short order Eric has had a positive impact on our business.
We utilize Eric for the screening of potential new employees. The results have been very revealing and have not only helped our managers make good hiring decisions, but made them more comfortable in being able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the people they are interviewing. We have saved money and countless hours in training by not hiring employees who do not fit the profile of the successful Fleet Feet Sports employee. Best of all, our customers are seeing our service levels soar as we add additional motivated, trainable and service oriented employees to our staff.
Eric has been working with other Fleet Feet Sports Stores and is very familiar with our business and the many issues we face. I can not recommend enough that you talk to Eric about your business.”
Ed Griffin, Franchise Owner
Fleet Feet Syracuse, Inc.
“This process helped us to clarify the roles and leverage the strengths of every person in our business including ourselves. We now have a clear organizational chart and definition of roles and responsibilities that we can communicate to our staff. This process has helped us move toward the personal and financial goals that motivated us to open our own business. Although we are a small business we can benefit from big business thinking and planning, and we have gotten that in our work with you.”
Russ and Andrea Gunnell, Franchise Owners
Fleet Feet Fayetteville, AR
“We have been using Eric Herrenkohl as our business coach for over a year now. We lacked in areas such as business planning and organization, staffing (how to find good staff), how to distribute all of the duties of running a store, finding quality time for us to be with our 2 daughters, and much more . . . It is amazing the questions he asks to make you think about ways of how to solve the problems/issues you have and how manageable the solutions seem. Our business is growing and we constantly need to change facets of our business. Eric has helped us at each step and has helped us through the details of our growing and still needing to be organized business. We are still meeting with him (over the phone) to discuss many of these same issues as our business continues to grow and change.”
Blaine and Robin Lewis
Franchise Owners
Fleet Feet Roanoke
“Our company has worked with Eric for a number of years at multiple levels in the organization. Eric has better enabled us to recruit and select the right individuals for the right roles. The highest compliment that I can pay Eric is that every time I work with him, I gain new insight that I can immediately apply to our business.”
Bryan Mills
Director – Franchise Development
Fleet Feet Inc.
“As our business steadily grew from a true Mom & Pop enterprise to one with dozens of employees, I feared that my lack of formal education in the areas of business and personnel management would ultimately limit our growth potential. Eric Herrenkohl studied our business and helped us address my three biggest concerns. First, we established a business structure that matches our current size and will grow with us. Second, we implemented long-term career development/retention plans for key employees. Third, we initiated a hiring process that makes use of the latest personnel assessment tools. All have proven effective.”
David Spetnagel, Franchise Owner
Fleet Feet Sports, St. Louis MO
“Our business is growing very quickly and we felt the need to evaluate every facet of the business. This evaluation included us and our full time employees. Herrenkohl Consulting provided us with an objective look at ourselves and our employees. They helped us reinforce some of our own thoughts and re-evaluate many of our processes. They also helped us find a tactful means to approach key employees on touchy subjects. We believe that when we complete this process Fleet Feet Huntsville, Dink and Suzanne and all the employees will benefit through more business growth and individual developmental growth.”
Suzanne Taylor, Franchise Owner
Fleet Feet Sports, Huntsville AL
“Eric, thank you for your coaching work with one of our key managers over the past year. I have seen a big improvement in her effectiveness as a recruiter and a manager as a result of your work with her…Her effectiveness as a leader has noticeably improved, as have her abilities to prioritize and focus. She also is proactively coming up with valuable ideas for our sales meetings, which helps every realtor in our office be more productive.
Most importantly, she is now consistently producing good recruiting results. I now feel comfortable giving her more latitude without an undue amount of involvement from me. The investment I have made with you in coaching has been well worth it. I would highly recommend this process to other business owners who are trying to develop a key person in their organization.”
Maryann Vitale, GRI CRB
Broker/Owner
Prudential Select Properties