ScreenMobile Franchise Growth With Raintree Franchise Sales

How ScreenMobile has utilized RainTree’s franchise development expertise over the last 5 years to achieve sustained unit growth

When ScreenMobile president and CEO Scott Walker was shopping around for a franchise development partner to grow his established on-site window and door screen repair and replacement franchise, culture was his biggest priority. The brand was signing about three franchise agreements per year and Walker was looking to jumpstart expansion. He had already unsuccessfully interviewed three companies before consulting  RainTree, where he was met with the honesty and commitment he had been seeking.

“The RainTree team’s straightforward, real language and practicality was totally different than the other franchise development companies I’d talked to. RainTree made no lofty promises and shared our view that working hard leads to progress and success means being flexible and accommodating along the way,” Walker said. ScreenMobile enlisted RainTree’s services, and the relationship has only grown strong over the past five years.

From the start of the relationship, RainTree and ScreenMobile worked as a team. “As a mature brand with solid system implementation and support, we knew our strengths. RainTree’s knowledge and understanding of the franchise development world leveraged those strengths to bring growth to our system,” Walker said.

RainTree focused its efforts on improving ScreenMobile’s ability to develop leads and implement an education process that results in the recognition of good franchise candidates. “We really put a lot of effort into their website and franchise brochures in the beginning,” RainTree CEO Brent Dowling said. “We were strategic about implementing some really smart geo-targeted lead generation campaigns to reach our development goals,” he added.

What resulted over the next several years of partnership was a rise in signed franchise agreements that consistently falls within the range of 8-12 per year, almost triple the number that existed before ScreenMobile’s partnership with RainTree.

RainTree also helped ScreenMobile refine its franchise sales process and establish an exit strategy. “Brent helped us define a resale process so that when our franchisees get to certain level, they can engage with a professional team to assist in exiting the business,” Walker said. He also credits Dowling’s team with building ScreenMobile’s credibility among the broker community, which has led to an increase in broker business due to an assurance that leads are nurtured professionally.

But beyond the quantifiable returns, both Walker and RainTree Vice President of Franchise Development Brian Knuth point to the strong, tenured relationship between the companies as the most rewarding return. “We just really enjoy the people we get to work with,” Knuth said. “When you get to year four and five with a franchise, it feels like your own brand. It’s been really cool to see the relationship between the RainTree team and the ScreenMobile team blossom, and I think that’s a big part of why we’ve achieved success together.”

Walker pointed to RainTree’s expertise and professionalism as catalysts for a shift in franchisee perception of the ScreenMobile brand. “I wasn’t expecting RainTree to change the dynamic and perception of our franchisees about the brand. By putting a real team in place to develop and grow the brand, it really built up franchisee confidence and validation.” Additionally, Walker said his leadership team’s professionalism and sales acumen has risen to the next level through working with RainTree, something he called “interesting and rewarding.”

“RainTree knows what they are doing. They are professionals with great team behind them that can help a system at my stage to grow and develop,” Walker said.