Duration: 29m 22s
Our Business Performance Coaches handle so many different functions that it’s tough to capture it all in one 30-minute chat. But Joe Smithberg does an amazing job of summing it up during a recent Tuesday Talk with host and VP of Franchise Development Jen Cheney.
Joe is a Business Performance Coach serving the southeast region, which includes Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Florida. Coaches like Joe play an absolutely vital role in the Right at Home ecosystem. But what does that role look like on a day to day basis?
“I do a lot of business coaching and consulting. I do a lot of sales coaching too,” says Joe. “But we do so much with coaching that it depends on the individual. At the end of the day, we want to bring value to your business.”
Let’s dig a little deeper to find out exactly how coaches and franchisees work together to create this value.
Getting Off To the Right Start
Coaches and franchisees begin collaborating on this goal from Day 1. Joe points to the Right Start program, which is the intensive six to nine month period of education, training, and high-touch support that greets every new franchisee. A vital part of this program is the Right Start coach – a pillar of knowledge and guidance as you get your franchise off the ground.
“With the Right Start process, you’re working with the coach to get you going,” says Joe. “I always describe that as setting the table, putting those pieces in place to initiate growth within that office.”
Those pieces may look a little different for each new franchisee.
“It could be ‘Who’s your first hire? Are you a good salesperson? Or do we need to think about hiring a salesperson?’” says Joe. “It’s also about helping you get connected with everyone at the home office as well as helping you understand the intricacies of all the different software platforms that we use.”
An Evolving Relationship
Your relationship with coaching doesn’t end with the completion of your Right Start program. Ultimately, the goal is to transition smoothly into working alongside a business performance coach like Joe. As a franchisee, you can expect to have a very close working relationship with this coach over the course of your ownership journey.
“You want to be friends with your coach. You want to be able to get along and understand how each of you works,” says Joe. “Then it’s the coach’s responsibility to help you answer the question – What do we need to do to get this thing growing?”
Answering that question is an ongoing and constantly evolving process. And throughout that process, franchisees can also expect their relationship with coaching to evolve. As Joe explains, “Coaches will typically start by talking to our owners on an every-other-week cadence. Then as you get going and you’re more comfortable in the business, we will meet basically once a month.”
And what do owners and franchisees discuss during these weekly and monthly calls? Joe says “those calls are everything from going through strategic business planning and setting the stage for the year to come to tracking our progress toward our goals on a month by month or quarter by quarter basis.”
Ultimately, these calls are geared toward identifying areas of need or opportunity, whether this means finding more ways to create leads, close sales, recruit caregivers, or to address any number of other practical and operational issues. Whatever it is, says Joe, “we’re always moving around to try and identify what we can do best to set franchisees up for success.”
Creating Your Company Culture
One way that coaches help set franchisees up for success is through Right At Home’s Strategic Business Plan. But this plan is more than just a roadmap to success for new franchisees. It’s also about helping every new owner decide what kind of business they ultimately hope to build.
“It starts with your company culture,” says Joe. “What’s your mission? What’s your purpose? We go through that exercise, especially when you’re new, because you’re in charge of creating your culture as a business owner.”
Company culture takes on heightened importance in the kind of work that we do. This is just as true when it comes to recruiting and supporting caregivers as it is to providing compassionate, high-quality care for your clients.
“Culture is so important in this space, especially as you bring people on. It’s important to be able to speak to what your mission is, what your culture is, and how you emotionally support all those individuals,” says Joe.
Putting Relationships First
Joe also has a particular passion for sales coaching. He explains that he has a lot of prior experience through his background in pharmaceutical, medical equipment, and hospice sales. But the real reason he places so much emphasis on sales is because of what it really represents in the world of care giving.
“It is sales, but it’s really about building relationships, about making friends,” Joe says. “So if you’re not a good salesperson, are you good at making friends? Do you have the ability to build rapport with individuals? Because that’s really half the battle.”
Joe acknowledges that many new franchise owners are terrified at the prospect of having to walk into a room and closing a sale. But that’s exactly why franchisee coaching includes a deep dive into sales training. At Right at Home, “we’ve built so many tools and resources and videos and live collaboration calls to help people get comfortable with sales,” says Joe.
Tapping Your Fellow Franchisees
In addition to his role supporting individual franchisees in his region, Joe works as the lead coach for two Right at Home Performance Groups. Performance Groups are made up of Right at Home franchisees – usually between 10 and 12 owners.
Franchisees must be in business for at least one year before they are eligible to participate in a Performance Group. But once you do reach that milestone, this is another amazing opportunity to learn, grow, and receive guidance both from a performance coach and from your fellow franchisees.
“The goal of the group is really to hold each other accountable, to set goals, and help each other get to those goals,” says Joe. Participation in these groups requires a lot of commitment, including travel for twice annual meetings.
But it’s worth the effort, says Joe. “We just see it over and over again. Those who are in groups grow faster. They seem to be more attuned to the little intricacies and the metrics within their business.”
In fact, says Joe, “I’m a better coach because I go to these meetings,” says Joe, “I’ve learned so much, and I’ll take what I’ve learned and tell the other coaches so they can share it with their portfolio of owners, and vice versa.”
Mastering the Technology
Joe refers to this type of knowledge sharing as cross-pollination, and it’s a pretty important part of what coaches do. This is because Right at Home is always exploring new ways to improve and expand our network. Part of that exploration includes the adoption of cutting edge technology.
Joe points to a software package called Z Wise, which helps franchisees keep track of their financials, and the WellSky software platform, which Joe calls “the Holy Grail of dashboards.”
“In fact,” says Joe, “we created a WellSky scorecard that is available to every owner. It has everything – how many hires you made, how many sales calls you made, your conversion rates, your revenue, your hours – all those things in one awesome dashboard.”
Making An Impact
All of these resources — the technology, the tools, and the coaching –come together to advance a singular goal – to provide life-changing home care for our clients and their families. As Joe observes, “We get to do incredible work. I talk to a lot of owners and I’ve learned that if you don’t have a ‘why’, then you need to find one.”
“The good news,” Joe says, “is that if you don’t initially have a ‘why’, you’ll find one really quickly because of the difference you’ve made in someone’s life, the conversation you had with a family member, or the hugs you get on the way out of a consultation.”
“This is just such an amazing industry that we’re in,” Joe says. “And I can’t say enough good things about Right at Home as a brand.”
To learn more about the support systems provided to franchisees, visit https://rightathomefranchise.com/. To hear from other Right at Home business performance coaches, visit the Resource Center and view the Tuesday Talk series.