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improving, amplifying, enlarging, expanding, or advancing
franchisee: one who is given a warrant, charter, or license
a seasoned pro: an experienced, a well versed, an established, or a practised specialist
respective: particular, specific, individual
to be in touch with something: to be familiar with, no stranger to, or accustomed to something
     
Selling products and services simultaneously
    Especially clever salespeople offer not just products to their customers but also the
matching
services. This is how René Frauenkron goes about it.
    René Frauenkron, a salesman from Bochum,
has come up with
an especially useful business idea for his company Boga GmbH. He sells
deep-frying
oil to his restaurant and catering business customers and at the same time offers his services
to dispose of
the
used-up
oil.
    It was this combination of products and services offered that
enabled
Frauenkron
to put his competitors in their place
. While others
have to grapple with
their customers’
“stinginess is cool”
mentality, he is profiting from his customers’
indolence
,
“They don’t have to worry about a thing.I collect their used-up deep-frying oil and at the same time deliver fresh supplies.”
Quicker than the copy-cats
    However, René Frauenkron knew that it takes more than an attractive selling idea
to open up
a new market. Good ideas get copied. Therefore, he had to ask himself,
“What can I do to have the cake before the others divide it among themselves?”
He found the right solution,
“Restaurateurs are a world in themselves. They know one another, they meet and compare notes .”
Frauenkron
took advantage of
this network for opening up his market.
    First of all, he needed a suitable
referral
customer. His objective was to find a local restaurant/catering business with a good reputation. Therefore, he first
approached
the catering department of Schalke 04, a German national league soccer club. There he quickly found good contacts,
“I’m coming from the catering business myself. That’s why our meeting was less a sales representative/customer business negotiation than a visit among colleagues.”
Another factor, which led to Schalke’s quickly placing confidence in René Frauenkron was the competence he displayed while explaining his services,
“My contacts were enthusiastic about my idea. Less than an hour later it was a done deal
.”
Successful referral strategy
    This successful key-account acquisition provided Frauenkron with the necessary confidence to contact other potential key accounts. His referral strategy
bore fruit
relatively quickly: From the Maritim Hotel Gelsenkirchen, he was referred to the Maritim Hotel Niendorf and from there to the Maritim Hotel Cologne.
    Frauenkron reached his goal of opening up the market as quickly as possible via referral customers, “
About 60
%
of my customers come from referrals.”
    During the first month, he had already acquired 20 key accounts, by the second month there were 40, in the third month 60, and today, four years after the start, there are 300. They
bless
Frauenkron, who meanwhile has become a franchise partner of Berlin-based “Gerlicher Fette und Öle GmbH,” with sales of approximately 600 000 Euros.
Profitable additional businesses
    Long since, Frauenkron has expanded his
line of goods
and sells, aside from oils and fats, restaurant/catering business
accessories
to his colleagues. Every visit to a customer provides him with the opportunity to generate lucrative additional business,
“We talk about the industry and the colleagues and ultimately about what else the customer could use.”
    Through all of this, René Frauenkron makes sure to avoid putting pressure on his customers,
“My customers are old hands in their business. You can’t pull the wool over their eyes and you can’t talk them into things. You have to convince them what the best solution is for them.”
    That he’s on the right path
became obvious
when the first competitors tried to copy