"Our conversion rate has gone up 10 points since the beginning of the year, and I attribute that to a couple of different factors, one of which being Sydney having conversations with these prospective clients. She develops a rapport with them, and that helps our conversion rate."
— Valerie Eichhorn (Sales Assistant), Franchise Development Marketing Manager
The Challenge
The Goddard School doesn't have a lead generation problem. With more than 640 locations across the U.S., the early childhood education franchise draws a steady stream of serious prospective franchisees. What Valerie Eichhorn noticed when she took over as Franchise Development Marketing Manager was a sales problem: those leads were arriving at the top of the funnel and stalling there, without the personal engagement it takes to move a high-value prospect forward.
"I looked at our overall customer experience, and we weren't necessarily engaging with the customer and asking questions to help ensure that we were passing on quality leads over to the sales team,"said Valerie. Her sales team felt it too, telling her again and again that the leads coming their way weren't ready.
Franchise sales made the problem trickier. A prospect who isn't ready to open a school this quarter might be the perfect franchisee next year, so nurturing couldn't be an afterthought. Valerie needed someone dedicated to prospect engagement, but the volume didn't support a full-time salary. Roughly 20 hours a week, flexing with the pipeline, was the real shape of the role. She needed sales support built to scale.
The Solution
Valerie partnered with BELAY and was matched with Sydney, a Sales Assistant whose blend of analytical thinking and warm professionalism fit the stakes of franchise development immediately. Goddard prospects are considering investments of a million dollars or more, and every conversation with them matters.
"Sydney is a great fit for the team because she is super analytical, very logical, very friendly, and professional in interacting with the leads. These are individuals who are looking to make a million-plus investment into our brand. And so we needed someone who could be responsive, could be patient,"Valerie explained.
Sydney stepped into the front of the funnel and owned it. She reached out to prospective franchisees personally by email and phone, answered every new inquiry the same day it came in, and walked prospects through the early stages of discovery so they arrived at the sales team informed and engaged. Then her role kept growing. She managed the CRM daily, pulled segmented lists for franchise development events, and started fixing the process itself, spotting the need for a new lead category for real estate referrals, submitting the help desk ticket, and working with the CRM team to build it. She reviewed outbound marketing emails, audited Calendly workflows, and evaluated testimonial footage, becoming a genuine thought partner for Valerie along the way.
"Sydney is a great fit for the team because she is super analytical, very logical, very friendly, and professional in interacting with the leads. These are individuals who are looking to make a million-plus investment into our brand. And so we needed someone who could be responsive, could be patient."
— Valerie Eichhorn (Sales Assistant), Franchise Development Marketing ManagerThe Impact
With Sydney working the top of the funnel, prospects stopped falling through it. Every inquiry got a same-day response. Every serious lead got a real conversation. And the pipeline showed it.
"Our conversion rate has gone up 10 points since the beginning of the year, and I attribute that to a couple of different factors, one of which being Sydney having conversations with these prospective clients. She develops a rapport with them, and that helps our conversion rate,"said Valerie.
The gains weren't only in the numbers. With lead communications off her plate, Valerie got back the bandwidth to think about growth instead of managing the day-to-day.
"It's provided a lot of space for me to focus again on those strategic items that we need in order to continue to grow,"she shared.
For Valerie, it also settled the question of how to grow a sales function without growing headcount.
"It's very freeing to know that you have an extension of your team, that you're able to build your team without necessarily bringing on additional headcount."Sydney didn't just answer inquiries. She closed the gap between marketing and sales at The Goddard School, and became a trusted part of the team doing it.
