The franchising headquarters brings on two experienced new hires to help with Master Franchise and Consumer Sales.
Late last year, the new ownership of Stratus Building Solutions Franchising announced an aggressive growth plan including the expansion of their franchise model into 42 more US metropolitans by 2021. At the time of the announcement, Stratus was currently operating in 24 metros across the United States. Since then, Stratus Building Solutions has expanded into two cities, San Jose and New Orleans, and added Canada with an international corporate partnership. A part of advancing their development plans, the Stratus Building Solutions Franchising Headquarters has made two recent hires to improve their Regional Master Franchise Sales and Regional Master Development / Business Support teams.
Directly in response to the expansion plans, both within the United States and Internationally, Stratus Building Solutions Franchising Headquarters has brought on experienced Franchise sales and marketing executive, Mark Johnson as Vice President of Domestic and International Sales for their most recent hire. Former President and EVP for EmbroidMe, a division of United Franchise Group, and with 30 years of experience in business development, and nearly 19 years of Franchise development experience; Johnson was an ideal fit for this newly created role.
“Mark’s extensive background in domestic and international franchise expansion, franchise planning, sales and marketing experience is a key asset Stratus Building Solutions needs to meet its growth goals for the next five years. Under his management, EmbroidMe saw significant franchise expansion to 350 owners across 10 countries – we look forward to seeing comparable growth within our system,” state CEO, Afshin Cangarlu.
Johnson will have the overall responsibility for Master franchise sales within the US as well as future international market expansion. He will also assist in growing Stratus national customer accounts, and will provide a high level support to the Canadian branch sales team.
Stratus Building Solutions was also excited to bring on another key member to their existing franchise business support division; Jim Morrison of Omaha, NE, who had been operating on a part time basis of the Regional Master Development and Operations team at headquarters since February 2015 was brought on full time in July as Vice President of National Account Sales. Morrison, with more than ten years with the company working for the Master Franchise office in Omaha, NE as a Commercial Cleaning Account Sales Director; demonstrated sales expertise and assisting in earning the Omaha Regional Master office the “Most Improved Franchise 2016” at the Stratus Master Franchise National Meeting in Las Vegas in March.
Morrison is tasked with training new Outside Sales hires at all of Stratus’ locations across the country and conducting continuous educational sessions to advance current Stratus Account Sales and Regional Managers skill sets selling commercial cleaning accounts. Additionally, Morrison will also be further developing the National Account Sales program targeting multi-location businesses across the country.
“We are excited to finally bring Jim on board as a fully dedicated member of our team. Our existing Master Franchises across the country have already seen a boost in Account Sales from his training efforts; he is also a crucial addition in creating the turn-key franchise system we provide our new Master Franchises in establishing their sales footprint in their new locations,” state Channen Smith, COO.
Additionally, Stratus Building Solutions, since changing ownership in February 2015 has already implemented significant improvements in support for the franchisees including re-branding, implementation of new marketing platforms, a customized ERP software and a Top 10 Fastest Growing Franchise in 2016 ranking by Entrepreneur Magazine; all supporting their goals for rapid growth.