Background and challenge
The Bordeaux franchisee has a solid sales background, having spent 18 years in the motor trade, where he managed a team of around sixty salespeople. In 2019 he decided to move into wedding photography, as he no longer identified with the values of his former company. Then COVID arrived and wedding photography alone became difficult, so he branched out into corporate photography and video. He discovered virtual tours in 2023 and was immediately hooked. As he puts it: ‘It’s a world I was passionate about straight away, and I think there’s a market that hasn’t been taken yet.’
At the start of 2024 he came across one of our posts on Facebook. Intrigued by our offer and drawn by the familiar orange easy logo, he looked into the company further. Our sales team then got in touch and quickly won him over with their energy and professionalism. ‘I really did see myself in the values and the ambitions, and that’s why I started easyVirtual.tours in April.’, he says.
However, he started his franchise just before May, a month full of bank holidays and long weekends in France. That made it hard to book appointments with potential clients, as businesses and private individuals were often unavailable. As a result, his first weeks were not as productive as he had hoped.
The solution
To support our franchisees, easyVirtual.tours runs national Meta advertising campaigns. They are designed to generate quality leads for each franchisee in their own area, and they give them business opportunities from the very start of their time with easyVirtual.tours, across many different industries.
These campaigns brought him two leads in property, which he then turned into clients. The first was a homeowner who wanted to sell his house; the second owned a flat share and was looking to let its rooms. According to our franchisee, their goals were clear: ‘showing their property at its best’, to speed up the sale for the first and to attract student tenants for the second.
The results
The Bordeaux franchisee not only converted these leads, he also made additional sales, increasing the value of each contract. For the client selling his home, he offered a 2D floor plan and his photography services on top of the virtual tour. For the owner of the flat share, he worked on the visitor journey within the tour, adding features such as a contact form.
His clients expressed their satisfaction in positive reviews. The homeowner selling his house praised our franchisee’s professionalism and the quality of his work, saying that ‘he captured the beauty and strengths of our property brilliantly despite the grey weather that day’. The client added that they were ‘convinced it will play a crucial role in how quickly it sells’. The owner of the flat share is just as pleased with his work, particularly the way it shows off her property and the neighbourhood it is in.
Looking ahead, he would like to build national partnerships and work with key accounts. ‘I’d like us to have a few national agreements and leads coming in from key accounts.’, he explains. He has also set himself an ambitious goal: ‘to reach revenue of €20,000 to €30,000 by the end of the year, though it won’t be easy’.
To conclude, our Bordeaux franchisee wants to share his experience with anyone thinking of becoming an easyVirtual.tours franchisee. He stresses the support and guidance provided by the team. In his words, ‘it’s rare to find a franchise where you’re followed and supported this closely.’ He highly recommends taking the plunge.
