How a Realignment of Philosophy and Exceptional Listening Helped Raintree Deliver for Footprints Floors

Upon his return to Littleton, Colorado after serving in the U.S. Air Force, Bryan Park noticed that Denver’s flooring industry lacked a higher level of customer service and sophistication. So, in 2008, he founded Footprints Floors, which today specializes in installing hardwood floors, carpet, tile floors, backsplashes and laminates. Park opened four locations throughout the Denver metro area before beginning to franchise the business throughout Colorado. After growing the brand to six locations in the state, Park and the Footprints Floors team could see the viability of the brand’s concept and knew it was time to think bigger.

Enter Raintree, the franchise growth solution that takes a comprehensive approach to improving its partners’ digital footprints and brand management to generate quality franchise leads, and ultimately, reach their development goals. For Footprints, Raintree’s proven ability to spearhead growth for its partner brands, particularly evident in its work with other Denver-based franchises Cheba Hut and Teriyaki Madness, was exactly the skill set the brand had been searching for. In 2018, the two companies teamed up. 

“For so long, we were just locally franchised,” Footprints Floors Director of Operations Rachel Simpson said. “With Raintree, we’re now positioned nationally. Their team helped us get buttoned up and prepare internally to put forward a strong brand identity and opportunity as we geared up for growth.”

Before the Raintree-Footprints Floors partnership arrived at its current success, though, the two teams put in a lot of work to make sure they were on the same page. As Raintree began to turn leads over to Footprints to bring in for discovery days, it became clear the two partners weren’t yet optimally aligned to reach their shared goal.

“Simply put, our first attempt to position the brand in the market was a failure,” Raintree CEO Brent Dowling said, a notable admission from the leader of a company with as strong of a track record as Raintree. Because of that experience and success helping so many other brands reach and surpass their growth goals, Raintree knew it was capable of creating the tools to win—the team just needed to dig back in.

“We went back to the drawing board, rebuilt all marketing collateral, including the brand’s franchise development website, and updated the entire sales process. It was two to three months of really hard work,” Dowling said. “We reinvested a ton of time and resources into getting things to perform the way we knew they could.”

The result?

“Since we’ve realigned, Footprints Floors is averaging two new franchise owners per month with a forecast of up to four new owners per month heading into Q4 and 2020,” Dowling said. Footprints has also signed agreements or opened locations in nine new states across the U.S. and counting.

“A lot of learning happened at the beginning of our relationship with Raintree,” Simpson recalled. “What we were each looking for in an ideal candidate wasn’t aligned; the first few people that came in for discovery day weren’t a fit and there's a reason we didn't move forward. To their immense credit, Raintree listened, took that information and focused what they were doing on their end on finding us the candidates we wanted to grow with.”

As a direct result of Raintree’s care and determination to generate that which spelled success for Footprints, the premier flooring installation and restoration franchise saw a substantial uptick in qualified leads in Q2 and Q3 of 2019, Simpson said. 

“We've had some really solid people come through and the majority of our discovery days have led to signed contracts,” she said. “We've found a groove in a very short amount of time.”

To maintain the level of understanding that has proved essential in arriving at Footprints’  current state of growth, Raintree and Footprints Floors have committed to staying in constant communication. Park and Raintree VP of Development Brian Knuth connect on an almost daily basis to ensure the needs of both parties are being met and vision remains aligned during what has become an incredible development push for Footprints. Through committed collaboration in pursuit of a common goal, Raintree and Footprints have arrived at the point where their partnership is firing on all cylinders heading into 2020. 

“Working with Footprints has been an incredible endeavor for our team in learning the value of admitting failure and reinvesting in a partner brand,” Dowling said. “Now, the brand is on fire and we’ve already seen an ROI on that effort.”