Sales and business consultancy Sandler Training has welcomed two new franchisees – including an experienced franchise professional who is now practicing what he once preached!

Simon Darlaston has made the move from franchisor to franchisee to start his new business in Harrogate. Formerly looking after franchise development across Europe for The Little Gym, Simon says his professional football background – which included regional management for Major League Soccer in the US – is ideally suited to Sandler’s approach.

He said: “If you look at the fundamentals of how Sandler helps people grow personally as well as professionally, you’ll find the same traits in a top sportsperson. There was a really clear link that I saw between the two.

“It excites me – over the last 20 years I’ve enjoyed taking what I learned from the world of sport and dropping it into the world of business. Sandler gives me the perfect platform to take this to another level.”

Over in west London, Chris Ginnelly is already flying after using his existing professional network to secure contracts in his first month following training. His background in sales and management, latterly as managing director of tech firm Civica’s digital division, has given him a wealth of business-building experience…but he had a longstanding itch to scratch!

Chris explained: “I’ve always had an itch to run my own business, it’s always been there. I was building someone else’s company and I just thought that if I’m going to employ this much effort and blood, sweat and tears, then I should do it for myself!

“What drew me to Sandler was the authenticity, the way that they encouraged their clients to sell, the processes used and the honesty in the selling methodology. Sandler gives me a world-class frame of reference and tools to work with, and as soon as I met the people I knew I’d found the right business.”

The duo attended their training in Baltimore together before launching their business in Q1, which also saw a host of business development initiatives from Sandler’s head office including a new market-leading online platform and content streaming webinars.