Sales leads are the lifeblood of a successful business – which is why a family with years of experience in the automotive sector chose to expand their business by joining The Wheel Specialist franchise.

Christopher Chubb, his dad and his brother, have run a family-owned body shop close to Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham, for decades, but when they decided to expand into alloy wheel refurbishment, they chose to invest in a franchise rather than going it alone. 

“We know that when you are running a business on your own, it can take years of hard work to build up customer numbers,” says Christopher. “But we had heard about The Wheel Specialist’s central website lead generation and CRM system and we knew that would be a far quicker way to gain customers. It was the main reason we chose to become franchisees with The Wheel Specialist.

“We launched as franchisees on July 2019 and it was full-on from day one,” says Christopher. “Leads were coming in even while we were setting up the business. We were getting 14-20 leads a night. Even now it’s 12-15 some nights and about 25 on a weekend. 

“We were closed at the height of the lockdown but The Wheel Specialist’s central internet booking system stayed up and running, and many people used their time at home to make bookings for wheel refurbishment. As soon as lockdown lifted, we had a huge surge in business and we expect to see an ongoing increase as those customers recommend our services.”

Statistics show that other Wheel Specialist franchisees experienced the same effect. Jack Murphy, The Wheel Specialist’s Managing Director, says: “We saw a massive increase in the public web leads received through the main Wheel Specialist website from May to August and all were distributed to our franchisee network.”

Leads increased by 17% in May year-on-year and then soared by 72% in June, 49.6% in July and 54.9% in August.

Christopher and his family had never owned a franchise before, but he says: “The Wheel Specialist’s is already a well-known brand and its system for generating leads has saved us lots of time and work. I have learnt a lot from them about sales, marketing, work scheduling and how to operate an efficient system to grow your business.

“The franchise package includes the systems and training needed to operate it successfully. Head office is always there to answer your questions, and you can call on the experience of more established franchisees in the network.”

Christopher says: “The Wheel Specialist franchise worked very well for us. It lived up to its promises from day one and continues to deliver.”

Automotive trade experience is not essential to manage a wheel refurbishment centre as a franchisee with The Wheel Specialist. Investment typically totals £160,000, but you can get started with just £60,000, as funding for the rest is available, subject to status.