When Paul Yi joined the Business Development team at JFE Franchising, his first move was to explore innovative, tech-forward ways of connecting with buyers. Tired of the same old cold-calling, never-hear-back routine, Yi was excited when he found RangeMe. As a RangeMe Premium member and tech enthusiast, Yi takes advantage of all of the Premium features available to him, particularly Sharing and Sharing Insights. Read on to learn how these features are proving to be an incredibly valuable way for JFE Franchising to gain traction with buyers and inform their sales strategy.
In the beginning, there was sushi
JFE (Japanese Food Express) Franchising specializes in fresh, prepared on-site sushi. They currently have more than 800 fresh sushi program franchise locations in various retailers across the United States, as well as numerous standalone sushi shops in South Korea, under their popular Snowfox Sushi brand.
When Yi entered his role as a Business Developer at JFE Franchising, he was eager to shake things up. “The first thing I was looking for was the most innovative, new way of connecting with buyers,” he says. “Not just the old fashioned way of calling around and trying to get in contact. I wanted something that buyers could always go to and see our products.”
This search ultimately led him to RangeMe, and Yi was excited to set up a profile for JFE Franchising and become a Premium member—and from the start, he’s seen success.
“Being a fresh vendor, buyers will almost always need an in-person meeting before they can move ahead with a deal,” Yi explains. “But we’ve seen that being a RangeMe Verified brand helps us bypass a lot of the initial questions buyers have about our offering, our capabilities, our insurance—details like that are already available to them.”
Sharing success
With RangeMe, suppliers can email their profile to buyers directly from their account, or easily create a custom link to their profile to share in external buyer communications. RangeMe Premium members get exclusive access to Sharing Insights, which breaks down exactly how buyers are interacting with the shared link, including the number of unique visitors, average time spent on the profile, and conversion rate.
Example of RangeMe Premium Sharing Insights
Yi immediately saw the value of being able to share JFE Franchising’s profile and track these shares, and took advantage of these features right away.
“Every time we went to a meeting or a trade show, buyers were asking if they could have a product catalogue, so all of my follow up emails now include an individual URL to our RangeMe page, specific to that buyer,” Yi says. “From there, I can see who opened it, who hasn’t opened it, who has or hasn’t visited, and that way I can track if they’re actually interested in moving to the next steps.”
Yi has also found that Sharing and Sharing Insights help him manage his workflow and keep track of open leads. “Sharing has been a good way for me to organize which buyers I’m currently talking with,” he explains. “When I meet with buyers—even if they’re not on RangeMe—I send them a follow-up email including a link to our RangeMe profile, so they can have our product catalogue. Even if that doesn’t lead to a conversion, it lets me track which buyers I’m in contact with, and how they are interacting with our RangeMe page.”
Premium knowledge for an insightful future
In addition to taking advantage of the Sharing and Sharing Insights features, Yi also finds value in the other RangeMe Premium features. “Industry Insights are helpful because they let us see where our competitors are placing their margin, and I also like to check Profile Insights to see which buyers are coming to visit our page, outside of sharing.”
Ultimately, Yi is excited about the ways that RangeMe, and features like Sharing and Sharing Insights, help inform his sales and business strategy. “Even though we are in food service and not a CPG product, we are still getting a lot of value from being a RangeMe Premium account,” Yi says. “RangeMe lets us display our offering in one easy-to-share place, and it lets us track how buyers are interacting with our profile. Those insights are pretty much priceless for us.”
