Terry Had My Best Interests At Heart
“Terry Coker always looked out for me and my best interest and that is one of the things that makes him a great consultant.
“I had worked in medical device sales and pharmaceuticals for 25 years and so I was kind of niched into what I could do when I got laid off from my job. And, they had a hiring freeze so even if there was an open territory I couldn’t apply for it. At the time I reached out to Terry I had six months of severance left so I decided to commit to finding a franchise and I stopped looking for a job.
“Right from our initial telephone conversation, Terry would tell me, ‘Don’t feel that you have to do anything. If there comes a time even months down the road when you feel this isn’t a fit, don’t worry about it. Make the best decision for you and your family. Don’t get upset that we are not working together any longer that it will affect me at all.’
“Consultant is a perfect word for Terry. He consulted me all the way through the franchise-investigating process. He was never pushy, he was never ‘salesy,’ it was always my needs that he focused on. My best interests were always his best interest.
“We were through the process and he had done a lot of legwork with me and out of the blue I got a call with a job offer in the pharmaceutical field. Wow. I had the opportunity to go back into my field. I called Terry and he said, ‘Hey, you do whatever you feel is best. Only you can make that decision. No hard feelings if we don’t continue to work together.’ I could feel that he was genuinely concerned about me, and when we spoke afterward he asked how the interview went. He never asked from his behalf, never indicated that he was concerned about his compensation, he always asked with interest and concern about whether the offer was right for my life.
“In the end, I decided not to take the job. The franchise I bought into is called Fibrenew it is a leather, plastic, vinyl restoration company. They have eight markets they work in, everything from automotive to residential furniture, exam tables to marine, aviation, lot of warranty work through insurance companies with vinyl siding and vinyl window repair.
“Terry always said the biggest compliment he can get is when someone refers people to him, and I have. Some of my friends are in the same boat and I said, you have to call my buddy Terry because this is a tough thing to go through. I have three daughters and I was unemployed. I had a severance package, but always at the back of my mind was this concern that I had to find something to support my family. Terry always made me feel that I would do great at this particular franchise and he showed me why. Working with Terry brought such a sense of security through the whole process.
“And when I refer people to Terry they always say the same thing – their initial worry is they will talk to someone who wants to place them in a particular territory or put them in just any franchise because that is when they get paid. But everyone who has talked to Terry has said that is not the case. There is no pressure, there’s no forcing you into anything. Terry always says, ‘You do what you need to do. You decide if you want to take a franchise, if not, that’s fine.’
“So, I tell people, if you really want to find the right franchise, talk to Terry Coker, he is the one who can help you figure it all out.”
