Exclusive Interview
Neil Witney is a partner agent running stores in Eastleigh,
Havant and Newport on the Isle of Wight.
What did you do before and what prompted the desire to change your career path? I’d always been in and around the telecoms businesses, but I thought to myself: “I’m 42, I’ve doing this (regional manager) a while, I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I’ve still not really made my mark.” At the level I was, to go from regional manager to the next step, you have to wait until someone retires, really. But I couldn’t wait any longer. I’d looked at franchises before, but when I saw
Vodafone I knew it was the perfect thing for me. It was ideal, an industry that I understood and loved, but with a world-class brand behind me… I thought: “this is exactly what I need”. I knew that with the drive and desire I have, if I was running my own company I’d make a success of it. I’d give it a thousand per cent, make the money I want to and change my life for the better. For me, franchising was the opportunity to take the next step up – and beyond! The last five months has been brilliant for me, and for my family, and has given me more time at home, which is important – your work- life balance is key. Before, I spent a lot of time away, whereas now, if my son’s got something happening at school I can go along – it’s that flexibility now that I have in my life. What makes Vodafone different is not only the brand but also the people within that brand, in those stores, and I think I’ve got a good insight into how to get the best out of those people… with franchising it’s all about people, and getting the best out of them.
How was the process of getting on board, what training and support is made available? It was thorough! I had a number of assessments, I gave a presentation and met senior people... it could be nerve racking, but they want you to
do well, because if you’re a good fit then people here are rooting for you... they see your potential and give you the tools to get through it. That kind of support comes because it’s a partner programme, with the emphasis on ‘partner’ – they support you through and through. It was the best thing to be told: “we want you
to be a partner agent for our brand”. I felt on top of the world – and I still do! I’m still proud to talk about it with my family and friends. It makes me feel good every day. For the training, I spent time in a company
store for about two weeks, full time. The team and the manager treated me just like I was one of their guys so they showed me what they did and all the systems, how it operates, so that gave me the insight into the business. When you get your stores, you can keep the
existing management and staff. I chose to, so rather than run it myself, I could help to build and grow them. At my Isle of Wight store in the first month I was there every single day, so that I could learn – and that gave me a much better
understanding of the business and how to help it going forward. I think now that I’ve taken on more stores, I’ve learned from so many different people – and that’s really, really helped. I went on a course yesterday for sales training and when I got the invite, I thought: “What am I doing? I’m the franchisee, why do I need to go on sales training?” But it’s Vodafone’s way of saying “We invest in our managers, in our teams, to go on this training… you’re part of our team... we want you to go on it so that you’re experiencing exactly what sales teams are going through. It took me back 10-12 years! It was great stuff and has given me some ideas that I can take back with me to my team and say “look, why don’t we do this?” or “we could be doing this, or that, much better!” They still keep you fully involved in any courses that come around...
How has life changed? I’m much less stressed! My wife says so! My work-life balance is a lot better – as a regional manager I used to have 18 or so stores to look
78 | The Franchise Magazine 2019
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