Jason Moss – Batteries Plus

You’ve taken the leap and made the investment to own and operate a franchise business. The franchising company sells great products that are always in demand and provides the demographic data to help you find the best location, the real estate savvy to negotiate a good lease and the construction connections to build your store.

As soon as a store lease has been signed, you get to start selling products to commercial accounts—prospecting for new customers perhaps six months before you unlock the store doors to greet your first customer.

Jason Moss | Director of Real Estate and Acquisitions | Batteries Plus

Making B2B sales before a store opens is what’s expected of Batteries Plus franchise holders, says Jason Moss, the company’s director of real estate and acquisitions.

There are, of course, other benefits to becoming a Batteries Plus franchisee, and Moss and his team of six provide the backing support from lease management to store construction along with franchisee training. But B2B sales are a must as part of the “commercial first” approach to making franchises successful.

“We want to make franchisees profitable right away and give them a foothold in the community instead of waiting for foot traffic when they open,” Moss explains. “There are so many commercial applications and opportunities for what Batteries Plus sells and services we provide, and strong B2B sales means a franchisee isn’t restricted to only selling to our customers who come into the store.”

Providing power

The first Batteries Plus store opened in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1988. From its inception, the company has been more than a convenient place to buy batteries to power flashlights, radios, toys and appliances; it also offered charging, testing and installation services.

However, the growth of cell phone technology as well as the need for portable power has expanded the inventory and offerings. Batteries Plus has grown to more than 720 locations throughout the U.S., with 85 percent of the stores operated as franchises.

At Batteries Plus, a customer can buy windshield wiper blades, get phone repairs, program key fobs for their cars or get batteries powering everything from a remote control to the trolling motor on a fishing boat.

With so many people now working from home and new applications for batteries emerging, Moss expects expansion to continue unabated.

“We offer all the solutions for power storage–how can we power your life?” he says.

Ready to sell

As part of their work, Moss and his team train franchisees in B2B selling, beginning just after a franchise agreement has been signed. Training includes two separate weeks at company headquarters in Wisconsin to learn about products and accompanying others on sales calls. Additional training for operations comes in-store and with online videos and webinars.

As an example of establishing B2B sales before opening a store, Moss says the franchisee of a new store in El Paso, Texas, has successfully contracted to sell lithium batteries to the city’s police department.

As B2B sales begin, he and his team help find a store location and work with landlords on leases. Batteries Plus stores are typically 1,000 to 1,500 square feet and need ample, visible parking for services such as battery installations. Moss says they use third-party data tools and analysis that looks at market conditions, the median income in an area and a location’s convenience for customers.

“We’re a needs-based business and we need to be convenient for our customers,” Moss says. “We don’t typically have to be in the newest shopping center, but we certainly want to be in a retail area. This gives our franchisee the advantage of a more economical site selection”

His team also includes store planners who work with new franchisees on setting up stores, the opening process and creating an online presence. Moss says it typically takes about eight months from signing a franchise agreement to opening a store.

“We also manage the entire construction process from architecture to layouts to getting permits and construction completed,” Moss says. “We do everything needed to get a store open. We’re setting up a store to be a comfortable experience. We provide service with our product—dedicated attention along with the battery. Most people are looking for something particular.”

Analytics for expansion

An Ohio native who went to college in Utah, Moss joined Batteries Plus in November 2019 because the analytics it had begun using to support new and existing franchises piqued his interest and made him a good fit for the company, he says.

Moss earned his bachelor’s degree in business from Utah Valley University in 2008 and his MBA from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business in 2020.

While at Utah Valley and after graduating, he was an operations manager and owner for Clean Carpet Guys Inc. in the Provo area. He developed marketing strategies and built a customer base of 4,000 clients with a 68 percent retention rate where the industry average was 45 percent.

In April 2017, Moss joined R&R Environmental Inc. as a real estate environmental hazards project manager, and while at Clean Carpet Guys Inc. and R&R, he also owned and operated Leafy Rock Property Management.

Moss had met his wife at Utah Valley and they were raising three children in the Provo area when he learned of the open real estate project manager position at Batteries Plus. Moss and his family moved to Wisconsin when he joined the company and he was promoted to his current role in April 2021.

“This has been a great career move and I’ve been able to make an impact with the company,” Moss says. “I enjoy playing a part in Batteries Plus’s growth by bringing analytics into the decision making process, site selection, space analysis and store development.”

View this feature in the Blueprint Vol. V 2023 Edition here.