Caselet 2: Morton’s Ice House Morton’s Ice House began as a grill and microbrewery near the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, in 2004. In two years’ time, the company opened two locations in...

Caselet 2: Morton’s Ice House

Morton’s Ice House began as a grill and microbrewery near the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, in 2004. In two years’ time, the company opened two locations in Athens as well as a location in Clemson, South Carolina. Sherry Morton, the founder of the company, then hired Trey Denton to sell franchises in other college towns. Trey, after a successful career selling Subway franchises, sold 12 franchises in the company’s third year. Sherry thought that was a good first year, but her goal was to have 200 franchises in the next two years. So she hired five more salespeople and asked Trey to manage them. She would then do franchisee training, franchisee support, and corporate marketing. Quickly a number of problems arose: Salespeople were calling on the same prospects, which led to confusion. By contrast, other prospects were not getting called upon even after requesting information from Morton’s. After six months, the sales staff had sold a total of 22 franchises. Worse, two of the salespeople quit, and 10 franchisees wanted out of their contracts, saying they had been misled as to what the company offered. At this point, it was pretty clear that there were problems. Why? What should Sherry do?