Franchise recruitment has long been a specialized portion of the overall sales industry. The franchise sales model is unique in that the sale has many of the same characteristics and signature elements of any sales process……generate a lead, present a value proposition and work to close the franchise candidate. What franchise sales have that is unique when compared to other models is the long term implications that arise from each franchise transaction. A franchise agreement is many times 20 years in length making this business relationship potentially a lifetime commitment between franchisor and franchisee. This creates unique circumstances for a business growing through franchising in that the buyer needs to be carefully scrutinized as to whether they will be a good fit for the brand, business model and overall company culture….not just will they write a check for the franchise purchase.
Good franchise brands have careful franchise selection processes and are enormously picky in who they offer the opportunity for a franchise to. If you don’t have the right experience or capital on hand, you will be fortunate to even get a call back from systems such as Dunkin’ Donuts or Chick Filet. These successful franchise systems have marketing and sales methodology that screens out the unqualified candidates early in the buying process to avoid any wasted time or energy on buyers that just don’t meet the minimums.
So as a new franchisor who is just launching their franchise brand, what aspects of your sales process can we implement to help maximize your ability to find the right franchisees?
1. Have the right people in place. Franchise sales is enormously time consuming and requires not only a large quantity of calls, but also long time periods of commitment to conversations, meetings and relationship development. A Franchisor needs to have people and resources in place to spend the time necessary to get to know them and either select the right people or deselect the wrong people.
2. Franchise marketing and sales requires a large volume of candidates to find the right buyers, many times as many as 200 plus leads to close a sale. If you are looking for the right buyers to join your franchise system, you need to get enough volume of candidates through your pipeline to find the good candidates. If you are dealing with too few candidates, odds are you will not choose the right buyers. We also recommend that you invest in lead portals when you start your marketing efforts in order to drive enough candidates through your sales process. (Franchise Conduit (
www.FranchiseConduit.com), Franchise Opportunities (
www.FranchiseOpportunities.com), FranchiseDirect (
www.FranchiseDirect.com))
3. Ask lots of questions! You need to ask the right questions to get the right answers! Franchise sales requires a deep dive interview process needing
franchise application forms, scheduled interviews asking specific questions, multiple interviewers capable of asking business questions and a defined franchise sales process. Good franchise sales processes are like a deep interview process one might go through while working towards a management position with a larger company.
For more information on franchise sales processes and franchise marketing, contact Chris Conner – Franchise Marketing Systems – [email protected]
