Franchise Recruitment

For many franchisors, the traditional advertising vehicles - portals, print advertising, PR, and broker networks - do not appear to be working as effectively as they were five years ago. We predicted the slow decline of these once-proven vehicles in our white paper, "The Future of Lead Generation: 6 Big Changes Which Will Alter Franchising Forever," available as a free download. Since we've already written a detailed paper on this topic, we won't rehash what we still believe to be highly relevant information. Instead, we will focus only on additional insights we've had since the paper was published a few years ago.

For those who have read the paper, you may remember we took issue with franchise portals for not doing more to provide franchisors with better educated, more informed, and buyer ready leads...

In the previous two issues of FUSR, we published (1) a high-level overview of the 2012 Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR), followed by (2) a selection of highlights from the report. In this third article, we provide more findings from the report, which drew on detailed responses from 110 franchisors representing 109,936 total units (79,254 franchised and 30,682 company-owned).

The three previous issues of the Franchise Update Sales Report (1) introduced the topic of lead generation success; (2) covered Step 1 and the beginning of Step 2 in successful lead generation; and (3) showed the importance of knowing what your franchise buyers want. This fourth installment builds on those ideas, showing how you can "wow" your candidates and the importance of how you present your concept to them.

Billboard the "wow" factors your buyers want
Promote your top attractions in every way you can: in your sales collateral, presentations, public relations, and by educating staff employees. These "wow" factors, or benefits, will drive qualified candidates to join your system.

Survey your top producers to find out what it was about the business that attracted them...

Zig Ziglar once said, "People don't buy drills, they buy holes."

Carrying his logic into franchising, franchisees don't really invest in franchise opportunities; they invest in the future they are designing for themselves and their families. They buy the next chapter of their lives. Whether you are selling multi-million-dollar hotel investments or home-based businesses with low entry costs, franchise candidates are investing in a perceived solution to a personal problem.

Most franchise candidates invest in franchises for reasons that have nothing to do with business. They only appear business-oriented to the mediocre or underperforming franchise recruiter who is not skilled enough or doesn't care enough to ask the necessary probing questions to uncover what is really driving the candidate...

Step 1: Define your market of qualified prospects

Who is your ideal franchise buyer?
Let's begin with knowing your market. Producing quality prospects starts with understanding who your franchise candidate is. Marketing efforts will be disastrous if you don't! It's like being in a boxing match blindfolded with the lights out, with no clear target to punch. You'll be working with the wrong prospects and wasting a bundle of money and time. Worse yet, you'll award franchises to unqualified owners, a painful mistake not easy to resolve.

For superior marketing, craft your franchisee success profile first, before you even think about how to promote your franchise opportunity. If you ever lose sight of your buyer, you can no longer grow to the greatness you aspire...

Try a few of these selling tips to sharpen your process and accelerate your inquiry-to-close cycle. These techniques are speeding deals for franchisors. See what makes sense for your development approach, and you can enjoy more closes in less time.

"What are you doing to create a compelling, response-driven recruitment website for your brand?"

That's what we asked two experts from longtime successful brands - Rob Goggins at Great Clips, and Brian Spindel at Postnet. Here's what they had to say.


Rob Goggins, Vice President of Franchise Development, Great Clips
The Great Clips franchise development website was originally designed to self-educate prospective franchisees. We included a detailed map with territory availability, franchisee testimonial videos, and an SEO-enhanced blog. We focused on aligning brand elements with our salon and consumer site to maintain brand consistency while creating a look and feel appropriate for our different demographics...

The Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR) from Franchise Update Media Group is a comprehensive research guide to sales and lead generation performance in franchise recruitment. The report drills down to industry categories, investment levels, and recruitment budgets; provides marketing costs information; reports the top-producing sales and lead sources; reveals performance evaluations of franchise websites and follow-up to prospect inquiries; and analyzes current and historical industry growth trends.

The data and analysis in this 150-page report have been helping franchisors for years to benchmark their sales performance, accelerate system growth, increase selling performance, and make smarter, more cost-effective advertising and marketing decisions...

Many franchisors lust for experienced multi-unit franchisees to buy their concepts. These seasoned business builders manage and operate their own units (not to be confused with area developers, who sell and support franchisees in defined territories). Multi-unit operators have the management expertise, infrastructure, and track record for building successful franchise businesses. The risks, training, and operational support required from corporate are often less costly, and market expansion significantly accelerated. What does it take to capture a growing multi-unit or multi-brand owner successfully operating 15 to 100 franchise locations? When you look around and see that Burger King, Choice Hotels, Dunkin' Donuts, SuperCuts, and Qdoba are doing it, the question is "Why can't I?"

Multi-unit franchisees discussing business sound a lot like stockbrokers strategizing with clients about their portfolios...

The good news for franchise recruitment is there are key lead generation sources that will work to various degrees of success.

The rapid increase in social media channels has provided new opportunities to build relationships with promising franchisee prospects, but it also has brought new levels of confusion, uncertainty, and a feeling of overload. In a webinar titled "Optimizing Your Site for Maximum Lead Flow," Mike Volpe, vice president of marketing at HubSpot, and Tim Ash, president and CEO of SiteTuners.com, shed some light on the subject and suggest simple, effective actions to increase lead flow.

The webinar was split into two parts, followed by questions. First, Volpe talks about how to optimize your website to get more people to find it. Then, Ash shares his expertise about landing pages and calls to action on how to increase conversions. Below are edited excerpts from he 60-minute webinar, an archived version of which is available online...

Core values are today's "X factor" in franchise development. To succeed in this business, franchisors must effectively position their concept in the marketplace, offering compelling benefits to both customers and potential franchise buyers. By creating a dynamic culture you'll add a powerful dimension to your brand, which can catapult your organization beyond the competition.

Dick Rennick, founder and former CEO of American Leak Detection, was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 1998 IFA Convention. What was so stunning about this celebration was witnessing the nearly 100 franchisees who had flown in at their own expense to celebrate and validate their leader's compassion, values, and relationships instilled within their system...

It was my first week as COO of Sopra Brands. My job was to oversee the company's existing franchise brands (no small task), and to oversee the development and implementation of a brand-new frozen yogurt franchise from its inception--in a crowded category, during a full-blown recession, for an opening date that was already months behind schedule.

I've spent decades in the franchise business, holding responsibilities for everything from branding, marketing, training, operations, franchise development, and more. And Sopra is no stranger to franchising. They own several successful established franchise companies, but these were established chains that were acquired and had existing teams, products, and systems with programs already in place...

A look at today's franchise candidates will reveal they are more sophisticated, better educated, and more technologically advanced than ever before. In addition, and even more so because of the economic downturn over the past few years and subsequent slow recovery, they are extremely cautious.
Today's candidates are spending more time researching opportunities, and doing so at a much slower pace. In order to be diligent in the process, more time is spent online pouring through page after page of information, constantly bookmarking, and moving back and forth from new information to saved information. They're comparing notes with other franchise candidates on social networking sites. As well, they're gaining invaluable insight monitoring online discussion groups and forums...

Distinguish your franchise by knowing what creates steadfast customer loyalty to your brand. Franchisees profit from this consumer connection, which drives repeat business. At American Advertising Distributors I capitalized on our point of differentiation by arming our retail clients with marketing intelligence that was superior to any other service at the time, producing more successful campaigns for their businesses. I bragged to prospective franchisees about our powerful corporate research and development, which was instrumental in our 82 percent customer retention rate. Our retail market craved expertise for building their businesses, and our system delivered the goods beyond their expectations. We had raving customers who championed our brand because we provided them what they wanted...

"Risk more than others think safe­." -- Howard Schultz, Starbucks

Ever notice how closely the words intimate and intimidate are in their spelling? Probably not, but that's okay. It dawned on me while writing this, the third article in my series on Socially Engaged Lead Management. It is clear that to succeed brands today must become much more intimate with their customers and prospects.

A quick rewind... My first article introduced you to the significant changes in online behavior and its implications on your ability to engage with prospects and leads. The second focused on the organizational and technological impacts these changes are having on your ongoing business operations. Now we can explore how to deal with prospects prowling around the hallways and cubicles of your company (metaphorically) - well before they have agreed to be your customer...

Franchisee validation can make or break your franchise sales. Pow! Just like that and a once-supercharged prospect can deflate to nothing in 24 hours, bailing out of your process instantly. Validation is the most influential stage in the selling process. What franchise owners say means far more than what corporate sales execs tell them. Franchise operators are "doing it," and it's their experiences that count foremost to cautious buyers.

Many of your candidates don't know what to do
For most franchise recruiters, successful owner validation opens the gate to Discovery Day visits at headquarters. To mitigate confusion and awkwardness for your prospects, it's essential to prepare them for their conversations with franchisees...

I certainly enjoyed successful broker relationships over the past 20 years. Discovering qualified franchise owners through the professional efforts of franchise and business brokers contributed to the growth of several franchise companies I represented. Based on my personal experience and the insights from hundreds of franchisors who have sold broker-referred prospects, here's how to increase your popularity and closing rates with broker networks.

1. Present your franchise in broker's terms--They want to know what your concept is, what's hot about it, who your buyer is, how responsive and how good you are at closing deals, and what the payoff and other incentives are. Don't try to "build the watch" when you tell them. Just hit the hot spots that will excite and turn them on to your concept...

In last month's Franchise Update Sales Report, I provided an introduction to working with brokers to increase your franchise sales, and highlighted some of the advantages of using brokers as part of your development strategy. This month I examine some of the risks and downsides, as well as how sign up with a broker that works for you.

1. Challenges of working with a broker

"If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future."--Winston Churchill

Online behavior is maturing more rapidly than ever before. Social networking advancements from all the market leaders have, and will forever, change how we collaborate, communicate, share, and engage with any relationship online--whether it's the closeness of a family member or a first encounter with a franchise sales representative. Trust and transparency are the new operating rules, and engagement is determined by the initiator.

"Millennials" (those currently aged 18 to 30) will rarely, if ever, fill out a general name/email form in the hope of receiving the information they are pursuing. They know spam and obtuse sites, especially those with trumped-up, SEO-saturated content...