Grow

What are you doing to improve the speed and effectiveness of your responses to prospects evaluating your system?

Steve Cox
Vice President, Franchise Development
i9 Sports
To better position us to reach our 2012 goal of doubling franchise awards, we recently revamped our lead follow-up processes to increase the speed and effectiveness of our prospect follow-up.
Step one was the implementation of Captivate from FranConnect. Prospects want a lot of information before they are willing to fully engage. With the implementation of Captivate, we are providing prospects with more information than ever. Our Captivate virtual brochure provides them with the emotional hook needed to engage them, while also providing them with the nuts and bolts of our opportunity, which allows them to determine (1) if investing time in the discovery process makes sense for them, and (2) if they qualify to engage...

Stephen Dixon
Vice President, Franchise Development
Children's Lighthouse Learning CentersFranchisee satisfaction is a pillar of our business. It is both a point of emphasis and a source of great pride for the our executive team and support staff. We've created a culture of compassion that encourages empathizing with franchisee concerns and providing solutions to challenges. Plus, we have proactive training and open dialogue to ensure our franchisees are satisfied. In sum, this effort has resulted in a zero percent failure rate and consistently positive feedback from our franchisees with regard to our support and marketing programs.
Since the brand owns and operates eight company units, we also have excellent business model credibility...

Long gone are the good old days of 2002 - 2007, when development jokes about fog-the-mirror tests abounded. As we all have learned over the years, good jokes have a foundation in reality. Development was too easy then, and for the last couple of years it's been too hard. We're gradually seeing an improvement in development activities. We won't have 2011 unit totals for a few months, but what we are seeing is more unit growth.
Where are the opportunities coming from, and how are they getting financed? According to the Franchise Update's Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR), some of the traditional development sources, including lead generation websites and expos, are declining in importance to franchisors. The AFDR showed modestly better outcomes from search engines through purchased words and optimization, and organically through referrals and a franchisor's own website...

How do you promote your franchise to prospective buyers? Is it something like, "We offer an outstanding program, employ highly qualified staff, use state-of-the-art equipment, deliver excellent training, and help you grow your business every step of the way?" Don't feel bad if you are guilty of this!
Many of your competitors also bombard prospects with boring, meaningless content that lacks points of differentiation and noteworthy advantages that stir, attract, and excite buyers. Consequently, today's serious prospects are forced to wade through an ocean of similar opportunities to catch the few that truly speak to their interests.

Don't chase the masses
Most buyers won't find what they want in your franchise concept, so don't try to entice them with your messaging...

What are some fresh, innovative ways you are using profiling, targeting, and loyalty programs to acquire and retain more customers?

Linda Fierce, Regis Corp.
Dir. of Marketing, Franchise Brands
At Regis, our marketing team and franchisees are always working together to further meet the needs of our customers. Our strategies are informed by customer feedback from all brands, and with the strength of our franchisee network we are able to share successes and ideas between multiple brands.
One of our most popular loyalty programs is the Supercuts email haircut reminder. As a loyalty program, it not only helps us stay in touch with our customers, it helps our busy customers stay on a haircut schedule they have chosen...

There's good news and bad news for franchise sales and development executives. That's the way Steve Olson, president of Franchise Update Media Group sees it after reviewing the results of the company's most recent Mystery Shopper survey.
"My observation from the 30,000-foot level is the good news is that more franchisors are taking aggressive steps to close performance gaps and regrow their recruitment efforts," says Olson. "The bad news is 15 percent of our franchise community refuses to embrace best practices in our new environment. Clinging to yesterday's world, they will wither away."
A bold statement, but Olson says it's backed by the survey results, unveiled in October at Franchise Update's 13th Annual Leadership & Development Conference...

As an economist, I see some really challenging times ahead. As a businessman (and professed contrarian), I see some interesting opportunities. Let's take a look at both.
The world economy will be fortunate to realize a 3 percent growth rate in 2012. Less than 2 percent and we'll see a global recession, something too close to call at the moment. Europe is a mess, China is slowing down, and Japan is close to returning to the economy of its lost decade. With most other economies substantially smaller, we can't look to the ones just mentioned to be the engine of growth to get the world humming again.
That leaves the U.S. We're in the aftermath of the "Big Party." You remember the Big Party, we all had fun in it. The 2002 to 2008 period was marked with unprecedented consumer and government spending...

"With 2011 winding down, how are you leveraging people, budgets, brands, and resources to meet development goals?"

Bill Knight, ChemDry
Vice President of Franchise Development
If I were to give you Chem-Dry's secret weapons for the fourth quarter, they would be the art of listening and team closing. As we work with different candidates we have found that the more we can align our sales team with the candidates' personalities, the more people we attract and the more obstacles we overcome. When you leverage people and encourage the whole company to sell, then productivity and problem-solving increase. This approach fits our culture: Chem-Dry was a company built on chemistry--the chemistry of our products and the chemistry of our people...

Last year the headline on our Annual Lead Generation Survey story read: "Adapt or Die." Responses to two new questions this year indicate franchisors have taken this lesson to heart.
In responding to the question "Do you believe the fundamental lead generation process used before the recession must be changed to effectively recruit today's buyers?" three out of four (77 percent) said Yes. And to a similar question about the franchise sales process, 74 percent said Yes.
"Don't wait for the recruitment environment to change. You need to change your approach to succeed in this environment," said Franchise Update Media Group President Steve Olson, who unveiled the results of the 14th annual survey at the annual Franchise Leadership & Development Conference in October...

How happy are your franchisees? In an honest and lucid moment, would they encourage other candidates to invest in your franchise, or tell them to run like the wind? If given the chance, would they make the same investment again or hightail it in another direction--and how would you know? Have you anonymously contacted franchisees to pose these questions, conducted a franchisee satisfaction survey, or are you just relying on a gut feeling?

If 80 percent or more of your franchisees do not indicate that: 1) they either are successful or expect to become successful according to how they measure success, and 2) they would make the same decision again today, then 3) your franchise sales results will suffer.

Consistently positive franchisee validation fuels franchise development results...