The Six Steps to Selling Success: Step 5, Discovery Day: Additional Tips

By: Steve Olson
Published: June 3rd, 2014

Objective: Attend Discovery Day at your headquarters for executive approval of the franchise

This is the final installment in an ongoing series about making the most of your Discovery Day presentations. Previous articles on Discovery Day, as well as other excerpts from my book on building a world-class franchise system, are available online in past issues of this newsletter.

Here are some additional practices franchisors have found that increase the success of their Discovery Day presentations:

• Provide an advance agenda. Furnish the schedule of events, names and bios of department executives your attendees will meet, specific travel information, and any other helpful instructions or information; ask for contact names for family emergencies. This preview heightens the importance of the event and provides useful information in assisting attendees in to prepare for their trip. Savvy franchises post this on their website using a password-protected page for "Discovery Day Guests." It's more efficient and stimulates curiosity from new site visitors.
• Get your housekeeping in order. Your guests are influenced by everything they see, touch, and hear at your home office. This includes bathrooms, paint, carpets, shrubbery, plants, trash, office décor, etc.
• Post a welcoming board. Display your visitors' names on an attractive display stand. Recognizing their presence shows your candidates they are important to your company... and helps your staff members remember who's attending!
• Post department names. Identifying different department areas with door tags or labels shows organization and professionalism, and provides your visitors with a better sense of how your company works.
• Display your "Franchisee Wall of Fame." Photos of owners featuring your top franchisees and franchisee advisory council are impressive to your guests, bringing home your powerful relationship and appreciation for franchise owners. Unfortunately, not enough franchisors leverage the impact of showcasing their franchise stars at their headquarters.
• Furnish a personalized notebook. Provide the schedule of events, meaningful reports, presentation outlines, and other relevant material that candidates can take home with them.
• Standardize your corporate dress. Whether in company polo shirts or suits, establish a consistent dress code for Discovery Day. Franchising by definition means uniformity; an "anything goes" attitude toward attire does not communicate a professional image.
• Schedule departmental presentations. It is essential that your field support, real estate/site selection, advertising and marketing, and customer service departments participate in Discovery Day. Qualified buyers want to meet the people they will be working with. Likewise, key personnel should speak with prospective franchisees and offer their insights in qualifying them.
• Invest in multi-media. Quality, well-prepared presentations make the difference in motivating buyers. PowerPoint, video, TV and radio commercials, intranet, and software demonstrations enhance the impact of your messages.
• Conduct a facilities tour. Don't keep your guests prisoners all day in the same room. A closet remodeling franchise made this mistake until a prospect finally asked to see their warehouse and was happily surprised: "I never realized you are producing such great product!" He signed on the next week. Don't assume tours aren't important. Even with a no-inventory service business, prospects often don't realize the commitment of personnel and resources required to support a franchise network until they see it for themselves. Seeing is believing!

This is an excerpt from my Amazon.com best-selling book, "Grow to Greatness: How to build a world-class franchise system faster." To order copies, click here.

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