Your existing database is a goldmine of prospective franchisees that most franchisors forget to engage with explains Adam Love, Head of Online Marketing at Coconut Creatives.
Your existing database is full of prospective franchisees. You may have been in touch with them when they first enquired but when they didn’t progress any further down the recruitment process, it is likely that you threw them back into the pot and you haven’t really been in contact with them since. Your database is a valuable resource and it is important to keep in contact with your prospects on a regular basis to give yourself a greater chance of recruiting more franchisees.
There are a number of reasons why prospects may remain in your database for a long period of time before they become franchisees. Personal and financial situations may change, which is why it is important to keep your franchise in the front of their minds so that when they do decide to take a leap of faith, you are the first person they will come to.
Regular communication with your existing database is crucial, especially if you are operating on a low budget. By making the most of existing prospects, you can save money and resources on finding new leads and focus more on the high quality leads you already have.
How do I re-engage the leads in my database?
For your communication to have maximum impact, it is important to make sure that it:
Is attention grabbing
Has a target audience in mind and has the correct tone
Is short and clear
Creates demand
Includes a call to action
Offers an incentive.
When you are communicating with your database, make sure you have something to say or something to offer to get the best response. Things you could offer include:
Expert guides
Hints and tips
Personalised invitation to visit HQ
Industry reports
Tour of a franchisee’s business
Monthly newsletter.
Regular activities like the ones listed above come at little or no cost to you but offer a great return – new franchisees! Even if the prospects don’t sign up straight away, these activities will keep them ‘warm’ and interested in your franchise. Regular contact also builds trust between you and your prospects which is essential once the franchisor-franchisee relationship has been formed. It will also help you to stay ahead of your competition and make sure your brand is the first that a prospect will think of when they decide to take the next step in the decision-making process.
Having the right marketing plan can make the difference between your franchise being a success or failure, says Sarah Carlile Founding Director of Coconut Creatives.
Prior to creating your marketing plan, it is important to clearly set out what it is that you want to achieve. This will give you a thread to work to and follow throughout and make sure that your team all know what it is you are trying to achieve and by when. Doing this will prevent you from wasting time and money on the things that may be less effective in your recruitment process. Read Part 1 to get advice on how to set your objectives.
The general rule of thumb is that you’ll obtain one to two franchisees per 250 leads. This conversion rate means you’ll need to have a robust marketing plan in place to ensure you attract the right individuals through the right channels.
Here are just a few of the marketing channels available:
Social media
Networking events
Word-of-mouth referrals
Your website
Franchise recruitment websites.
Identifying the right communications channels for your franchise
I’d recommend researching some of your existing franchisees to build 2-3 profiles of the ‘perfect franchisee’, allowing you to understand the ideal types of individuals, highlight key communication channels and understand key aspects that appealed to them.
Don’t worry if you don’t have any franchisees just yet, you can still create an accurate profile that predicts their behaviour during their purchase journey.
Consider the seasonal influence of your marketing channels – when the major franchise exhibitions are and how you’ll experience a peak in enquiry levels.
Integrating the decision-making process into your marketing plan
According to the Business Dictionary, the consumer-decision-making process is as follows:
Identify needs
Collect information
Evaluate alternatives
Make the purchase decision.
Once an individual has decided upon the franchise route, they’re likely to explore different types of franchises, levels of investment, profitability and so on.
When buying a franchise, the individual is committing to a lengthy contract with the franchisor, a large investment fee, additional start-up costs and adapting their whole lifestyle. We’ve found that it generally takes between three to six months for an individual to make the final decision.
The franchisor needs to lead individuals through each stage, providing them with resources to resolve any of their queries. Consider your current lead management process and how it aligns with the research you’ve gained from your existing franchisees. Plan what information you’ll provide at each stage and what aspects you could develop that will help to build trust between you and your prospects.
Earn your QFP points by booking on to our Franchisor Workshops! Each one worth 250 points!
Coconut Creatives is delighted to announce that we have received Qualified Franchise Professional (QFP) qualified event status from the bfa! This means that you can now attend our workshop programme as part of your own QFP training.
Each day of our workshops is worth 250 points and will count towards your overall QFP qualification. Our workshops are available to attend throughout the year and in both the North and South of the UK to make it easier for you to come along and work towards your QFP status. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about franchise recruitment and give you a strategy and techniques that you can take away to implement within your own franchise.
QFP status will give you formal recognition of your professional approach to franchising. At Coconut, we want to share our own knowledge and over a decade of experience with you to help you develop your understanding of the franchise industry.
QFP status demonstrates that you understand the complexities and best practice in franchising and have invested time to continuously develop your understanding.
Benefits of QFP:
Industry-wide recognition
Increasing franchising knowledge
Improved business effectiveness
Demonstrable competitive edge
Increase value to your business
Enhanced career opportunities
The next workshop, ‘How to Motivate your Franchisees’ will be taking place on 14th April 2016 and places are filling up fast so don’t forget to get in touch and book your place.
Please contact us on info@coconutcreatives.co.uk or 01725 511 673 to book your place on our next workshop or find out more about our programme throughout the year.
The New Year is one of the most important times of year to focus on franchise recruitment. Use this time to take stock of where you are now and where you’d like to be this time next year!
To help you on your way to a super successful 2016, watch our video to see our team’s top tips for the year ahead…
Setting the right objectives is the first step to creating a successful franchise recruitment marketing strategy, says Paul Clegg, Director at Coconut Creatives.
The first step when devising a marketing strategy is to identify your objectives. These need to pinpoint where the business is now, what you would like to achieve and within what time frame. Be clear and direct in your aims about what you’d like to achieve for the year ahead.
I recommend using SMART objectives as part of your marketing strategy, these are specific, measurable, realistic and timely giving you specific goals which have a much greater chance of being completed or achieved than more general goals. It is important to consider the following six questions when setting your objectives.
Who is involved?
What do I want to accomplish?
Where – identify a location
When – establish a time frame
Why – specific reasons or purpose for a particular goal
By answering each of these questions, you make sure that your objectives are more specific and anyone who reads them will know exactly what it is that you are trying to achieve. Your objectives for recruitment determine everything. They determine how much money you should be spending, what routes to market you have available to you and how many leads you need to meet those objectives.
‘I want to increase the number of franchisees in my network’ is an example of a non-smart objective. It doesn’t state how many franchisees you are aiming to recruit, a time frame or a benchmark. An example of a SMART objective would be ‘I want to increase the number of franchisees from 25 to 35 in the next 12 months’ because it states where the business is now and in what time frame you want to achieve the goal. This objective is clear and will ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to your franchise recruitment marketing plan.
Identifying whether or not you can achieve this goal is just as important as setting it. According to the latest NatWest/bfa survey, the average ratio from prospect enquiry to fully operational franchisee is one in approx 86 for larger systems (20+ franchisees) and one in 77 for smaller franchises (<20 franchisees). Looking at larger systems, that’s one new franchisee for every 86 leads that you generate. This can help you to look at your objectives and work backwards from there.
The SMART objective provided above aims to recruit 10 new franchisees over the course of 12 months so that means you would need to generate a minimum of 860 leads (if using NatWest/bfa survey stats) in order to achieve this objective. Whether this is achievable or not depends on your resources and budget.
Look for Part 2 on how to turn your objectives into an integrated marketing plan
Want to know more about franchise recruitment in 2020? Contact us today to book a strategy meeting so that we can talk through your goals and help you achieve them!
Buying a franchise is an intense decision-making process so it is important that as a franchisor you understand this process to help you convert as many leads as possible says Sarah Carlile, Founder of Coconut Creatives.
It takes an individual, on average, around three to six months to decide whether or not to buy a particular franchise. The decision-making process is long and is not based on prospects having read just one magazine article, attended one exhibition or visited your website for a quick browse.
Prospective franchisees embark on a journey that will probably involve a combination of all those things and more so it is important to understand their journey so that you can provide the right communication at the right time. This way, you can ensure that you stay ahead of the competition by successfully converting some of your leads into franchisees.
What is involved in the decision-making process?
It is often useful to regard your prospects as consumers who are looking to buy a product, in this case they are looking to buy your franchise. Doing this will make it easier to analyse your prospects’ decision-making process.
According to the Business Directory, the consumer decision-making process can be defined as the process by which consumers:
Identify their needs
Collect information
Evaluate alternatives
Make the purchase decision.
Each of these sections of the process will be different depending on your target audience. The decision-making process can be influenced by psychological, economic and environmental factors, such as culture, group and social values as well as how the individual feels at the time. To understand the factors affecting your target audience, I recommend that you research your existing franchisees and their decision-making processes, allowing you to find out which communications affected their decisions.
A franchise is at the high-involvement end of the consumer decision-making process because a large amount of money is being invested and the individual commits to a minimum five year relationship with the franchisor so it is important to them to make sure they’re making the right decision. Investing in a franchise involves taking a leap of faith and trusting that what they have seen and what they have been told by the franchisor will actually work for them.
In many cases it is not just the decision of the individual but it also involves the opinions of their support network which usually consists of their close friends and family.
There is a lot for your potential franchisee to consider and so the stage they are at in the process when you receive their initial enquiry will determine how long they take to make a decision to join your network, what type of questions they ask you and, indeed if, they decide to rule you out and move on. Throughout this process the individual will be seeking counsel with their family and friends and taking on board other people’s opinions. Buying a franchise is a more emotional decision than taking a job as an employee as the individual is investing a large amount of money. They need to trust you to help them build their business, so building rapport from day one is vital in helping them towards making their final decision. It is also important to set the ground rules of operating your franchise at the outset, so that you and your franchisees know what is expected of the other in order to achieve success.
Want to out more about understanding the journey of prospective franchisees? Contact us, we’re happy to share our expertise!
Your existing database is a goldmine of prospective franchisees that most franchisors forget to engage with explains Adam Love, Head of Online Marketing at Coconut Creatives.