This month, Sarah Carlile, Founding Director of Coconut Creatives, highlights a few tips for finding your ideal franchisees to grow your network.
A basic understanding of franchising
Firstly, your prospective franchisees should have some knowledge of the franchise industry already otherwise you are wasting valuable time explaining the ins and outs of a franchised business to ‘wannabe’ business owners rather than explaining the benefits of your specific franchise offering.
Identifying prospects who are well informed is the first step in determining whether or not it is worth spending valuable time and resources pursuing them.
I find there are two ways to ensure that you almost always attract a well-informed prospect:
Concentrate your franchise advertising towards on/offline channels which are targeted specifically at franchise searchers
Ensure that your advertising messages in other media channels clearly explain what a franchise is.
Driving Force
Once you have determined the level of knowledge that your prospects have about the franchise industry, it is important to identify the driving force behind their decision to buy a franchise. There are many reasons why someone may want to buy a franchise but I have found that there tends to be one overriding reason; they are dissatisfied with their current situation. All prospective franchisees are looking for some kind of fulfilment, whether it’s a change in career, daily routine, family life, relocation or simply the desire to be their own boss and run their own business.
Make sure that one of your key qualifying questions in the first conversation you have with your prospects reveals the reason they want to be part of your franchise network. Once franchisors find out they are dealing with someone who is dissatisfied, their approach towards them changes, along with their chances of converting them.
What can you offer?
I have seen many examples of good and bad franchise information packs or prospectuses but the general rule is to keep it short and simple. Ideally you want a prospect to be led from one trust-building contact to another, so try not to provide every intimate detail about your franchise in the post, over one telephone call or via email. To truly convince a prospect to part with their hard-earned capital, you need them to want more information and you want them to experience it first-hand. A face-to-face meeting at your pilot franchise is the best way to achieve this.
Do YOU want them?
Meeting face-to-face with a prospect is also a good chance for you to identify whether or not the prospects you meet are people you want on your franchise team. While it may seem a struggle to get the first few franchisees signed up, valuable lessons can be learnt from those franchisors who no longer pursue every single lead and instead take the time to evaluate whether or not a particular individual is suited to their franchise. These franchisors operate a selection process and only chase up those prospects who they feel really fits the bill. Be in control of your franchise recruitment process and you will grow a successful franchise network.
If you want to find out more about how you can attract profitable franchisees, contact us.
Discovery days can really increase your lead conversion rates because they allow prospective franchisees to get a flavour of your business before they commit and give you a great opportunity to meet a group of serious prospects face-to-face, explains Helen Thresh, Client Account Manager at Coconut Creatives.
Organising a discovery day
You should always make sure that your discovery days are well planned and organised with no more than 10 serious franchise prospects attending. Here are four questions (and the answers!) we get asked by many franchisors in relation to discovery day organisation:
Who should be involved?
Get key people from your business and recruitment team involved. Prospective franchisees want to put names to faces and it will also make your team appear more approachable, which can be a key factor in the decision-making process and franchisees often buy into the support of a proven business concept. It is a good idea to get successful franchisees involved, giving you the opportunity to create a template franchise which you could showcase as part of your discovery day.
Should I have a dedicated space for the discovery day available?
If you don’t have a suitable conference or meeting room with adequate refreshment facilities available then it might be worthwhile booking a hotel or meeting room nearby. Ideally this should be within a short walk of your head office or the template franchise that you plan to show later on.
What time should I start the discovery day?
It is advisable to start your discovery day in the late morning/early afternoon to give people time to get to you. Starting your discovery day in the afternoon means that it needs to be well structured to ensure everybody gets the most out of the day. It is also important to be mindful that some people may have travelled quite a distance to get to you so make sure that you don’t finish too late.
Should I have my discovery day at the weekend or during the week?
Although having your discovery day on a weekday can be inconvenient because most people attending will need to book a day off work, this shows their level of interest in the franchise and will help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Holding your discovery day on a weekday also allows you to showcase your office or the template franchise during actual working hours, which increases the credibility by highlighting that your business works.
Marketing your discovery days
Make sure you market your discovery day through as many channels as you can so that you get the most out of it. By advertising your discovery day, you are also giving prospects an additional reason to get in contact with you. Make sure you advertise a few months in advance to give prospects time to book.
During the day
Organise a “behind the scenes” tour, allow your prospects to speak to members of staff and look around within a supervised group. Encourage them to ask questions so they can find out as much as possible about your business, helping them to make the right franchise choice. Some franchisors insist on attendees signing a confidentiality agreement on arrival. This depends on your business model but it is something you might wish to consider. You should also have the franchise agreement ready and printed in case a prospect would like to have a look at it.
Post discovery day
Follow up on the individuals who have attended and select those you think would make good franchisees to progress to the next stage in your recruitment process. At the end of the day it’s not only about the prospects liking you but also about you liking the prospects. You can also utilise your successful discovery day within your press releases and on your website.
For further advice on how to organise successful Discovery Days, please contact us, we’d love to help you! Or join us on our ‘How to build an effective discovery day programme’ workshop! Click here to see when the next one is coming up on our events calendar.
In the world of marketing, we’re constantly told that content is King. Although content is extremely important, context is essential when it comes to social media. Adam Knight, Head of Technology & Systems at Coconut Creatives explains more about the effective use of social media for marketing your business. Watch our video here.
Want to know more about the use of social media for your business? Our next workshop ‘Practical Social Media Skills’ on 4th November. On the day, you will learn about social media tools you can learn to use, hone and brand up. Book your place on our workshop here.
The hash tag has become one of the most important symbols in modern marketing. Adam Lovelock, Head of Online Marketing at Coconut Creatives has been explaining more about how you can utilise the hash tag for your business. Watch our video here.
Want to know more about the use of social media for your business? Our next workshop ‘Practical Social Media Skills’ on 4th November. On the day, you will learn about social media tools you can learn to use, hone and brand up. Book your place on our workshop here.
Without a doubt, the best way to do capitalise on your exhibition package is to make sure you have a speaking slot. A speaking slot allows you to get in front of a much larger audience and direct people back to your stand. Sarah Carlile, Founding Director at Coconut Creatives, explains more about how you can capitalise on your exhibition package and how to use your speaking slot to your advantage ahead of the busy autumn period in the franchise industry.
Nervous about public speaking?
Come along to one of our ‘Public Speaking and Presenting Skills’ workshops designed to help you develop your confidence and skills in this area. Some people love public speaking and others hate it. However you feel about it, the facts remain the same. Franchisors who do it get a much better response to their franchise and much greater lead numbers! Click here to see when our next one is coming up.
As the quietest period of the franchising year, summer is the best season to prepare your franchise recruitment marketing for the busy autumn period, says Sarah Carlile, Founding Director of Coconut Creatives.
As mentioned in my previous blog, enquiries during the summer slowdown rapidly as most people go on holiday or have their children at home to look after. The quiet summer months are the perfect time for you to review your marketing material and create some up-to-date case studies to use once the busy autumn recruitment season starts. With fewer enquiries to follow up, you should be left with a little extra time to really focus on refreshing your marketing material.
Case studies
Case studies are a great tool to use in attracting new franchisees. They amplify word-of-mouth about your brand and describe how your business or products have benefitted either one of your customers or an existing franchisee and will portray your company in a good light to prospective franchisees who may not have come across your business before.
I recommend updating your bank of case studies on a regular basis. This will help you to showcase the continued success of your brand and will give you a great selection of latest stories to use in your collateral over the busy autumn period.
The key to writing the best case studies is to pick an existing franchisee who has faced a problem, found a solution with your help and has benefitted from being part of your franchise network since they joined. The problems they face can be anything from recovering from illness, overcoming redundancy by buying your franchise, producing great sales during a recession, to wanting a better work-life balance and more family time.
If you don’t have a bank of franchisees to write about, ask one of your customers that you have helped to resolve a problem instead. This shows prospects how committed you are and that your business concept actually works.
When you have found the franchisees or customers you want to write about, you need to make sure you are asking them the right questions in order to produce an interesting and compelling case study. I recommend creating a survey to send out with questions such as:
Where did you hear about us?
Why did you decide to join/work with us?
How have you found the training/support?
What have you particularly enjoyed about working with us?
Asking personal questions about hobbies and their family situation will give your case study a more personal touch and allow prospects to identify with your case study – reaching the “if it worked for them, it could work for me” stage.
For further advise on what you can do to boost your recruitment marketing over the summer please contact us, we’d love to hear from you!
If you missed Part 1 click here! Also don’t forget to view our free resources which are designed to help you improve your marketing!
