BACKTOBASIC STRATEGY TO AID FRANCHISEE RECRUITMENT

Iain Martin is head of Kyros Business Services, which runs the leading match-making service to introduce prospective franchisees and franchisors to their ideal business partner. He also operates an innovative pooling system in which a franchisor can pass on qualified prospective franchisee leads that are unsuitable for its own system for one reason or another (such as the unavailability of a particular territory) to another non-competing franchisor. Martin also works with The Franchising Centre, running its franchise executive and master franchisee recruitment businesses.

BACK-TO-BASIC STRATEGY TO AID FRANCHISEE RECRUITMENT

If you are an existing franchisor you may find this article very basic. However, having spoken to many franchisors, all of whom would like to recruit more quality franchisees, I am still surprised by the number who are not putting these fundamental elements into practise.

In my opinion, your starting point should be to create a roadmap explaining your franchisee recruitment process step-by-step (this can be shown to prospective franchisees) and a profile of your ideal franchisee.

You should also review your perceived franchisor competitors regularly to ensure that your franchise offering remains competitive and attractive. Your franchise package should define the fee, the costs of training and any capital and other items needed to operate the business, together with the required cash flow/working capital.

Essential qualities

The ideal franchisee profile would normally consist of a list of essential attributes or characteristics that a prospective franchisee must have, e.g. sufficient finance, development orientation, sales ability, strategic thinking and supportive home environment, etc., plus a list of desirable qualities which may include industry-related skills.

You should base your prospective franchisee screening formats and narrative on the key essential qualities of your ideal franchisee, together with the unique selling points (USPs) of your franchise compared to other similar systems. You should also include a short description of the activity and responsibilities of the franchisee.

The essential and desirable qualities, which have not been fully covered during this initial screening, should be checked out completely at the initial interview.

Your franchise recruitment roadmap should illustrate the steps, and ideally the estimated time scales involved from the first interview through to the franchisee signing the franchise agreement and beginning his induction training.

Marketing options

When planning your franchise marketing/promotional campaign, it is useful to consider the following media options:- the franchise media, e.g. Franchise World; national newspapers, e.g. Daily Mail; and vertical media, i.e. magazines, etc., dedicated to the industry in which your franchise is involved.

Exhibitions are worth considering as part of the overall plan, both industry-specific shows and, of course, franchise exhibitions. Your prime motivator for exhibiting should be to create greater brand awareness and as a by-product to generate quality leads. If your main objective is the latter, you are likely to be disappointed.

Another format for creating interest, awareness and quality enquiries is through the use of selected directory websites and your own company site. An easy to read and clean home page is essential to capture interest, and then, using what is loosely termed the seven-second rule, to get those visiting your site to easily drill down to your franchise-specific information.

Effectiveness

With the growing use of the web, advertising is an example of an initiator, which is designed to drive prospects to your web pages. Therefore, one aspect of the procedures you use to assess the effectiveness of your marketing spend should be the identification of those initiators which are working. You do this by asking your prospects where they saw your brand.

Whilst advertising is an essential part of any marketing strategy, the use of quality editorial can be a key enquiry generator, especially if the editorials are based on testimonials from franchisees who have similar backgrounds to the enquirer.

The foregoing elements are likely to be found in the marketing strategies of franchisors that recruit franchisees consistently and, whilst there is no panacea for franchisee recruitment, measurement of the outcome from the different parts of your strategy is vital in optimising both the results and cost-effectiveness of the strategy.