Franchisee Recruitment

By Paul Monaghan, Howarth Franchising

Franchisors continually say that their biggest challenge in developing their network is to find sufficient numbers of suitably qualified franchisees. That's great news because it means that...

Franchisors continue to see the recruitment process as one of matching the right people to their franchise rather than simply a sales process in which they will sell a franchise to any willing buyer. There have been, and possibly still are, franchisors whose main aim is to sell as many franchises as possible to secure large numbers of initial fees. The support that they subsequently offer, or even the nature of the opportunity, is such that many of their franchisees fail or simply walk away from the franchise leaving the franchisor to sell the territory again. This is clearly not what most of the franchising community, including the bfa, would consider ethical franchising.

However the recruitment process is a mixture of recruitment and selling for both the franchisor and the prospective franchisee. Both buying and selling processes come in to play for both parties.

• The franchisor will seek to act like any other buyer when meeting with a prospective franchisee. Will this person fulfil my requirements as a committed business builder? Can I trust them with my brand and my customers?
  
  
• At the same time the franchisor will be entering a sales process where he will want to inform the potential franchisee of all the features and benefits of his product – the franchise. This sales process will enter an even more important phase if the franchisor is happy that the applicant meets their requirements.
  
  
• The franchisee on the other hand will go through the buying process in which he will question the franchisor about the 'product' and satisfy himself that it will be fit for his purposes.
  
  
• Once he has done this he will then go into 'sales' mode during which he will use his best efforts to convince the franchisor that he will make an exemplary franchisee.

Recognising these two stages of buying and selling by both parties is critical to any recruitment process. Trying to sell when your 'customer is in selling mode themselves will lead to confusion, failure to sell when the 'customer' is in buying mode may mean a missed opportunity.