…However, without consistent, replicable processes and methods the numbers to hit growth goals will simply not stack up…

When a successful company sets up as a franchise, they usually want to become a nationally recognized brand. Recruiting great franchisees to cover every available territory can make that happen quickly. By selecting the right franchisees, a franchisor lays the foundation for a high-quality, motivated franchise network.

Franchisee profile

To develop a great network, franchisors should first understand the kind of person they seek. There are non-negotiables issues, such as financial capability, as well as other considerations including whether the prospect will fit with the team in place and share the brand’s value and culture and its people.

Once you know who you’re looking for, franchisors need a marketing plan and budget to go find them. Shows, print, websites, online ads, email, radio, television and social media are all possibilities.

Finding Qualified Prospects Buried in Your Leads

As leads come in, it’s vital that the recruitment team uses a pipeline management solution to automatically capture all details submitted during the recruitment process.

This solution should provide an immediate personalized response to leads so they are confident their inquiry has been recorded by the franchisor. The solution will track which emails the lead has looked at, which links they clicked, when they visited the website, what pages they viewed and for how long.

Leads are scored and ranked individually based on their online activity with the franchisor. As their score goes up a recruiter can decide when to engage. Over a certain time period, all leads will have numerous opportunities to engage with the franchisor.

Objective: Qualifying Calls with at least 10% of all leads

In our experience, of those spoken to, between 8%–10% can become Qualified Prospects. Of those about half will enter an in-house recruitment process and about 25% of those will sign agreements.

The difference between signing 1 out of 150 leads and 1.5 or 2, even 3 involves how much time a recruiter spends wading through unqualified leads to find the 8% to 10% that can become Qualified Leads. Our experience indicates it can almost half of productive work hours.

The art and science of working leads to something franchisors struggle with to this day. Read My 12- Year Journey to Great Recruitment Pipeline Management insights into how inefficient working leads still is in many recruitment organizations today.

Outsourcing Franchisee Recruitment

Outsourcing parts, or indeed the whole recruitment process, to independent franchisee recruitment professionals has become more attractive with many advantages some of which are listed below:

• They know the market and can fully advise where to apportion the lead generation budget, as well as suggest new and unknown media and channels.
• They specialize in franchise story-telling, lead generation, working leads and finding Qualified Prospects. The solutions to work efficiently and productively will be in place. Replicating that knowledge can take franchisor years to develop and get right.
• They have a successful, documented track record of franchisee recruitment.
• They will be beneficial relationship with a Qualified Prospect and help you spend your time with only those that have the best fit across the board.
• The cost will typically be split between managing a pipeline solution and earning commissions for completed new franchise agreements.