The Market and Mindset of a Franchisee Prospect has
significantly changed. Has your sales process?
By Tim Johnson
President
Process Peak
If you're involved in franchise development, you probably have one of two mindsets regarding today's market conditions:- This is the worst of times, the toughest market we'll ever see.
- The tougher it gets out there, the bigger the opportunities, so it's actually the best of times.
Both of these are overly simplistic. So let's step back and take a clear-eyed view of the downsides, the upsides, and the realities of this market.
The first step in this process is to acknowledge the fact that decision-making itself has taken a major hit in the last 12 months.
Uncertainty freezes people into inaction, and we still have massive uncertainty about jobs, real estate, the stock market and other things that people care about deeply. As you've no doubt seen, you have to work extra hard in this environment to thaw people out and warm them up, even when you have a proven system (and you better have a rock-solid system). You Do Don’t You?
Assuming that every franchise you award is indeed a well-oiled money-making machine (worthy of changing one's career path for), it's imperative that you communicate this convincingly in everything you do, from the first contact and all through your qualification and awarding process.
In other words, your sales process must mirror the sleek and attractive beauty of your franchise offering itself.
For instance, what happens when you drop a 10-pound FDD on a prospect? Or when you indiscriminately spam your list, whom you may or may not have ever met, with outdated boilerplate messages? Here's a hint: No one has the time. Random, unfocused communications are counter-productive. You look sloppy when you waste resources and people's time, and you can't afford that.
An Awarding Process That Reflects The Excellence of Your Franchise
The answer is to more effectively qualify and engage franchisee prospects, using methods that reflect the technological advances we've made in the last 20 years. To employ a sporting metaphor, you want to go fishing where the particular fish you want are hanging out; you must properly present an irresistibly baited hook; and carefully reel in the line when the time is right.
Today's dynamic multimedia content, when persuasively staged and deployed, can be used to create a step-by-step, blueprinted process that enables you to control the presentation of the message and ultimately award more franchises, even when you have fewer leads.
It begins with collecting and analyzing the right data in a collaborative effort, so you can confidently:- Separate the tire-kickers from true candidates
- Provide clarity in the decision-making
- Set objective benchmarks for success
- Operate your business based on metrics not emotions
How do you do all this? By uncovering your ideal awarding processes. To do that you must collect input from across the organization and your franchisees. Then you're ready to publish it and replicate it across your development team to better qualify the leads you have, and optimize every interaction with every candidate. Now you have documented best practices baked into an exemplary sales process, and you are empowered to achieve:- Faster sales, through a measurable and consistent awarding process
- Qualified candidates, demonstrated by their ability to follow your process
- Increased productivity, through clearer expectations and enhanced workflow
- Accurate forecasting via prospect monitoring, evaluation and activity reporting
- Superior intelligence, with customized online questionnaires, feedback & collaboration
- More effective presentations, through dynamic multimedia & franchise testimonials
- Substantial savings of time, money and resources
It's absolutely achievable, and you can do it! Take a complimentary online assessment of your sales process by clicking here. We'll share how you stack up against today’s best practices in franchise awarding, and how to connect more successfully with your qualified leads.
Tim Johnson, President for Process Peak has 20 years of high-level experience in developing and implementing persuasive sales tools for several successful solution-driven technology providers. |
