At its core, franchise lead generation and management requires structure, accountability, and speed. It’s not enough to generate interest; you have to act quickly and decisively before candidates lose interest. In this article, we walk you through a 9-step lead generation and management process, and make the case for a dedicated franchise development CRM software.
Like most franchisors, you have ambitious growth plans for the future. More franchisees, more territories, more sales — perhaps even national or global expansion, with diverse products to suit every market.
But, oftentimes, it’s difficult to translate these ambitions into tangible outcomes. Despite your best efforts, your marketing attempts drown in a sea of noise; your leads fall through the cracks; your manual spreadsheets fail to capture real-time updates; and HQ teams struggle to understand the overall sales picture. Your ambitions turn to ash.
Does this sound like a familiar challenge?
We’re here to bring some clarity.
In this blog, we’ll help you pick up the pieces and build a 9-step lead generation and management strategy that’s infallible. We’ll also explain how a purpose-built franchise development CRM can save you a lot of time, money, and stress.
There are plenty of keen business owners out there. But your franchise is not for everyone.
Your business is unique, and requires a certain type of owner to make it a success.
So, before any real lead generation efforts can take place, you need to take stock. Identify the unique demographics, financial qualifications, and values that will make a successful franchisee. Should they already have business experience in your industry? How much upfront funding will they require during the ramp up stage?
At this stage, it’s worth narrowing down geographical considerations, too. Use a franchise mapping tool to analyze prime locations for expansion, based on income levels, population growth, existing competitors, and so on. This research will also help you identify (and mitigate) any cannibalization risks with existing franchisees.
In the game of lead generation, words are everything. The way you present your franchising opportunity could be the difference between an eager form-fill and a quick click of the “close tab” button.
So, before any marketing work takes place, refine your message.
Define what your franchise is, who it serves, what it stands for, and where you see it progressing in the future. More importantly, focus on the value you deliver for franchisees. Not just the monetary gains, but the ongoing support your headquarters team provides.
As an example, let’s take a look at one of our client’s websites.
Winkworth, a leading estate and lettings agent franchise in the UK, highlight tangible benefits for their prospective franchisees, including:
There are a plethora of tried-and-tested methods for generating leads. Depending on the size of your franchise, and the resources you have available, you may be unable to tackle them all. So choose the options that are manageable and likely to glean the best results.
Here are just some of the tactics you could adopt:
Generating interest is a great first step, but your leads will quickly vanish unless you have a centralized, up-to-date place to store and nurture them.
Excel spreadsheets may suffice when your franchise is small and your pipeline is sparse. But the moment your network expands and demand surges, things can quickly spiral out of control. This is especially true if your system cannot segment data for each manager, region, or brand, or provide any real-time tracking.
Eventually, your once-manageable spreadsheets turn into confusing, unstandardized, and out-of-sync repositories where leads come to die.
At this stage, you’ll require a solution that’s purpose-built for franchises, and customized for you.
A good franchise CRM and development platform should allow you to:
When all of your candidate management data is stored in one CRM, with accountability and tracking built in, you speed up the overall sales process and prevent any lead from fizzling out.
Once you’ve reeled in an interested party, invite them to a screening call and evaluate their suitability based on your qualification criteria (background, financial investment, values, etc.)
Use dynamic e-forms and questionnaires stored within your CRM to ensure every sales rep and development manager asks the right questions.
When a candidate meets your criteria, issue the franchise disclosure document (FFD) or relevant materials. For the sake of clarity, we’d recommend sharing this via a centralized franchise management system (FMS) to ensure nothing gets lost in email inboxes or Google Drive folders.
If required by law or industry regulations, you’ll also need to trigger an FDD cooling off period. In the US, this period is 14 days, though your CRM system should allow for custom deadlines if needed.
Next on the agenda is the face-to-face Discovery Day. This is an invaluable opportunity for you and your candidate to vet one another, ask questions, and walk through the logistics of the franchising opportunity.
Schedule this via your FMS and provide an agenda in advance. (Will you be giving the prospect a tour of your headquarters and/or an operational location? Will they have the opportunity to meet established franchisees and ask questions?)
Run through any anticipated questions in preparation and be sure to bring any detailed materials, such as presentations and data sheets, that the candidate may be interested in.
Providing the Discovery Day is a success and both sides are aligned, all that’s left is to decide upon a territory and finalize the agreement.
Balance your candidate’s preferences with what’s feasible for your network. If their ideal town encroaches on another location, or doesn’t align with your brand’s target market or growth plans, try to find a compromise.
Once the territory has been settled, finalize any last questions and send over the franchise agreement document for signing.
Once a candidate has progressed through the sales pipeline and signs the agreement, automatically enroll them into the onboarding stage.
To simplify this handover, adopt a FMS solution that integrates franchise development and CRM capabilities with task management, performance management, SOP and policy compliance, and training. Ideally, franchisees should be able to access everything they need to get launch-ready within one platform, with headquarters maintaining oversight at every touch point.
If your homegrown CRM systems are becoming too unwieldy and slowing your pipeline down, it may be time to adopt a more robust alternative.
At Claromentis, our Franchise Management Software contains a completely unique franchise development and lead management application. We call it the Franchise Expansion Manager — and it goes far beyond the constraints of generic CRM systems.
In one hub, you can manage both sides of network growth; winning new units and developing your established franchisees.
Here are just some of the standout features:
What makes our Expansion Manager unique is its illimitable customization options. Not only can you configure the e-forms and workflows that power the CRM capabilities; you can also redesign the application display with drag and drop modules and design tools, and tailor content experiences for every manager, region, brand, and candidate.
Plus, you’ll benefit from a suite of integrated FMS applications, including intranet, e-learning, policy management, knowledge management, and automation capabilities. You’re not just buying a disparate CRM tool; you’re investing in a holistic operating system that manages every piece of your franchising puzzle.
To find out more about the Franchise Expansion Manager, or our complete FMS solution, book a quick discussion call.