Choosing franchisees is little different from any normal job selection process. However, finding the right applicant for your business isn’t easy… one well-known hamburger chain is said to interview 100 prospective franchisees for every one appointed.
Given this difficulty, it is especially important to have an effective recruitment system in place from the start. So, if you aren’t sure how to sell a franchise to a franchisee, it’s advisable to seek expert help from a good business coach with experience of franchisee recruitment.
In particular, they can help you determine the characteristics of your ideal franchisee, and that’s no bad thing, given the tendency of new franchisors to choose applicants who are similar to themselves… often with disastrous results. While visionary and entrepreneurial skills are vital when setting up the business they’re usually at odds with the detail-focused, technically-minded, task-oriented manager and proud potential owner of a franchise that’s actually needed.
Talking to other franchisors about how to sell a franchise in, reading about franchising and even evaluating staff who work for you, or your competition, will also help to give you a clearer picture of the kind of person who would be the best fit for your business.
Personality tests like DiSC profiling can provide an even greater insight and can be especially valuable in helping identifying those you don’t want on board.
With an identity of your perfect franchisee in mind, your next task is to identify key performance indicators that will give you an objective measure of the characteristics you’re looking for. This will better enable you to compare candidates against each other and against the quality standards you have set.
Having decided what you want to say about your business to potential franchisees, it’s time to start think about advertising in appropriate media.
Again, a business coach can advise you on how to sell a franchise using the right publications and online outlets. If you’d like help from a Franchise Expert simply contact us here, or call us today on 1300 960 136
Monitor replies to your advertising carefully so you can identify the most cost-effective sources for producing quality responses. Advertising has a nasty habit of sucking away money fast, so this isn’t a step to be ignored.
If you want a better response rate than you’re getting, make changes to your ads in light of what you learn. But don’t reinvent the wheel every time.
Make changes to one element of your advertising at a time so that it’s easier to see what works and what doesn’t. Sift the responses for promising candidates you want to explore further.
When interviewing, stick to a set of core of interview questions you’ve prepared in advance, as this will help keep things fair and impartial.
In your enthusiasm, don’t fall into the trap of overselling or misleading (no matter how unintentionally). A franchisee who joins you based on mistaken beliefs about the business will be good for neither of you. So never promise anything you can’t deliver, exert undue pressure or play psychological games.
You must be happy, and they must be happy, if you’re both going to get the most out of the business.
Ultimately of course, it’s not so much a matter of learning how to sell a franchise to a franchisee, but of finding the best person for your franchise.
When you have seen all your selected respondents, draw up a shortlist and interview a second time, shaving down the numbers until you have only a handful of ‘possibles’ left, who you can now take through the confidential part of the recruitment process.
If you find who you are looking for, sign them up, but always take up references and carry out any personality or skills testing that may be needed before the deal is done.
It’s often said that appointing a franchisee is like getting into a marriage, a process that can mean having to kiss a lot of frogs. So, if no one fits the bill, simply keep on looking.
And for details of our Franchise Weekend Workshops go to https://franchisesimpl.wpengine.com where you can also get your free copy of my book ‘Should I Franchise My Business?’
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brian_Keen/2232237