3 Things Every Franchise Development Team Needs to Perfect

Many entrepreneurs turn to franchising as a viable source of income in uncertain economic times, and with the current high U.S. unemployment rate resulting from COVID-19, individuals considering career transitions will likely explore options in this sector.

Because of this, it’s imperative that franchise brands use this time to reevaluate their business model to optimize their franchise sales process. Three key areas for brands to focus on right now are how well they “fit” within their category or space, their investment opportunity and the types of people they want to attract to their franchise opportunity. 

“With challenge comes opportunity: opportunity to lead, opportunity to grow, opportunity for winning brands to double down on success, opportunity for emerging brands to disrupt and opportunity for brands that lost their traction to reset right now,” Internicola Law* Firm founder and partner Charles Internicola said in 1851’s “#TheGreatReturn” franchise summit, in which franchise growth experts from a range of brands discussed the state of the industry and the opportunity for growth post COVID-19. 

Here are three key areas where franchise brands can engage in thoughtful self-evaluation. 

Category

Franchise brands need to evaluate both their category and the unique assets they have to offer franchise candidates. Once they clearly define these assets, they can improve their franchise opportunity and create plans to successfully meet their sales goals. 

“What’s the story about our product and service?” Internicola said. “Where are we winning in the marketplace? Where are we winning in franchise sales? It’s really about an assessment. Take a look at these assets. We really can’t build the next steps until we see where our strengths and weaknesses are.”

Also, passion for an industry or product may no longer be a big driver for prospective franchisees, which is something brands should keep in mind. 

“In the past, they may have gone directly after what they were passionate about, but there has been disruption on the passion standpoint,” 1851 Franchise publisher Nick Powills said. “I may have always dreamt of being a restaurant owner, and now I don’t know the sustainability of it.” 

Also, a brand’s mission should take center stage, as prospective franchisees need to believe in the product or service a brand offers. They need to know that the product or service will help people solve problems, add value to the communities they serve and contribute to a greater mission. 

Above all, prospective franchisees need to believe in the transformation the franchise opportunity will represent for them. 

Investment

Prospective franchisees often have two major questions in mind when doing preliminary research: “How much money can I make?” and “How much does it cost to franchise with this brand?” For this reason, franchise brands should ensure their investment information is easy to find on their franchise development websites. Brands may understandably not want to list their Item 19 information upfront, although they should evaluate whether they might want to disclose their earnings claim, but they can disclose the cost to franchise and make it easy for prospective franchisees to find that information. 

Franchise brands should also perform an analysis comparison to their competitors and to similar investment types. 

People

Franchise brands need to make sure they’re doing all they can to attract the right franchise candidates. What do these prospects like and what are their interests? Ideally, these traits will match the traits of the most successful existing franchisees in a system. 

In all likelihood, the challenging economic climate created by COVID-19 is going to widen the pool of prospective franchise candidates. Knowing this, franchise brands should take note of what they have to offer in their category, highlight the cost of their investment opportunity and really think about the types of franchise candidates they want to attract. Doing so will make for a more robust franchise sales process.