5 Tips on Picking the Right Franchisee for You

When building a franchise company, one of the biggest factors of success lies in choosing the right franchisees. Follow these five tips to make sure you’re finding the right franchisees and you’re your brand will be set for success.

Know what you want. As a franchisor, you need to know exactly what it takes to be successful within your system. According to Sean Fitzgerald, Chief Development Strategist for No Limit Agency*, that includes knowing what personality traits are important to the success of the company, not just the financial requirements.

Fitzgerald suggests that all brands should interview their top 10 percent and bottom 10 percent of franchisees to determine the traits they should look for and the ones they should avoid.

Build the franchise awarding process around successful traits. When interviewing potential franchisee candidates, makes sure to include the successful traits identified in the top 10 percent of system franchisees into the questions. This will not only help weed out candidates, but it will also help a potential franchisee understand if this is the correct fit for him or her.

Get feedback from franchisees. Fitzgerald suggests including current franchisees in the selection process. Franchisees who are already with the brand know what they do to become successful, make sure to tap into that resource for finding the next great franchisee.

“Get their opinion on the candidates and whether or not they would make a positive addition to the brand,” said Fitzgerald. “They’ll appreciate being part of the process and more likely to participate in future validation calls.”

Use outside resources. “I’ve always said that top producers in one brand would be top producers in another brand even if it is a completely different industry,” said Fitzgerald. “That’s because there are specific traits that people have which allows them excel in the franchise model. Conversely, there are traits that make franchising the wrong choice for some people.”

That’s why Fitzgerald suggests using tools like Proven Match, a science-based insights and screening tools, to help identify those traits to aid in the decision-making process.

In addition to finding resource tools, working with brands like Services4Franchising and FranConnect can help act as a matchmaker for brands and potential franchisees.

Make your development team focused on recruiting quality candidates. Having the right development team can make or break the recruiting process. Franchise brands should position their team to act like recruiters over being in sales. One way to do that is by incentivizing the team to encourage signings that are built on quality or quantity.

Fitzgerald suggests that brands should build in quality metrics and give incentives for franchisee performance so the development team is looking for the “right” franchisees, not the next guy who can write a check.