Powills: Why Your Website Must Be Your Best Employee

When sales teams are searching far and wide for the be-all-end-all solution to sales, rarely do they look at what’s staring directly back at them. They look at marketing, advertising, PR, outside-the-box lead generation solutions, and if they really want that silver bullet – social media. However, when you look at a sales process, it starts at a much thicker point in the funnel. Ideally, the funnel entrance is at the consumer standpoint, yet many brands don’t feel comfortable throwing development darts at the consumer (different mindsets for marketing vs. development). In franchise development, this is the simplest form of candidate – someone who has an emotional tie to your brand. Development is much more than a franchise development ad here or a franchise PR campaign there. It’s about finding all touch points to as many people as possible who could possibly, someday, maybe, have a business relationship with your brand. This starts with the consumer and continues to your website. Don’t look for the cheap way out – or the simplest path to a finish line in regards to your development site. Take a really in-depth look at the way your site acts, talks, and sells. By doing so, it should quickly elevate to your best employee – or, rather your most important employee. At this point, you are probably getting ready to challenge whether a website is actually an employee. To that, you are correct. But you should treat it that way. When you hired, did your development stop there? Do you not attend the International Franchise Association’s annual conference or Franchise Update’s Leadership & Development conference? Of course you do, because, you are interested in ongoing development and continuing education. Your website should be treated the same way. By placing the right amount of time into your site, you can build a site that works as a sales tool and as an educator to, at the very least, push a prospect into inquiring about business ownership. By constantly updating the site with fresh data, new testimonials, blogs and press credentials, your site should turn into the most important part of your team – your top sales employee. If your site does not deliver you candidates to speak with in-person, then it should be fired – quickly. In the past, we looked at a website as a stagnate tool for delivering information, yet, it is much more than that. It’s, in many cases, your only opportunity to turn a ghost leads into a real inquiry. This is your chance to sell. If your consumer-side is marketing the opportunity to your guests, then you are in good shape for at least entertaining a few inquiries from them. However, in markets that you don’t have a footprint, you have to find ways to sell the emotional experience of your brand. You must show them the flavor of your franchise. Additionally, if you’ve hired a franchise PR firm, all the time and effort they spend into generating media coverage to drive your franchise awareness will be wasted if candidates are guided into a site that doesn’t convince them to, at the very least, inquire. Don’t market unless you lay the foundation, first. You’re wasting everyone’s time. If I had the keys to the car, I would ensure my development website was updated daily and treated much like a social media footprint – daily updates and daily interaction. Treat your website like your best employee, and it will be your best employee. It will walk candidates through a process that encourages them to inquire into ownership with your brand. It will be your wingman/wingwoman for introducing you to an interested candidate. Don’t let your website employee go stale, or else the information won’t deliver you the results that matter.