FranConnection 2016: 6 Techniques to Help Achieve Better Unit Growth

You’ve probably seen the image of a food pyramid before. The one hanging on the refrigerator in my childhood home’s kitchen is indelibly burned into my mind—not because my dad crossed out all of the other words in the pyramid’s base and replaced them with the word “cookies” (true story)—but because the pyramid was filled with words I wished at the time weren’t there: fruits and vegetables. They were things I certainly wasn’t a big fan of as a kid.

But thank goodness my mother made me eat them anyway. Sometimes, what’s good for you isn’t always what you want to do at first. This analogy applies to franchise sales, too. Sometimes reaching that goal of higher franchise sales means doing things that are hard.

The base of the ‘franchise sales pyramid’ is strong unit level economics. And here’s a little secret: stronger unit growth is tied in to them. Increase franchisee engagement and the efficiency of their sales at the unit level and you’ll help drive new unit sales in the process.

At this week’s FranConnect ’16 Conference, held by FranConnect at the Gaylord National Hotel and Conference Center just outside Washington, D.C., experienced franchise veterans shined a spotlight on ULE to help move away from satisfaction with the status quo and raise the bar.

Bill Michael, brand manager of AdviCoach, uses FranConnect to create a critical process for unit and system growth, broken out into six distinct steps:

1. On-Boarding and Training

2. System and Tools Training

3. Franchisee Business Planning

4. KPI Tracking

5. Ongoing Education and Training

6. Best Practices on the Back-End

“This all starts on day one,” Michael told FranConnection ’16 attendees. “The first six months are critical. You need to coach your franchisees to be prepared for the ride. And we believe it’s critical to understand the four levels of learning and help franchisees navigate them. They begin as unconsciously incompetent: they don’t know what they don’t know. Then they become consciously incompetent: they understand they don’t know what they need to know. As they learn and grow, they become unconsciously competent, and then, finally, they arrive, consciously competent, and ready to help their franchise and your brand grow.”

La Quinta Inns and Suites, which began franchising in 2001, uses FranConnect to help facilitate all of its on-boarding and training processes, through a customized platform it has dubbed LQConnect.

“We worked to get fast buy-in from our franchise partners through this system,” said Oliver Evancho, vice president of brand experience for La Quinta. “We got pens, key chains, and all sorts of trinkets with the logo on them to keep it top of mind for the franchisees. And, we worked to create value for our franchisees to use the LQConnect system. FranConnect allows us to make our data applications a one-stop shop. Make it fresh and relevant. Make it easy for franchisees to use it and get benefits from it, and they will.”

Navigating the ‘franchisee life cycle,’ from discovery and marriage to each other, through the launch and the grind of daily business, to winning, hitting ‘the zone’ and ultimately, the goodbye. Fully laid out, it’s a cycle that should last for a decade—or longer. But, failing at the launch point can accelerate the final step: the goodbye.

“That means they need to be set up for success through a proven system,” Michael said. “Don’t just train them and throw them out there. Are you measuring their effectiveness? Are you going back and refining? We use FranConnect to measure, track, understand, and then to reinforce.”

Measuring effectiveness should begin with the creation of a strategic business plan, Michael advised. To measure metrics, you first have to create the scale.

“Ask critical questions to your franchise partners,” he said. “Why do they want to be a part of this? What’s driving them? What are their goals? What’s their primary aim? Is it income, or lifestyle? Is it growing wealth? Is it the ability to be their own boss, or set their own schedule? What is their end game? Establishing both short term and long term goals and targets is critical. But even more critical is providing the support for your franchisees to achieve them.”

The best way to do that, Michael advises, is by setting up key performance indicators.

“Identify eight to 12 critical numbers,” he said. “Track them and make them available to the franchisees. Coach them and provide specialized, individualized training to help them ‘close the gap. We share those KPI’s through FranConnect on a national dashboard. We believe there is a culture of openness where franchising is moving. And that still makes some nervous, but there is value to it. At AdviCoach, we started with listing a ‘top 20 percent’ in our monthly newsletter to ease into it, and we’re moving forward in sharing even more data from there.”

La Quinta posts its KPI’s on the LQConnect dashboard, showing franchisees exactly where they fit into the system, from a sales perspective, on a daily basis.