FranX | No One Cares About Cost Per Lead

The Next McDonald's (Big Idea)

No One Cares About You, Your Brand, or What You Do!

Not at first, at least!

They care about what you can do for them, how your product, your service, your franchise fits into their life journey and can help transform their lives!

Along the way, of course, they will build a relationship with your brand, evaluate the integrity of your leadership team, pay attention to features of your products, services, franchisees.

But, what they are buying, what they want, is the transformation that every great product, service, and franchise system delivers.

What’s the transformation that your product/service delivers to your customers?

[WHEN BUYING / EXPERIENCING YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE YOUR CUSTOMERS GO FROM ______________ TO ___________________?]

What’s the transformation that your franchise system delivers to your franchisees?

[WHEN A FRANCHISE JOINS OUR SYSTEM AND OPENS THEIR BUSINESS THEY GO FROM ____________________ TO ___________________?]

If your marketing is not built around the transformation that you offer, you’re missing the big idea. Also, you’ll be missing out on the opportunity to improve your cost per APPLICATION. See our bottom thoughts.

News You Can (Actually) Use

• Franchise Target Market: Space
• More Money, Less Unemployment

Killer Brands

How You Brewin’ - We all know the feeling, you wake up and find that special place that serves a great cup of coffee and feels like home. How You Brewin' is the type of home town coffee house that we all love and the place that so many of us seek out on vacation and when in a new town.

Founded along the Jersey Shore, How You Brewin' is the anti-franchise franchise, it’s the anti-Starbucks, but with a great Item 19 and numbers. This is a low volume franchise opportunity but, for the right franchisee, in the right town, it’s a brand that you need to know!

Franchisees Kicking Ass: The Franchisee Is King

Kyle Norcutt, the multi-unit owner of seven TWO MEN AND A TRUCK**® locations across the country, has been with the 380-unit moving franchise for decades. He originally joined the brand after reconnecting with a friend from grade school who had seen success with the franchise in North Carolina. Over the years, Norcutt has owned a whopping 24 different locations within the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK®* system. He has learned about the ins and outs of multi-unit growth, how to motivate a dedicated team and how to find the path to success.

“There are a few key things that I’ve learned over the years,” said Norcutt. “Whether it be investing in employee development or otherwise, the approach needs to be data-driven, which takes time. You have to take initiative on those big decisions — look at the real facts that are impacting the first location.”

While it is important to personally take initiative, Norcutt says the key to multi-unit ownership is also trusting location managers and giving them plenty of room to make their own decisions. “You don’t want to have to call anyone on a daily basis,” he said. “That is one of the hardest parts of multi-unit ownership — trying not to get bogged down in the day-to-day issues and staying focused on the big picture.”

For owners looking to expand into the multi-unit realm, Noructt says you have to get your original business running so smoothly that you are eager to challenge yourself.

“Multi-unit ownership is a whole new way to operate — you can’t be there on a daily basis, everything has to run smoothly and you need to have a backup plan for cash,” he said. “If a location is far away and you lose someone, you have to have a backup plan, or it will impact the whole operation.”

Yo Broker, Sell My Franchise

Megan Allen, franchise consultant and FranNet franchisee, has spent her entire career in the franchise industry. Allen owned her own business with her father during college in the finance industry, helping franchisees grow by finding leasing equipment for property improvement plans.

After working as a supplier for the industry, she joined the doggy daycare franchise Camp Bow Wow’s leadership team, where she helped grow the brand and assisted in real estate, development and openings, as well as worked tirelessly to expand services and financial wealth for the franchisees in the system.

Now, as a franchisee herself with the FranNet team, Allen is passionate about matching the right owners with the right business model. Her various consulting roles have focused on coaching, change management, real estate, legal matters and franchise development.

“Winning for me as a broker is not about commissions or client signings. It is about making sure the client feels like they really took the time to find the right brand for their needs,” said Allen. “That is the most challenging part — but also the most rewarding. I love when a client says to me, ‘Wow, you really do understand me!’ My goal is to really listen and analyze their needs, go through the opportunities, call development groups and maybe sometimes even talk to the brand’s founder. Handling all that prep work and being consistent with the results I bring for clients is what winning is about for me.”

Watch the full interview with Allen above, or click here to watch it on YouTube.

The Bottom Thoughts

Did you hear about that brand that was paying about $1 per lead? They got hundreds of them.

At conferences, they were telling everyone about their mastering of franchise development marketing -- they had the inside tricks. More leads. Lots of them.

Problem was, they only had 7 units. Oh, and those 7 complained that it was not what they expected.

At some point in franchise development history, someone said if you can’t sell them, lead them (or something like that) -- declaring that if you can’t get the deals through, at least find KPIs that indicate activity and success.

There are a few issues with lead generation today:

1. We should be focusing on cost per application (an indicator that the lead is good).
2. But then, wait, there’s more. You shouldn’t be optimizing the cost, you should be spending more (you guys are crazy). Once you have your data on how much a quality lead costs, you should focus on getting more of them, at any cost, if…
3. They are converting deals.
4. INSERT BROKEN RECORD. Figure out your deal value. Chances are it’s significant. Focus on getting more deals.

So, what indicators should you look at?

1. Get specific with your target markets. Then watch traffic to your site. If you have no one coming to your site in that state or market, then the chances of you getting lift in that state are similar to the chances of Santa being real (wait, he’s not real).
2. Applications, or your definition of quality candidates, should be your focus. Get them, engage them. Stop wasting time on names.
3. BUT, don’t throw those names out. There are variations of leads. Some are qualified and simply just not ready to buy.

It’s time to think differently.