How the Trend Toward Transparency and More Disclosure Can Increase Leads and Candidate Quality

“You don’t know what you don’t know.”

That’s what Paul Pickett, the chief development officer for Wild Birds Unlimited*, will tell prospective franchisees. And it’s a phrase that has everything to do with making sure each lead that comes his way has all the information needed to make the right decision.

Since Pickett began his franchise development career back in 1989, he always kept a keen focus on intensely preparing new franchisees with realistic expectations. This meant creating a development process that provides a clear and transparent path of discovery to help potential Wild Birds Unlimited owners completely understand the brand’s system, how they support their individual stores, what it takes to be a strong franchisee, and ultimately answers the important age old question—“Is this franchise the right match for me?”

“Becoming a Wild Birds Unlimited franchisee is a big decision. We decided that, in order to grow the right way, we needed to give people the ability to fully understand every single aspect of what it’d be like as one of our owners. We want to avoid the situation where people jump in and are unhappy—this has helped us grow in a very steady and sustainable way,” Pickett said.

At Wild Birds Unlimited, this starts with giving people all the information they might require right up front. That’s where the brand’s franchise development website comes in. Visitors can easily discover startup costs and financial performance while also getting a taste for the brand’s existing franchisees (and their level of happiness), systems and customers. The website also includes a Decision Making Checklist, which was designed to walk prospective franchisees step-by-step through the entire development process before they even make the decision to come on board. As this story unfolds, candidates begin to see exactly what running a Wild Birds Unlimited franchise entails.

With that information readily available, people who are not a fit for the business self-select out of the sales process without any major time commitment from Pickett’s recruitment team. Those who are a fit are more likely to fill out a form and become a lead. They also enter the process more engaged and therefore more likely to invest. This has helped Wild Birds Unlimited generate less leads but drive their deal flow by an additional 50 percent.

“We’re giving our prospective franchisees the opportunity to truly understand what it’s going to be like when you join our brand. Almost 100 percent of our candidates will say that they were glad our process is so well designed and so transparent, because it taught them so many important details they wouldn’t otherwise have known,” Pickett said. “In the end, they’re easier to work with and easier to support because they’ve thought it through. They’re happy and confident in the decision to join Wild Birds Unlimited. And that will save you thousands of hours, tears and problems if you learn to do it the right way in the very beginning.”

If Wild Birds Unlimited’s story is any indication, transparency is becoming one of the most important tools in lead generation. Franchise candidates want information they can trust before they are willing to take the next step, and a brand’s franchise development website is often their first stop. Generating leads for your franchise requires embracing the information age as more potential franchisees want fast answers and responses. This means your franchise development website needs to be more transparent than ever before, providing everything from startup costs and in-depth video interviews with existing franchisees to information on the CEO and the organization’s purpose, future direction and mission.