2026 Top Franchise Sales Leaders: Mark Jameson, CDO for Propelled Brands

Franchise Sales Leader: Mark Jameson 

Brand: Propelled Brands

Mark Jameson, chief development officer at Propelled Brands, got into franchising by accident. He was a banker until his bank failed, then took a management job at a Coffee Beanery location in his Connecticut town while he waited for something better. The brand promoted him to business consultant, moved him to Michigan as director of franchise operations, and he never left the industry.

Most of his career after that was in operations. Development came later, when the company he now works for asked him to run it. He has been there 14 years and oversees franchise development across its three brands: FASTSIGNS, My Salon Suite and Camp Bow Wow.

Jameson spoke with 1851 Franchise about how today's candidates approach the franchise search and why his team is willing to tell a qualified prospect no.

1851 Franchise: Can you tell us about your background and how you entered the franchise world?

Mark Jameson: I think most people get into franchising by accident, and I did. Early in my career, I was a banker, and I knew that wasn't going to be my thing. The bank failed during a time when the FDIC was closing banks, and I took a full-time job as a manager at the Coffee Beanery in my town, which had just opened. I figured I'd do it for a while until something better came along. It was a company-owned store, and I got really excited about the brand and the model. Soon after, they asked me to become a business consultant. I traveled and consulted with franchisees, and within another year or so, they asked me to move to Michigan. I was in Connecticut. They promoted me to director of franchise operations, and it was boom, boom, and I thought, wow, I guess I'm in franchising now. It became my career.

I started in operations, managed a business consultant team and worked with franchisees; then I left and ran a retail brand based in Houston that nobody would know except maybe old-timers. Then my last company asked me to join and run franchise development. I had not done franchise development. I had mostly done ops, and I thought, I don't know if I'm going to like this. It has become my true love. I love bringing people in. That's what I do at Propelled today, and I have a team here. We do a welcome breakfast for all our new employees about once a month with the executives, and I was saying this morning that what I love about franchising is watching people come in and realize their dreams. I've been with this company 14 years now, and I see them bring in the next generation, or their spouse or partner, and how it really becomes their life. That's what's so rewarding to me about what we do.

1851: The franchise buyer has changed dramatically over the past few years. What are the biggest shifts you're seeing in today's candidates, and how has your approach evolved to meet them?

Jameson: We have three brands today at Propelled, and I manage everything from what we call lead to lights on for all three. Each brand is a little different. The investment level is different and the candidate is different, but there is a lot of commonality within it. I've been at this long enough to remember when the phone was how people reached out, and then it was the web portal, which it still is today. What I find more and more, and even more expedited in the last six months, is how sophisticated candidates are when they come to us. They've done the homework. They've done the research. They're not asking some of the basics. They're really looking to fine-tune the stuff they found on the internet. And of course, with AI, that time frame is even more compressed. They're coming to us asking good, educated questions, and I think that's positive.

One of the greatest things I got out of FranCamp was to make sure your website and your Q&A are really built to be read by AI, so that when somebody searches it now, it pulls in the information. That was maybe a year ago, and since then we have really gone in and taken another look at our website and our Q&A. We know what the crawlers and AI are picking up, and we ask how we're validating it. It's great to say you're number one, which we've used for years with FASTSIGNS, but now we're saying by Entrepreneur magazine, so that at least it has more credibility.

So I think it's a more sophisticated candidate, but not necessarily one moving quicker. I don't feel the process timeline has gotten quicker. They come to us more educated, and then they go off and do their own research again, and now they're looking at other models and even organizational structure and whether they can use their 401(k). You can't hide behind anything anymore. It's all out there. Not that we would hide before, but I think it's a different story because of that.

1851: What do you believe sets high-performing franchise sales organizations apart from brands that struggle to attract qualified franchisees?

Jameson: At Propelled, we've always focused heavily on transparency. Even the companies we bought, we did it immediately. We have a full Item 19 all the way down to the profit number. I'm shocked when we look at a couple of acquisitions, and I look at the brand right away, and it says we do not offer an Item 19. Okay, then how are you talking about profitability?

Beyond that, a lot of it boils down to our culture. We have an amazing CEO in Catherine Monson. She was the former chair of the IFA. She's very focused on franchisee profitability, unit-level economics and the things that drive franchise sales and ensure we have satisfied franchisees. We measure it with Franchise Business Review and we survey multiple times. We want to make sure we're providing the tools and the resources our franchisees need, and we measure it and we plan against it. All of that gives our sales team the credibility they need when they go out there. They know that if somebody calls a franchisee, they'll hear a great story because it's true. We openly share our Franchise Business Review scores so candidates can see what our franchisees are saying about us before they even pick up the phone.

Our franchise sales team is also very engaged with our brand presidents. They're a part of those individual brand teams, and we sort of dedicate our sales team by brand. They're not just saying, hey, I'm here to sell three brands. I don't know how all multibrand companies do it, but I know some just say, hey, I've got a bunch of brands; which one do you want to talk about? If somebody comes to us with an inquiry for a brand, let's make sure we tell them that story. Scott Group is our VP of franchise sales. He reports to me, but he has built a great team and they're knowledgeable and they're studied. We also study our competition. We want to be able to explain why we feel we're better positioned across our three brands than anyone else in the space.

1851: Trust has become one of the biggest factors in franchise recruitment. How does your team build credibility with candidates through the discovery process?

Jameson: In any sales process, do what you say you're going to do. If you tell somebody you're going to get them information, get it to them. It's not that old “show up and throw up.” You build trust by talking to the candidate, and in our sales process we have very distinctive steps. One of those is not to talk so much, or even talk. What are they looking for? Why does this brand fit their lifestyle or their life decisions or their family decisions? I think that's how you build trust.

We're also the first to say, "No, you may not be a fit for this brand for X, Y and Z reasons," and that is hard for anybody in sales. Sometimes we can direct them someplace else brand-wise, but that doesn't usually happen. The transparency is a two-way conversation. We share a lot of video content about what our franchisees say about us, so they already know what our franchisees believe and why they love being part of this organization.

We recently had an example with our MY SALON Suite brand. We love to sell a three-pack. That's typically what we focus on, although we'll sell single units. We had a candidate who wasn't qualified for three, and we said we'd sell you two. He said, well, these other brands will sell me a three-pack. I said, "We're just being honest." We don't think it's a good financial decision for you. You may get there and we'll be happy to do it later, but today we're just not. He pushed back and pushed back, and of course the salesperson is like, “Everybody else will sell him a three-pack.” We're looking at the numbers and we don't think it makes sense. Ultimately, he bought, and I think it was because I told him what he probably needed to hear and nobody else was willing to do that. You build trust by being honest even if it's not to your advantage.

1851: What advice would you give an emerging brand looking to accelerate development without sacrificing the quality of its franchisees?

Jameson: As a buyer, we look at brands we're looking to add to our portfolio, and a lot of it boils down to this: don't be afraid to say no. If the candidate isn't right, if the candidate isn't qualified, or if the brand isn't right for them. It is so hard when you're an emerging brand and you need that deal and you're getting pressure to sell deals. That includes things like territory size. Somebody came in, really wanted a deal, and said, "Can't you make it bigger than this?" Can't you give me this county and that county? Those are the hardest things to say no to.

But in this business you have to know when to say no, or the reason to say no. That's probably one of the biggest things for any emerging brand, because it is so hard to say no when you need the deal. We all probably need the deal, but when you're emerging, you need it more. You want to get your foot on the map. It all comes down to you selecting the right people. You tell them the rules, you follow the rules, and they're going to validate 10 times for you and they're going to grow and they'll be your best advocates.

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