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New Poll Results: 57 Percent of Franchisors are Unsatisfied with their Lead Generation Results
Expectations are shifting as candidates take greater control of the search process
The franchise business model was created for the purpose of positioning companies to grow. Franchise brands, in turn, rely on their lead generation strategies to identify potential franchisees in an effort to accomplish that growth. Strategies will often include a sophisticated mix of organic efforts like content creation and public relations, alongside non-proprietary tactics like expos and online lead portals. Yet despite lead generation being a core element of franchising, 57% of franchisors are unsatisfied with their lead generation results, based upon a poll conducted by BoeFly with approximately 100 franchisors in March 2016. Perhaps equally noteworthy was that only 5% of responding franchise brands rank themselves as either more than satisfied or very satisfied with their lead generation results.
As I take stock of these survey results, I’m reminded of a consultant who put forward the idea that satisfaction is the difference between expectations and results. Under that idea, a 57% unsatisfactory level means to me that the brand’s expectations were unrealistic or that their results were anemic; perhaps it means both.
Two other interesting poll results:
We asked brands, “If you could utilize only one lead generation tactic – expos, portals, public relations, web content/organic traffic or brokers – what would it be?” The winning tactic was web content/organic traffic at 56%, while only 4% selected expos.
We also asked brands to select all the tactics they currently invest in:
- Web Portals: 91%
- PR: 67%
- Web content/Organic traffic: 86%
- Expos: 56%
- Brokers: 47%
These results confirm that brands prefer to invest in an array of tactics, as opposed to highly concentrating their bets. A franchise sales executive recently shared an insight that relates to this idea of diversification: there are no bad lead sources, but that different sources will yield leads at meaningfully different distances away from a franchise sale. For example, a lead sourced from a web portal may be at the beginning of their franchise research, whereas an organic site visitor that completes the brand information capture may be late in their search process. The fact that brands are investing across a wide number of lead sources seems to imply that brands back the executive’s view – no bad leads, just different places on the timeline. It’s like portfolio theory for franchise lead sources. The challenge for the brand is to have a handle on the expected value of each source, while being mindful of the likely sales cycle. Brands that do, have a fighting chance to stay out of the dissatisfied majority – the 57% of brands less than satisfied with their lead generation strategy.
To hear more perspectives about franchise lead generation watch the BoeFly webinar featuring top industry experts.
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