Imagine sitting at a conference table with all of the people who have the answers to all of your growth questions. The who, what, where, when and why of franchising your brand. What would you pay for this? How much of that budget would you give to at least have some ideas on where to spend your budget?

The good news is that this could cost nothing.

Yes, nothing.

Who knows how to sell your franchise the best? Duh, your franchisees. Something caught their eyes (some marketing, hook or product) and they know what they did next and what made them ultimately buy.

We have franchise advisory groups for the system and for marketing, but why not for development?

On late night TV, weight loss and workout companies sell through people. They show people who “used” their product and won. You need to leverage your data, too.

There are multiple ways to do this. You could set up a meeting or conference. Give your franchisees an incentive to participate (a gift card, pay for their hotel, buy them a computer). You could also schedule a regular conference call. If you want to collect even more data, you can interview a pool of franchisees. Don’t ask them the knowns, ask them your unknowns. Ask them how they consume media. Ask them what they would do to get one more deal.

Far too often, answers exist right in front of our faces – but we fail to see the possibilities of that data. If I were running franchise sales, I would start with my existing users. I would want to know how I can get them to grow (what it would take); how I can get them to help me grow the system (how to get them to tell a few friends); how they would find their next brand (if I, of course, can’t keep them in my system).

If 84 percent of your sales are going to come one degree-separated from your current brand stakeholders, how much of your time are you spending working with this existing base? What would happen if you built out this franchise development advisory council? What if they understood the impact they could have on helping you grow the brand?