Professional Franchise Selling - How to Get Comfortable with Discomforting Questions
Franchise selling is hard and it takes sustained effort for franchise sales professionals to get the job done.
Franchising by nature of the transaction has a long sales cycle and a lot can happen to your prospects in a 60 day plus timeframe. Most of which are out of your control.
I think we agree having a well designed franchise sales funnel process is an essential part of an effective franchise sales program.
- Qualifying inquiries at the top of the sales funnel.
- Getting the steps in the right order.
- Making certain the steps are engaging for your prospects.
- Writing the scripts for each step that guides the sales person and advancing the franchise-buyer.
So you have all your franchise sales funnel ducks in a row.
You are scheduling calls and events. And you are using your selling scripts.
You have candidates moving through your process progressing to buying your franchise.
How are you doing with discomfort?
There are bumps in the road on every franchise sale. It's not like you talk to a prospect, send them your Franchise Disclosure Document - FDD, wait the 10-14 days with the franchise-buyer automatically signing your franchise agreement and sending it & a check back to you.
Franchise sales don't happen this way and they shouldn't.
Now about the discomforting questions you ask your prospects? The important ones about money, commitment, planning, family, business partners,who's going to do what, making decisions to buy etc...
Asking these tough questions is important. You need to do it. Doing it well requires practice and discipline. The people I have watched do it best have mastered combining thoughtfulness, gentleness and firmness. And when they asked an important question - they waited. They mustered all their patience and discipline and they waited for the prospect to answer.
In order to get good at this don't use role playing. II's a waste of time since you can't simulate the real-life dynamics and tension of the sales situation.
Instead do this. Have people sit in on your sales calls. Have them physically in the room with you to watch and listen to you. It will give you confidence during that call and after you can discuss how you can get better for the next call.
How do I know this works? I was lucky enough to have people who cared listen to my franchise sales calls and they helped me get better at it. And I returned the favor with my sales team.
