Franchisors have to work hard to market & sell franchises.

We need to work to attract attention to our franchise concept.

And, once we get attention for our brand, unless we maintain that interest we don't get the sale. 

Smart franchisors and savvy franchise sellers are recruiting for the best talent and capital to grow their franchise systems. When it comes to talent some franchisors want a specific skill set or they want a type of person who has certain attributes. The franchisor also wants someone who has money available to develop the brand on a single or multi-unit basis.

You want both talent and capital. Short-cutting your own requirements usually leads to franchisor/franchisee relationship problems down the road.

How do you find these people?

You target them.

And, you go to where they are & talk with them.

We did this with all the brands I've been with.

But, one brand attracted attention in a thoughtful manner.

This QSR franchise wanted to be in new convenience store and truck stop developments.

So, we needed to attract attention and sell some new franchises.

Here's what we did -and why it worked.

We joined the C-store and Truck stop trade associations and found out what made our target audience tick. (We had already refined our concept to fit with c-stores, travel plazas and truck stops.)

But, we had to tell our story and that meant more than buying display advertising in the classified sections.  We needed an audience.

We wanted our story out there.  In front of that audience.

And, we needed our story to be told in a way that the audience could relate to.

The audience got to decide whether or not our franchise concept fit into what they wanted to do next and if it solved their problem.

Yes, we ran display advertising, exhibited at trade shows and used direct mail.  Did all the usual things.

But, what made all of this work better -and amplified our story- was  our use of PR Firm, who knew franchising.

Next, we:

1. Educated the PR Firm exactly on what our concept was about.

2. Demonstrated how we fit with our target audience.

3. Developed our action plan.

4. Scheduled weekly PR execution calls.

We didn't "set it and forget it".

We did what we were good at & let the PR firm do their job, giving them the best the information and support we could provide.

In 90 days, we got some press.

We'd already got attention through our ads, trade shows and direct mail. We were maintaining interest. Conversations grew and so did our franchise sales.

And 14 months into the campaign we made the cover of a credible and widely read C-store industry trade publication!  The same publication we had our ads in.  But, we had moved from the classifieds to being newsworthy.  On the front page, baby!

We instantly became more popular, our phone kept ringing and people called us to meet them at the next industry trade show.

Our franchise PR strategy worked because all the parts and complements were in alignment.  

We weren't seeking a lot of attention - we were trying to amplify the attention we were getting from our ads.

And so, we sold more franchises.  Because we got the right sort of attention from our audience.