How to Qualify the Capital Intensive Candidate
Back in the 1990's, when "inbound marketing" was once again in fashion, I was working development for a large QSR brand.
Our prospective franchisees or candidates -we never referred to them as "leads"- called us on a land line. Sometimes, they would even fax us.
You must imagine this: A candidate needed to meet or exceed a net worth of $1 million to qualify for our development. I had to figure out whether they would qualify - over the phone.
Caller-id was no more revealing then than an email address is today. You could work for weeks with what turned out to be great candidate - except that they could not meet the financial qualifications.
What I learned, quickly enough, was to use a simple method to get people to truthfully reveal whether they were qualified or not. All over the telephone, using no other source of information.
The Secret Technique
I can reveal this method to you today - it still works.
You ask the on the phone - "Do you have a net worth that meets or exceeds our financial requirements?" at the exact right time in the sale process - after they have raised their hands and asked to go forward. People will truthfully reveal their financial qualifications - if your sales process is thoughtful.
(We actually had a terrific candidate who wasn't financially qualified. But we were able to match his talent with other capital - another story for another time. He is now a very successful multi-unit franchisee and a highly respected franchisee leader.)
The secret technique was waiting for, what my business partner Michael Webster calls, the Signal of Commitment. Only after I heard the right signals, could I ask for and get a truthful revelation of their financial qualifications.
Why Websites Don't Work
Contrast our ability to listen to a real human asking real questions about the business opportunity to what we ask for on websites.
Here is a representative application to a capital intensive franchise.
You have already asked the candidate whether they were qualified - using a form on the internet!
How many worthless inquiries is this going to produce? Too many - but too few leads.
Your application process lacks grace.
You don't get the deal done with someone who is only committed to filling out a form on a website.
Summary
No, the only way to do capital intensive franchising is using old fashion technology - listening, waiting the signal and then asking for the commitment.
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Joe is correct.
Although the machine technology has expanded, our ability to listen remains the same.
Don't abandon your native persuasion skills and turn over the job of selling to the machine!
I want to be clear Michael as I agree with you that "native persuasion skills" should be employed by franchise sellers.
However that doesn't mean people should just wing it. You need to have a well defined process that you and your team practice and measure.
Too many people think that they are such a convincing salesperson that they can sell anything to anyone if they can just get them on the phone and then channel their inner Vin Diesel from the movie Boiler Room
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0svwlSv7JeI
There are two other related examples of getting commitment, or somebody's confidential information.
1. Jeff Molander discusses the correct use of a follow up sales message in email - be direct, specific, yet hold back details:
http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/sales-follow-emails-effective-formula/all/
2. And my article on Bad Customers which talks about this problem & how to solve it with negotiation training:
https://www.franchise-info.ca/supply_chain/2015/09/why-you-have-bad-customers-what-do-to-about-it.html#.Vg0nVhNVhHw