Operations: Joe Caruso Archives

You want to Talk to more of those Qualified Leads You just Bought?

By Joe Caruso on November 23, 2020 8:18 PM | 0 Comments

What I want to know this: If talking to qualified leads is so important, then why are your franchise sale people failing at the basics of qualifying?

Few, if any franchisors that we mystery shop for, get the basics right. And, so as a consequence, their sales team doesn't talk to enough qualified leads & you have wasted the brand's marketing dollars.

Instead of executing the basics, franchise sales teams, confused by a false understanding of "speed to lead", use their CRM to try to set telephone appointments, uselessly offering up their calendar as an incentive.

Your automated & automatic email says to your prospect that a machine is in charge. And the machine is a carnival barker yelling "Buy My Franchise." Who's is gonna buy their franchise from such a process?

Do this instead and try it for a couple of months. You will get better results. We guarantee it.

Ditch the inquiry auto-reply email. It is a wasted message that does not advance your prospect's interest in your franchise.
Set up your website form to give an immediate inquiry success confirmation while they are on your website. You could even point them to your franchise testimonial page to read how other people have succeeded with your brand.
Then, use their email address to find out more about them and their social media presence. You need to learn more about how to do this with LinkedIn. This qualifying process could take a couple of days.

But, forget sending emails that demand people fill out your franchise application, just so that they can talk to you.

Would you send your important & confidential financial information to someone you have not spoken with and developed at least a basic level of trust? I thought not.

It is too hard to fill out a form while using a smartphone to access the form.

Finally, develop a short early stage lead phone/text message designed to provoke their curiosity, some thing like:

"Hi, it's Joe. I have the franchise information you wanted. Call/text me back."

Don't overthink this process.

Get good at phone qualifying people when you talk with them. No need for them to fill out a lengthy application online.

You will talk with more qualified leads, which will happen if you follow these suggestions.

1. Send Joe an Email to Learn More Qualifying by Phone ... Or phone me, call 502 396 9204

2. Join the LinkedIn community at Franchise Prospecting for more conversations on franchise sales techniques with other franchise sales professionals.

3. For the 5 Most Fascinating Stories in Franchising, a weekly report, click here & sign up.

Is This the One Thing Stopping You From Becoming a Sales Professional?

By Joe Caruso on May 8, 2019 8:31 PM | 0 Comments

In my many years of franchise selling, it took me a long time to understand something about myself that was painfully true as a sales manager.

And harder for me to see & accept than I care to admit.

Here is what I know & accept: Fear Kills Sales.

Let me explain. Complex selling especially franchise selling takes time. It requires a series of buyer & seller phone meetings and sales advancing steps before you get the buyer's commitment, contract and the franchise fee.

But, during that process, things like this happen.

1. You are relieved when you make a call and you get a prospect's voice mail. You don't have to talk with them right now and you tell yourself later will probably be better anyway. Fear Kills Sales

2 . Your prospect cancels an appointment with you, but you are secretly comforted that you did not get rejected personally on the call. Fear Kills Sales

3. A prospect is a no show for a franchise sales appointment and the voice inside your head manufactures excuses why this is not a failure. Fear Kills Sales

4. Your CRM & Sales Process tells you it's time today to call your prospect. But, instead of picking up the phone & face rejection, you send an email instead with a pretty video & brochure. Fear Kills Sales

Don't let Fear Kill Your Sales.

Instead, do this.

1. Listen to the little voice inside your head and tell it you understand it's scary to risk rejection and do the exact opposite of what the fearful voice says. Act in the Face of Fear.

2. Get a sales buddy - someone who you talk to about your daily sales calls and give them permission to hold you accountable. And fight the little voice inside your head together with their help (everyone needs a Yoda). Act in the Face of Fear.

3. Understand the little voice inside your head is weakest part of you and can be beaten consistently with practice. Act in the Face of Fear.

4. Remember the fight with the little voice inside your head is ongoing and you win more when you get good at managing it. Act in the Face of Fear.

5. Give yourself permission to win more sales by making the tough calls and do not let the little voice inside your head control your better self. Act in the Face of Fear

Practice this.

You'll have better sales calls, manage your fear of rejection, feel better about your selling by keeping that the little voice inside your head in check...

And get more sales!

P.S. This still happens to me and I must work hard to not let the little voice inside my head win.

For more content like this connect with me on LinkedIn, for franchise sales help call/text me at 502.396.9204 or email [email protected]

Or, you can sign up for our newsletter on Franchise Info's Modern Active Franchise Sales Program

ABC's Shark Tank Sushi Franchise Fiasco

By Joe Caruso on February 26, 2017 5:15 PM | 0 Comments

In 2013 How Do You Roll - HDYR sushi made a big splash on Shark Tank.

However, the match with HDYR & Kevin O'Leary was not to be.

And did not make it past the post-show deal closing round and due diligence.

The fast-casual, create-your-own sushi restaurant franchise, How Do You Roll, was pitched on Shark Tank in 2013.

Yuen Yung and his brother Peter learned the restaurant business from their parents who ran a mom and pop restaurant in Chinatown, New York.

After college, the brothers opened the first How Do You Roll restaurant in Austin, Texas. On Shark Tank, they made a deal with Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary -- $1 million for 20 percent equity."

"The deal with O'Leary fell through and the Austin restaurant closed, as did two Chicago locations.But there are still two How Do You Roll locations open - in Fort Myers, Florida and North Hollywood, California. " - Source August 2, 2016, 2paragraphs.com

HDYR was not deterred by their Shark Tank fiasco of getting a deal with a Shark only to lose it after the show.

They went on to sell franchises.

In fact, they inked a 25 unit development deal for Washington D.C., Maryland, Delaware, and part of Virginia with great fanfare.

Then from a QSR magazine article:

"How Do You Roll? currently has ten units open in Arizona, Florida, and Texas. The company has signed franchise and development agreements for more than 400 units over the next twenty years."

These agreements span Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, the Middle East, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Western Canada." - Source January 17, 2014, QSR

What went wrong with these aspiring sushi franchise tycoons?

Here's the Yung's Shark Tank pitch on the ABC show.

Lots of Unanswered Questions

What's the status of HDYR franchising today?

What are the HDYR franchise owners doing with their businesses?

Who owns the HDYR concept and IP?

What are they planning to do with it?

Being a franchisor and building a durable and sustainable franchise network requires more than reality TV notoriety and a pitch.

It takes a financially attractive business model, a reliable supply chain, with great branding; solid operations, training & support, and great franchise owner recruitment.

For the 5 Most Fascinating Stories in Franchising, a weekly report, click here & sign up.

How to Find Qualified Franchise Prospects & Get The Sale Quicker

By Joe Caruso on February 21, 2017 6:11 AM | 2 Comments

A franchisor needs to have an exclusive conversation with a prospective franchisee.

You don't get a sale until you have that exclusive conversation, dialogue or discussion. The sooner you get to the exclusive conversation, the shorter your sales cycle.

Many Vice-Presidents of Franchising know that their lead generation marketing mix and budget is not producing, but they don't why. Their sales cycles are longer and cost per acquisition is higher.

Some Franchisors rely too heavily on franchise web portals for leads. It is a mistake for capital intensive franchises to use web portals for prospecting. These franchisors need to rebalance their marketing budgets by including a significant portion for outbound marketing.

Why Web Portals Don't Work for Capital Intensive Franchises- The Web Portal is a Numbers Game

Franchise web portals are a popular way for franchisors to generate inquiries that hopefully turn into leads.

The VP of Franchising uses a web portal because he or she believes sales is just a numbers game. More inquiries turn into more leads and therefore more sales. This is simply not true.

Wasteful spending on franchise portals shows this.

The web portals do not create the necessary exclusivity.

A capital intensive franchisor will take time and effort to construct a compelling landing page which cuts through the clutter of other franchise concepts for sale on the web portal.

They take advantage of the web portal's filtering to ensure the most qualified candidates inquire.

They train their sales team to promptly follow up by telephone and email all the referred inquiries.

Suppose that the franchisor is successful in creating a compelling landing page and messaging. The most qualified candidate, talented with capital, takes the time to accurately complete the web portal inquiry form.

Now that's fantastic right? No.

Not so fast, something else happens. The inquiry from the prospect with talent and capital gets intercepted. Intercepted you ask, how and by whom? By the franchise web portal.

That valuable candidate who you attracted is also attractive to your competitors. The web portal operator knows that and will sell or deliver your candidate to your competitors.

One way this works is the following. The candidate finishes the portal's inquiry form qualifying process, and then gets a pop-up-box with suggestions for other franchise investments for them to consider and automatically submit their information to.

Now it's off to the races and the first franchisor to move the candidate from the digital world to the physical world where one-on-one over the telephone a franchisor can build a relationship and then the sale.

Seems a little unfair that you won the candidate's attention for your concept only to lose out to some other franchisor who got them on the telephone first.

Closed deals are a result of exclusive conversations with prospects.

Smart Franchisors don't send their best leads to their competitors.

(If you liked this, you will want to know more about prospecting: Using LinkedIn to Sell Franchises -a Course from Franchise-Info

A no cost course with 13 lectures delivered to you directly by email)

What has the Internet Really Changed for Lead Gen in Franchise Sales?

By Joe Caruso on June 25, 2016 12:18 PM | 0 Comments

Print leads were different from internet leads.

It used to be that a print lead would phone you after seeing your print ad.

While on the phone with the prospective purchaser, you had to qualify them financially. You also had to separate pretenders from the contenders. In restaurant franchising, the pretenders would often want to know if we would come and "look at their site". "Well, not until we are in the site selection phase - which happens after you sign the franchise agreement."

Prospects were easier to qualify because they phoned you.

But over the last ten or eleven years, internet leads have replaced print leads.

Now, qualifying those leads is harder for two reasons:

1. There many more internet leads.

2. It is very hard to get the internet lead on the phone.

I have spent many years reviewing a franchise sales programs - from the time when all the leads were print to now, when most of the leads are digital.

And, I have always found the same thing. Leads can be sorted or segmented into three groups: Cannot Buy, Ready to Buy & Not Ready to Buy, Yet.

Internet leads are much harder segment because it takes so much time to get in contact with the lead.

Mike and I developed some ad hoc systems to handle this problem, but we weren't really happy with this solutions performed. Either, like telephone verification, they were too costly or they did not sort the groups properly.

Early in 2015, we started experimenting with an entirely new system - one that relied upon some simple autoresponder rules.

We can classify a lead into: cannot buy, ready to buy, or not ready to buy, yet based on how the lead would respond to our messaging sequence.

Best of all, it was a great combination of human verification & autoresponder technology.

We are confident that we can help you sort out your franchise lead problems.

If this sounds like your franchising story & you want some help solving your problems call me at 443.502.2636 or email me [email protected]

Is Your Franchise System's Supply Chain Bullet Proof?

By Joe Caruso on January 18, 2016 10:27 AM | 0 Comments

Chipotle depends on a more complex supply chain for its 1,900 outlets that includes scores of small, independent farmers.

That can lead to ingredient shortages and questions about food safety.

Chipotle is fresh -- and suddenly, that's a problem.

Members of Franchise-Info weigh in on the topic.

Joe Caruso Did an FDD - Franchise Disclosure Document tell enough about the franchise system's supply chain sourcing & standards?

Shawn SpencerJoe thanks for posting this.
When franchise concepts start evaluating local supply chain, as did Chipotle in 2008, the variables become very complicated. The new buzz of "Locally Grown" can be a risk when the due diligence is left to the the sourcing executive alone. Locally grown food can actually contain more pesticides, toxins, and genetically modified produce with no validation of safety and crop lot tracking.
Most small franchise companies rely on the main line suppliers to fix this problem and don't have the budget to do research.
As millennials demand cleaner food supply, the local organic/naturally certified regional farms and suppliers will be the future of clean food/safety for restaurants. The brands that embrace this will have greater odds of success even though its more challenging.
The FDD would be a great place to start to bolster transparency in supply chain. The Next Gen of franchisees will certainly demand the transparency from farm to franchise.

Joe CarusoMy pleasure Shawn.

From a risk standpoint the current FDD regime doesn't say much of about the supply chain other than telling prospective franchise owners the franchisor's purchasing requirements and how to get a new supplier reviewed.

It could be much better.

Michael (Mike) Webster Chipotle would do well to review the history of hamburger, and the creation of standards and policing by Kroc, McDonalds and GFD in the early 1960's.

https://www.franchise-info.ca/supply_chain/2015/12/franchisor-standards---a-strategic-analysis-problem.html#.Vm7dNBqDFHw

Shawn SpencerI Agree. Many times we also see disconnects between the FDD & FA language specifically inserted for protection related to the Ops Manuals that go uncheck or get updated over time with the lack of legal review. The other real culprit is the lack of adoption from ops manual standards to training implementation. Chiplotle and others should remember and review what happen to Jack and the Box in the early 90's and their recovery.

Joe Caruso Yes the misalignment of FA and operations manual is more likely to happen with early stage startup franchisors.

Michael (Mike) WebsterHere in another aspect to the problem: lack of use of proper checklists.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chipotles-woes-could-happen-any-us-thomas-yionoulis-mba?trk=hb_ntf_MEGAPHONE_ARTICLE_POST

Daniel BlumenthalI would also say that what happened to Chipotle can happen to any franchise that does not control its entire supply chain in a seed-to-table silo (which is impossible for anyone but maybe the largest franchises). We all rely heavily on our supply chain partners, which is why we use such care in selecting those relationships

Joe CarusoHi Jeff Nave what do you think about this?

Michael (Mike) Webster@Daniel - what responsibility do you put on your franchise operators to test the supply chain safety & what tools do you both require and recommend that they use?

Daniel BlumenthalMike, there are detailed practices with regard to checking product upon receipt, and food safety protocols that help identify when to stop using a product. But from what I understand, this was a problem with the supply that might not have been detectable at the store level. Lettuce that is tainted with e-coli, as I understand it, is something that has to be caught at the farm/distributor level. We seek out trustworthy food distributors and establish those relationships.

Michael (Mike) WebsterDaniel, and what is your view about this lengthy piece in Bloomberg?

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-chipotle-food-safety-crisis/

How to Get Your Franchise Candidate to Truthfully Reveal their Net Worth

By Joe Caruso on September 30, 2015 7:31 PM | 3 Comments

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.

You don't get people to faithfully reveal their finances to a computer screen. (And if they do, they are completely oblivious to the costs of privacy.)

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.

If you liked this, you will really like: Using LinkedIn to Sell Franchises -a Course from Franchise-Info (A no cost course with 13 lectures delivered to you directly by email)

What's New in Franchise Lead Generation?

By Joe Caruso on June 29, 2015 6:51 PM | 2 Comments

Franchisors want more ready-to-buy franchise leads.

It's the "prime directive" and goal of franchise sales departments across franchising to generate ready-to-buy leads.

Problem is this goal too often misses the mark and the lead sources generate unqualified leads that are rejected because they are not ready-to-buy ever or the buyer needs time to get educated and become informed about franchising.

The way franchise sellers address this today is by sending these not ready-to-buy leads emails which are pretty much different versions of the same tired message:

Buy My Franchise, now.

Sign up to any franchisor's lead gen program on a web portal and see what I mean.

It is begging and looks desperate.

These potential buyers need more than the same pitch regurgitated over and over again.

Not to mention that it chews up a lot of sales team time even with automated email campaigns franchise sellers are still trying to get these people on the telephone.

Franchising is a complex sale.

It's recruitment selling. Savvy franchise sellers know they are competing for the best talent and capital. And the not ready-to-buyer's qualifications are a mystery since they are not interested enough to talk with you and reveal their confidential information.

So what does a franchise seller do about these not ready-to-buy leads?

You nurture them by sending them information about franchising in general that you know they need & ask them to do something. Content marketing.

Here's why this will work -

Content marketing is a perfect fit for complex franchise selling. It helps not ready-to-buy leads to establish a franchising frame of reference.
Qualified not ready-to-buy leads are still trying to figure out how a franchise solution solves their problem & your content helps them see themselves as an owner.
By providing important & educational franchise content to the leads in your nurturing program you educate them and get to influence the franchise narrative.
As you educate these leads over time they begin see how your franchise fits in their life and business portfolio. They qualify themselves.
Nurturing builds the trust the prospect needs in order for you to get the all important exclusive conversation at the top of your franchise sales funnel.

Remember the people you can't get on the phone with, won't fill out your application, ignore all your messaging are not bad leads there just not ready.

You can and should nurture them.

If you liked this, you will really like: Using LinkedIn to Sell Franchises -a Course from Franchise-Info (A no cost course with 13 lectures delivered to you directly by email)

How Much Money Can I Make?

By Joe Caruso on May 31, 2015 7:34 PM | 2 Comments

Every franchise buyer wants to know how much money they can make. What are you going to tell them?

New franchisee recruitment & sales is very competitive with more franchise brand options available today than at any time in the history of franchising.

All of them are competing for your prospects.

Qualified franchise buyers might not be enthusiastic enough to buy your franchise, right now. You have to give them compelling evidence.

Here's how some franchise sellers succeed in selling in this recovering economy: using creative, imaginative, but magical communications to convert prospects to franchise buyers.

Partner with an industry or business publication. Give a stellar interview explaining the strength of your concept's unit level sales performance to the journalist. Of course have links to the articles on your website and send it out in your drip email campaigns.

Use social media chatting where you can explain the important key performance indicators on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ forums.

Blogging is a terrific way to get the word out to potential buyers. Contract with blogger journalists for hire who will write success stories about your business model including key franchisee interviews.

An Investment ratio is a simple and common creative way for your prospects to do the simple calculation for gross revenue.

Direct your franchise candidates to your select high performing franchisees who will share their P&Ls with franchise candidates.

All of these tried and true franchise prospect "confidence builders" work very well since every franchise-buyer wants to know how much money they can make.

And you should use them only if you are willing to sell franchises both recklessly and carelessly.

So what should you do instead?

Stop believing in magic.

Make sure your franchise model Return-On-Invested-Cash - ROIC works for franchisees.

Give the evidence your franchise concept is investment worthy by including a detailed Item 19 Financial Performance Representation - FPR in your Franchise Disclosure Document - FDD.

It's really that simple.

Franchise buyers demand business model performance evidence. Give it to them and you'll attract better qualified franchisees and sell more.

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Where is Your Perfect Franchise Candidate Hiding?

By Joe Caruso on May 18, 2015 9:37 AM | 0 Comments

On a recent sales process audit of a medium to large format full service franchise concept, we spent time with one of their new franchisees.

The concept is less complicated than a TGI Friday's but more challenging than a Qdoba Mexican Grill.

The unit is around 5000 square feet has a traditional grill menu you might expect with beer, wine and spirits.

The franchise owners were first time franchisees and had never owned a business before this one.

They both had very successful corporate careers as engineers.

Now, both are franchise owners. One is the full time primary owner/operator, the other owner is part time and still working as an engineer.

We asked the operating owner why a bar/grill concept?

His answer was straightforward and simple.

And only partly what you might think.

He and his financial partner had always wanted to be in this kind of business. Sort of makes sense - engineers are not shy around beer!

Then, I asked why a franchise and not just open an independent restaurant?

His answer was much more interesting.

He knew he didn't have the resident knowledge of the business, but could buy it in the form of franchise.

He planned to learn this new business inside and out, working as many hours as it would take and he did, and does

He also described how he could use his engineering skill, training and experience to run his franchise.

He went into great detail on how they made improvements to their operations by the way they chose to run their beer lines and design of the bar itself. He walked us through his kitchen describing the cooking and food expediting process. And told us what design mistakes they made with the build-out.

In his previous engineering role, he described the complex manufacturing problems he solved daily.

And, how he uses that knowledge everyday in running his business.

The engineer had a plan to buy a franchise in this category. He's smart. He knew what he wanted. He knew that he didn't need training - which was a good thing because his location is miles away from the corporate headquarters.

And, he approached this franchise project as an engineering problem to be solved.

Now there are a number of franchisors who would have looked at the application of these two engineers & would have rejected them since they didn't have the restaurant talent required.

They would have missed out a great franchisee who's running a topnotch unit and who plans to build two more.

And if you went into this restaurant and met the franchise owner you'd never believe he has only run a restaurant for a short time and this was his first one.

Where is your perfect Franchise Candidate hiding?

Are you interested in buying a franchise? Do you want to be a savy franchise owner?

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Why Some Franchisors Almost Always Fail

By Joe Caruso on May 11, 2015 12:22 PM | 0 Comments

Franchise recruitment sales is complex work.

It's very competitive out there and even more so for capital intensive franchises targeting high net worth sophisticated franchise buyers who are willing to commit to multi-unit development under an Area Development Agreement.

I have a lot of sympathy for franchise sales teams since they are under tremendous pressure to make sales happen and grow their brand.

No matter the size of the franchisor they all have budgets with a limit.

And with new franchisee marketing acquisition costs for these capital intensive franchises ranging from $12,000 - $25,000 you can easily speed through your budget doing trade shows, email blasts, direct mail, local market events, franchise portals, display print, PR, search engine optimization and social media marketing.

If we assume a $18,750 average franchise marketing acquisition cost and the franchisor wants to sell 20 new franchise deals it will require $375,000 in your marketing budget. You plan for that in your budget meetings. Before you start to sell.

But, then when it comes time to make the sale, you decide on "franchisor franchisee new development incentives" in the form of a fee and royalty reductions.

I have seen ranges from $10,000 - $30,000 with one franchisor waiving their upfront franchise fee entirely.

Will the franchisor's franchise fee incentive sell more franchises to existing franchisees?

Maybe, but I would argue if the franchisee cash-on-cash return for that franchise concept was compelling that most of those franchisees were already planning on developing new units and would have done so without a discount. The franchisor might recruit new franchisees because of the discount?

But I think that those new franchisees are like your smart existing franchisees who are looking at the numbers for an attractive cash-on-cash return. If they are not carefully considering the investment, do you as a franchisor want those franchise buyers?

But let's assume you need the $15,000 franchise fee discount to sell. What that does that do to your budget if you sell the same 20 franchises you would have normally sold?

This results in your new franchisee marketing acquisition cost per sale rising to $33,750 and a total annual cost of $675,000.

Almost a 100% increase in your acquisition budget! Would you have agreed to that at beginning of the sales process? Likely not, and you probably shouldn't agree now - especially when there are alternatives.

This is why I think across the board franchise fee discounts are bad business because they can cause discontent with your franchisees who paid full-price and they are likely not the solution to your franchise sales problem.

Here are the 4 things you should do instead of discounting your franchise fees -

Increase Your Franchise Marketing Recruitment Budget
Increase Your Franchise Fee to Invest in Your Budget
Drop Your Bottom Three Franchise Lead Sources
Re-engineer Your Franchise Sales Process

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First to Respond and First to Engage, But Last to Make the Sale

By Joe Caruso on May 10, 2015 3:38 PM | 0 Comments

Getting the franchise sale may seem like a race to be the First to Respond and First to Engage.

It isn't.

Franchise sellers need to get to web leads who are intrigued with their franchise as fast as possible, right?

No.

Or they could lose the franchise buyer to a competitor.

Nope.

Of course the solution is an autoresponder. Well that does seem pretty simple, doesn't it? Problem solved.

Really wrong and could cost that sale.

Many of the franchise inquiry autoresponders I have seen when mystery shopping franchise sales processes are plain awful.

Here are some recent real examples -

Good morning Joe,

Thank you for considering the XYZ franchise opportunity. My name is Oscar and I am a Franchise Sales Representative with this great brand. My contact information is listed at the bottom of this email and please contact whenever you are available to take the next step. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Oscar

VP Franchise Development

Joe -

We received your request for franchising information through our website. Thanks for your interest and please call at your convenience to discuss.

Thank You,

Janet

National Director Franchising & Development

Joe,

Thank you for your interest in a franchise opportunity with our brand. George, VP Franchise Development, will be sending you information and contacting you regarding our Discovery Process.

Please feel free to contact me any time.

Pat

CEO and Founder

These examples are bland and do not engage and advance the inquiry/lead to a franchise sale.

Here is what you should do to fix your auto responder -

Have a greeting better than "Thank you for your interest".
Tell the inquiry/lead about your franchise process and what happens next.
Use the autoresponder as the 1st message as part of a Top of the Franchise Sales Funnel communications campaign.
Get the inquiry/lead to take a next step so you can qualify them a bit more.

It matters very little if you are First to Respond and First to Engage to an inquiry with a crappy message.

Franchise lead generation is the lifeblood of franchise sales and if you want to win more franchise sales you need a franchise sales process that sells from start to finish.

For the 5 Most Fascinating Stories in Franchising, a weekly report, click here & sign up.

How to Get More Out of Your Franchise Lead Generation Budget

By Joe Caruso on May 3, 2015 9:14 AM | 3 Comments

The State of Franchising - Waiting for Inbound Leads

Waiting for qualified franchise buyers to find you on all those web portals is frustrating.

The results are decidedly mixed.

Franchisors are rightly concerned about the web portal business model. Web portals collct & sell leads, non-exclusive leads. You can end up emailing someone who has never heard of you. And you know what happens then. You have wasted your time & money.

An Alternative -- Prospect for Latent Affinity

Now, while I was with a very well-known established & capital intensive franchisor we decided waiting for web portal franchise leads wasn't working well enough. We wanted our franchise buyer identification to work better.

So, we decided to study our most successful franchisees, build a target profile, and test it.

Here are the three simple steps we took.

We profiled and interviewed a statistically relevant sample of existing franchisees and built a profile matrix.

Profiled an equal number of qualified franchise candidates who did not buy a franchise but could have.

Interviewed a control group based on the profiles we built.

We carefully examined the data we collected. We discovered something surprising in the analysis.

Time and time again, while interviewing the control group, utilizing an experienced 3^rd party, the respondents voluntarily said:

"Hey that's something that I might be interested in doing"!

What we learned was that there were lots of people who were not actively looking for a franchise investment -but who possessed talent and capital- and their interest in our concept was latent and had to brought to the surface! We just weren't getting the right message to them.

We decided that a geographic targeted and tactical outbound marketing and recruiting component was something we had to add to our franchise lead generation budget. We reallocated our funds to make it happen. It was very successful. And continues to this day.

How Start - Create Target Lists Using LinkedIn Filters

Heck, you don't have to be even that scientific. Today, I would use a slightly different approach.

I would create a basic qualification list in a target market and use direct response or mail to invite individuals an exclusive event.

I would use LinkedIn to create these lists.

Latent affinity lead generation prospecting is a bit more work than simply creating franchise sales landing pages on a bunch of web portals.

But, finding franchise buyers with a latent affinity for franchising and your concept is something no serious franchisor can ignore.

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How Much Can I Make with a Chem Dry Franchise?

By Joe Caruso on April 19, 2015 6:49 PM | 0 Comments

Here is an email I recently received.

Note that I live in Maryland, USA and not Ontario, Canada.

Chem-Dry, the world's largest and highest rated carpet and upholstery cleaning franchise system with 3,500 units in 35 countries, has recently opened new territories and will be exhibiting and recruiting new franchisees at the show.

The show is being held at THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE in Mississauga, Ontario on September 7^th and 8^th. ChemDry has been ranked the #1 carpet cleaning franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 25 consecutive years.

With our proprietary hot carbonating extraction cleaning process and ongoing marketing and operational support, ChemDry is a franchisor that helps you grow.

We offer in-house financing with as little as $9,995 down and total investment starting at $41,000.We also deliver top-line results.

Check out our average franchise sales numbers:

Usually, I would simply look up the franchisor's FDD and compare this earning's claim with the Item 19 claim.

But, this is a much more difficult case. I don't know much about the Ontario Franchise Disclosure law - except Webster tells me it that it is for lawyers and not franchise investors.

So, I looked up the Item 19 for Chem-Dry in the US, How Much Can I Make.

First, the Item 19 is not based on the franchise owner's reported profit and loss statements.

"HRI does not currently require all Chem-Dry business franchise owners to provide periodic revenue and other financial reports concerning their franchises.

In February, 2013, HRI conducted a system-wide survey requesting that all franchise owners provide certain financial and other information relating to the operation of their Chem-Dry business franchises during 2012.

As of December 31,2012. HRI had 1,081 franchise owners who operated 2,039 Chem-Dry business franchises.

Of those, 211 franchise owners (the "Responding Franchise Owners"), who collectively own 475 Chem-Dry business franchises, and who have owned their businesses at least 2 years, provided complete 2012 financial information in response to the survey and operated those franchises throughout all of 2012."

Second, and it gets more tangled, here is the chart from the survey, click on it to expand it.

The average revenue number reported from the US survey as representative to Ontario prospects is the same: $111,184!

It is it all all plausible that the 211 franchisees who completed the Chem-Dry survey in 2012 forms a reasonable basis to tell a prospect in Ontario what he or she might make?

Perhaps some franchise attorney in Ontario can tell me?

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Is Your Franchise Sales Staff Wasting Your Money?

By Joe Caruso on March 26, 2015 8:01 PM | 0 Comments

It's harder than ever to get your franchise candidate on the telephone.

You and I both know you can't sell a franchise until you have further qualified the franchise candidate for your offering. And that means engaging in verbal dialogue with your interested prospect. Not exchanging emails. Dialogue. The coin of the realm for sales.

It is tempting to let your franchise recruitment website & a high powered CRM do all the heavy lifting.

But that would be a mistake.

Your top of the funnel inquiry process should result in a franchise candidate having a telephone call with you. Done right franchise buyers will be asking you when would be a good time for you to have a call with them. (If doesn't then you need to address the issues in Why You Cannot Get Your Franchise Leads on the Phone & What to Do About It)

The first call with a franchise candidate has to be all about them.

And all the real candidates have these same 3 basic questions.

How much does it cost?
How much can I make?
Is my area available?

But, here are the 3 qualifying questions you need answered from the candidate.

Does the franchise candidate meet or exceed your liquidity and net worth standards?
Is where the franchise candidate wants to open their franchise a fit where it makes sense for you to develop?
How interested in your franchise is the candidate and do you want to move on to the next step?

How you ask these questions can make or break the sale.

The best franchise sellers have a script for all their calls.

But getting the first call right is imperative in order to earn you a second call. And to determine if the franchise candidate is qualified to deserve more of your time.

You can see how this is an exchange of information between you and the franchise candidate. They get what they need to maintain their interest in your franchise & you achieve your qualification objectives. It is a negotiation dance between you and the franchise candidate. They have to get the sense that they earned the information they got from you. You cannot just dump this information on a website without getting something in return.

The negotiation dance on the first call is what determines whether the franchise candidate is going to buy. Get it right, get a sale. Get it wrong, and you are wasting your time & the franchisor's money.

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Four Familiar Sales Problems --Which One Do You Want to Overcome?

By Joe Caruso on March 11, 2015 7:23 PM | 1 Comment

Franchise selling is competitive.

And it's getting more competitive as more franchisors come online offering franchises for their concepts. It doesn't matter whether these nascent franchise offerings are investment worthy or not.

What's important they are selling franchises to candidates that you could have recruited for your brand.

So here's what you can do, right now to increase your sales.

You won't need to hire a consultant, buy a new CRM or re-invent your franchise landing pages, etc... although those longer term fixes may be smart to implement as well, but not today.

Franchise sales supervisors are the key to your new franchise recruitment success.

In my experience you should give your attention and support to improving sales supervision. Focus your attention on your VPs and Directors of Franchising.

Improved results are more dependent on franchise sales supervisors than on franchise salespeople.

Stop your franchise salespeople's habit of simply spewing information at your leads and candidates.

Instead train front-line franchise salespeople to ask the right questions of candidates so they can help qualified franchise-buyers see how your franchise concept fits into their lives or for professional multi-brand & multi-unit franchisees how your brand fits in their brand portfolio.

Stop paying lip service to coaching.

Franchise salespeople despite what they may say, want you to help them and manage them. Make coaching part of your franchise sales team's daily routine and give your salespeople the opportunity to bring their candidate sales problems to you for help.

A great sales supervisor who coaches daily can guide salespeople through difficult sales negotiations.

Fewer leads mean more sales.

This at first seems counterintuitive but we all know franchise salespeople keep leads and candidates far past their expiration dates.

These expired leads are like soured milk and you need to eliminate them. If you do your salespeople can focus on the candidates that are "raising their hands" and moving forward.

Warning - salespeople won't like this since everyone loves a big pipeline, but they'll thank you later when their commissions are paid.

Now get up from behind your desk right now and start making these fixes happen with your franchise sales team. You'll love the results you'll get. Thanks for listening.

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The Lazy Man's Way to Find New Leads

By Joe Caruso on February 25, 2015 5:03 PM | 0 Comments

Remember - "Bring out Your Dead?

Well, you might be killing your leads too early, too.

In the early 1990s, I was in charge of US development for a top QSR franchise. At that time we relied on targeted marketing by DMA (Designated Market Area), trade shows and the display advertising to attract attention to our franchise offering.

Ours leads came in by telephone, brochures & applications were mailed and the follow up was telephone and FAX machine.

We were very good at managing our prospective franchisee pipeline using a basic CRM and Excel. We tracked conversion, diligently followed up with candidates until they bought or dropped out of the franchise sales process.

So we pretty much knew a lead was dead when it was dead. We had done our best with our qualified leads to maintain interest in our program but for some we couldn't create that intense desire to buy.

We knew some of the leads might make other franchise investments and others would make no decision to buy a franchise.

Our brand was very well known. We invested heavily in lead generation and got a lot of leads every year.

But we wanted to do more with the qualified leads who quit us and our process.

So we brought our sales team together to solve the problem of following up with someone who was no longer pursuing our franchise and may not be enthusiastic about talking with us.

We knew we had to have a solution that was thoughtful and easy for our prospects. We needed the qualified lead to respond to us and it was important that they do something that told us they wanted to re-activate their franchise application.

Here are the four simple things we did -

Created a well crafted an inviting sales letter to re-attract attention.
Used the best and fasted technology available - A FAX machine.
Asked our dead lead one question - "Would you like to reactivate your franchise application?"
Gave them one thing to do to restart the process - Simply fax back this letter and we will get you back on track to developing your first restaurant".

The program worked great!

We revived dead leads and sold more franchises.

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Do You Know the 5 Phrases which Franchise Insiders Never Use?

By Joe Caruso on February 18, 2015 11:24 AM | 0 Comments

This could be your first day looking at franchises or considering a franchise distribution model for your business.

And if you went searching around the internet you will find all of these statistics and cliches in a variety of iterations.

Do you use any of these? Because Franchise insiders don't.

# 1 - US Department of Commerce Study shows 97% of Franchises vs. a 50% failure rate for independent businesses

Not so - The US Department of Commerce did not make this conclusion. Call and ask them. Bureaucrats tend to keep records they are proud of.

#2 - The median gross annual income, before taxes, of franchisees was in the $75,000 to $124,000 range, with over 30% of franchisees earning over $150,000 per year.

Not true and foolish - Median can't be a range. It is the exact midpoint of a range. It's impossible to support this assertion. Because you can't make a range a median.

#3 - US Small Business Administration study conducted from 1978 to 1998, which found that 62% of non franchised businesses closed within the first 6 years of their existence due to failure, bankruptcy, etc.

Unverifiable and likely not true - If you go to SBA.gov you can't find this information. You can find a lot of franchising people touting this as true.

#4 Owning a franchise allows you to go into business for yourself, but not by yourself.

It's trite - Franchisees are independent business owners and all of the owner's obligations are solely theirs. It's more like for franchisees and franchisors that - we are all in this together separately. When you succeed your franchisor will be happy to rejoice in the shared success. If you fail at franchising you will be an orphan and all alone in your failure.

# 5 Franchising is like a marriage.

No it's not like that at all - Marriages are supposed to be until death do you two part. Franchises are for specific term of years. You and your spouse make mutual decisions about what you'll do in your married life. In franchising your brand activities are prescribed by the franchisor. A marriage is between two people. If franchising was like a marriage then a franchisor would be a polygamist with multiple partners.

If you're using these 5 foolish franchise cliches you should stop. And if you hear someone use one of these cliches, turn around and run away.

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Do portals work for capital intensive franchises?

By Joe Caruso on January 27, 2015 12:17 PM | 0 Comments

This is a very simple question.

It was recently asked in a LinkedIn Franchise Group.

And I bet we all want to know the answer.

It would make it easy to build next years franchise marketing budget for franchise buyers if we just had a short-list.

Even better if it had a performance ranking.

There were almost 50 answers and comments to this important question.

Here's a selection of what franchising people said -

"I speak with franchise development departments every day and have found that they can fork out as much as 60% of the initial franchise fee in order to secure qualified franchisees (using franchise consultants, recruiters, etc.). Are there any databases of open territories for potential franchisees to search? Vice-versa are there any databases of franchisees in the market to open a new location?" Mike Mackin

"It has been my experience that you can "catch the bigger fish" through today's portals. The secret is working with your portal vendor and let them help you on the franchise investment levels that you post on the site. The best experience I have had has been with Franchising.com. There numbers are a little lower, but the quality is very good. And don't forget that most consumers are not going to tell you what they really have in the bank until you get further down the sales process." Phil Mettra

"Portals are just another outlet for reaching your target, I don't think you can narrow down a specific vendor that does better than another. If the opportunity on the portal is attractive enough, the portal also ranks highly on Google for top keywords and it has healthy traffic stats (which the portal vendor can provide to you) then you have a winning vendor. You should always do your due diligence and ask those vendors to provide you monthly traffic to the page you will be listed and can even go as far as asking for the top 3 IP locations to ensure they are based in your market. Remember that candidates can come from anywhere but your digital presence, especially social and reputation, is what will give you the edge in higher investment brackets." Brendon Major

"My experience with the portals is that they sometimes work beautifully and other times they just dont. The exact same advert on one site delivers 10 leads and on another none. To be honest although I have met many "experts" I have never found one that has been able to unravel the mysteries of the portals." Sean Goldsmith

"Just wondering if there are other portals more likely to reach and succeed with the higher investment prospects? I believe in a strategy of creating presence and buzz for your brand, with a wide digital presence probably now being the top tactical priority" Kevin Kruse

"I may have a bit of a different take. If a company is looking for "high dollar" candidates, I suggest the you will find them better using highly target public/media relations campaigns, instead of portals. As noted above, using portals to find YOUR candidate is a bit like fishing in the Atlantic Ocean with a single line, a bobber, a safety pin, and a piece of corn as bait. They simply are not designed to find a specific type of candidate. They have tens of thousands of names/inquiries, but they simply cannot be targeted to YOUR candidate. It is MUCH better to design a PR/MR program that targets YOUR candidate BEFORE the person even starts looking for a franchise. By the time a potential candidate hits a portal, you are already competing with hundreds of other franchise companies. Right? Portals have a role, but not for finding a specific type of candidate." Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Before you start your campaigns, it is good if the portal can offer statistics for the locations where you are listing in, because different categories work in different locations. The categories can change every 3 months, so it is important to keep on top of the statistics and results. Another point which might help, is that franchisees don't always come from franchise portals, our web portal is a business and franchise for sale portal, mainly because some people are looking for any business opportunity and inquire about the franchise opportunities on the website. It is a larger net to catch enquirers. I hope this is helpful in understanding web portals and how to run a more successful franchise recruitment campaign." Paul O'Brien

"That is great advice, and I like your approach to testing adverts and then placing the most highly effective ones. The big stumbling block is how forthcoming the portals are with their stats. I know in the UK you would have an easier time asking the Pope for his hand in marriage. Are the US portals more forthcoming?" Sean Goldsmith

"I have sold several franchises for clients with an investment level of $400k-$800k by using portals.Granted, there will ALWAYS be the prospect that overstates the amount of capital they have available and you have to just move on and keep on dialing. There hasn't been one portal that seemed to bring in more qualified leads on a more consistent basis than another. I do seem to spend a lot of time chasing credits for pay per lead sites that claim they "verified" leads before sending them, but by and large every portal site seems to do a fairly decent job for me." Tom Parks

"The biggest issue which all Franchisors are facing about this approach is the cost. Some websites in Australia are offering packages which help Franchisors to do this at a more cost effective price. Keep an eye out for this. Otherwise the only other advice I can offer on this is to keep track of leads and quality of leads which are being generated by the website. One of our clients mentioned to me once, from 1 website they had received heaps of leads, but didn't generate any solid leads, while from another they received only a hand full of leads in the month, but 2 of the lead had converted to solid leads" Paul O'Brien

"How helpful are portals in generating qualified leads? My experience tells me that really depends upon your brands investment range. Generally speaking the top 5 portals basically cost the same amount to advertise on them. However because of my sector "automotive" vs "food" the portal is unable to generate me enough leads to make the potal investment worthwhile. I understand the ratio on portal leads to be 200:1 or even 250:1. It would take years for a portal to drive me that much traffic. At which point I would have spent far more than the inital franchise fee in marketing dollars." Lee Oppenheim

"Portals definitely "had their day", i.e. in the late 1980's through the early 1990's. They were THE way to market one's franchise. Today, however, they have become quite common place in our industry, and while there definitely are differences among the wide range of portals, overall, the range of inquiries to sales, as Lee mentions, is in the 200 - 250 to 1. In some ways, portals have become today's franchise "classified ad" section of the Internet. And, it gets very expensive to hire high quality sales people to field these return phone calls. As Franchise Update points out in its 2013 annual marketing survey, the total advertising placement cost associated with one sale these days(for their surveyed companies) was around $13,000...not including personnel costs. Is it the same today?" Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Something to be careful with which you might not know about. Make sure that the website which you are using doesn't use a technique called lead thinning. This is when the website generates 1 lead and farms it off to multiple franchisors on their website. Usually the person making the enquiry doesn't know that this is happening either. The way to identify this is when you start calling a lead, the person will say something like "I didn't inquire about your franchise or business". This makes the website look good because of the number of leads generated, but the quality of leads is decreases dramatically." Paul O'Brien

"Terrific dialogue everyone....... portals? To use or not to use...... I heard a lot of "casting a wide net" as well as "be specific in your targeting, e.g. Veterans" , which leads me to a conclusion I've reached before: we are in a challenging, competitive environment for sourcing qualified leads which turn into franchisees. At least we have a forum for discussing our strategies and tactics. Thanks for the insights....." Kevin Kruse

"The specific answer to Kevin's specific question is "No"...at least not by design and not very productively...and it is likely to be quite expensive for the franchisor. I once had a franchisor client in which the "all in" cost was $1.4MM. We did quite well with it. Did we use portals? Yes, as one avenue, and it was truly "dialing for dollars". We did much better with highly focused PR/media relations in terms of finding "high value" candidates." Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"I disagree. Portals work. You already used portals for your client, even in light of the reality that it's 'dialing for dollars.' Hey, it still takes 35 tons of ore to smelt one ounce of gold--all you have to do is make 200 enthusiastic dials. Big deal. Get with the idea that selling takes concerted effort, and plenty of money. If the average cost of sale (not including commissions) is around $12,000 or so, the obvious path is easy: pick 3-4 top portals;" Paul Stewart

"Your approach works for you, and that's great. I take a different route, and that works for me and my clients. I don't think one is right and one is wrong, just different...in many ways. I prefer more targeted and efficient ways of finding the right candidates. "Dialing for dollars" is simply not my preferred way" Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Yes, absolutely, portals work for generating some quality leads that result in Franchise sales for the Franchisor at the investment levels stated" Ronald Silberstein CPA and CFE

"Portals are only as effective as the sales team that are working them, and the matrix you use to measure. Keep in mind the higher the investemnt the fewer the leads you can expect so it is important that your team devote the necessary effort into follow up with each and every lead that comes through." John Byron

"I would say the portals are only as good as the marketing team who works them and and the adverts. If the proper research hasn't been performed before the advert goes up, there is no guarantee of success" Paul O'Brien

"Simple answer to a simple question.. The answer is yes, you have to be in portals. You can add filters to any portal to try to catch the investor you are looking for. Portals are one leg of a triad that you need to build to reach your target customer." Dale Waite

I am glad we solved the riddle of getting high net worth franchise web portal inquiries.

Okay maybe there wasn't a simple answer to the simple franchise web portal question.

Here's some of what I think about the topic.

Franchise inquiries from web portals are minimal expressions of interest.

They are not leads.

You can't designate an Expression of Interest a Franchise Lead until you've qualified them.

The most reliable way to qualify them is to talk with them.

Franchise-Info has some ideas for you to work on this problem.

If you call me we can discuss two things -

What to do with all your inactive inquiries who have expressed an interest
How to attract Franchise Buyers online

I am easy to reach at 443.502.2636 and [email protected]. I answer my own telephone. And I call people back.

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I Fought the Apple Store & Won, Just Barely

By Joe Caruso on January 20, 2015 5:36 PM | 0 Comments

Apple products are immensely popular with people.

And with me too.

You can't help but admire what Steve Jobs did with Apple the first time he built it.

Even better the second time when he was brought back and he re-invented it.

The products are great and easy for people to use.

I've had an iPhone for quite awhile and I moved to a MacBook Air in June 2013.

It's the best computer I have ever had.

Super easy to use
Very fast
Great design
Long battery life
Weighs just less than 3 lbs
Terrific telephone support

There's a lot of fun and useful things about the MacBook Air.

In June this year I had a problem with my MacBook.

The left speaker crackled intermittently. Which is not something you expect from an Apple product.

So I called AppleCare for help and they are almost always very good over the phone. The Apple tech agent walked me through the computer to do a reset and a computer share which didn't resolve the speaker problem.

AppleCare made an Apple Store appointment for me for the next day.

At the Apple Store it's an onslaught of hip Apple employees all dressed in official Apple tee-shirts with a super cool and relaxed demeanor.

After you get handed off to 3 very nicely trained people who can't help you then wait for the on-site tech who can.

Anyone who has been to the Apple Store knows it's loud. The decibel level has to be very high.

So I have a crackling speaker problem on a MacBook Air and the technician needs to hear it. Very lucky for me he does and they don't think I am imagining the problem.

That was good news.

The bad news was that they needed my MacBook for 3 days once the replacement speakers came in to the store. This meant I needed schlep back up to the Apple Store which is a 62 miles roundtrip and about one and 45 minutes of driving time if you catch a traffic break on I95. So my one trip to get my MacBook speakers up to speed would take 3 separate trips.

It was under warranty and Apple techs confirmed that there was a speaker crackling problem.

I followed the Apple servicing process and they fixed my MacBook Air's speakers. We tested it at the Apple Store and everything was as it should be.

Or so we thought.

Mid-September the same thing happens all over again. Speaker crackling and I call Apple Support. We run through their diagnostic process and reset. That fails. We schedule a visit to the Genius's at the Apple Store and I schlep up their once again. Where the Apple Genius wants to replace the speakers again and go through the MacBook to see if there is another problem.

They order new parts. And I go through the 3 trip drop off and retrieve Apple Process once again.

Not 4 weeks later speaker is crackling again.

I do the Apple Care telephone support and Genius Bar scheduling dance where I asked that a manager meet with me. I get to the Apple Store and go through the phalanx of Apple Tee-shirted people who can't help me and after waiting I meet with Helen the manager.

I explained to Helen that this now the 3rd time for my MacBook Air's speakers to fail. And I said that as good as the Apple Geniuses are they can't get my MacBook right and that it was a waste of my time to keep trudging back and forth to the Apple Store. Was it time for Helen to replace my MacBook Air with a new machine that fully functioned?

Helen convinces me to let her send the MacBook out to Apple's service center for better diagnostics and to a place that would have any part my computer would need. I agreed to it.

5 days go by and I receive my notification that the repairs were done.

This time Apple replaced the speakers (the 3rd time) and in addition a new Logic Board.

It didn't take but a few days and the speakers started to crackle again.

So I make the appointment and go to the store. I ask for Helen and I get Eileen. I tell Eileen the speaker story and she gets a Genius.

Let me take a break and tell you some of my observations of the Apple Store and the Apple Way. When things are easy to fix or user error the Apple Way works. And if you're buying something they have that down to perfection.

Apple team members have no last names and you can't tell a manager from a janitor since they all wear the very same hip Apple Tee-shirt. My thinking is you should not trust a company whose employees have no names. Apple has a reason for this and it's not to help you.

The Apple Way is designed to control you.

The hand off from employee to employee and queueing to wait for the Genius or manager.

The assault on your hearing with the noise levels and super bright lights.

The presence of uniformed and armed police.

The Stepford Wives trained all too nice staff.

Eileen and the Genius can't get the speaker to crackle and hear the noise. I suggest to Eileen that it is time to replace the MacBook. She wants the Genius tech to look it over.

The Genius complete's his inspection and another hip Apple employee tells me my options. Well there was only one option. Get a 4th set of speakers. To which I object ( the Apple hipsters do not like objections) and am told that maybe there really isn't a speaker problem.

Now I have been more than reasonable about a product that I love. But my Apple hipster has gone too far and I step it up a notch and she does not like it. She feigns a righteous indignation and runs off to get Eileen since she refuses to deal with me any longer if I am going to be difficult.

Eileen and I recap my MacBook speaker adventure and she now thinks it's a good idea to replace my MacBook right then and there. So back to the Genius Bar to set up the new MacBook and move my data.

So I won. I beat Apple. Just barely.

They were never going to offer a replacement Macbook. And they will make you earn it. The Apple Way is designed to suit Apple it's not about you.

After over 30 hours of my time and having driven 700 miles on this problem I am back to where I started with the exact same computer I originally bought.

If you haven't tried a MacBook Air I recommend it.

Cold Call Your Way to More Franchise Sales

By Joe Caruso on January 12, 2015 12:12 PM | 5 Comments

Following up with franchise inquiries is such hard work.

If you've done it you know what I mean.

You get more no answers, hang-ups, unreturned calls and people who say they never heard of you or your brand when you make outbound follow up calls than you do get franchise sales successes.

These follow up calls seem more like the most dreaded practice in sales "Cold Calling".

We don't like getting "Cold Calls" from salespeople.

Salespeople of all stripes hate making "Cold Calls".

What I am about to say may seem counterintuitive and you might not like it - I think you should treat every Franchise Inquiry Follow Up as a "Cold Call".

That's right, it's a "Cold Call".

But you say 'no the Franchise Inquiry is someone who wants to buy my franchise and that's what the lead supplier promised me'.

Okay then why is it so hard to get these hot prospect Franchise Inquiries to answer and return calls?

Let's stipulate that the Franchise Inquiry can't be considered a Franchise Lead until you talk with them and qualify them.

So here's what you need.

You need to know 2 basic things about your Franchise Inquiry to be true -

Good Email Address
Valid Telephone Number

Armed with the basic Franchise Inquiry information here's what you do.

Write up a voicemail script first since you'll be getting your Franchise Inquiry's voice messaging service most of the time.

Your message is about you reaching out to them about [insert franchise brand] and you'll be calling them back.

You may get lucky and some of your Franchise Inquiries will call you back. And from time to time you get to be pleasantly surprised.

However it's self-deluding to think that Franchise Inquiries who are being chased by other franchise sellers are going to call you back.

It's your responsibility to get them on the telephone.

When you get them on the phone don't sell. It's not time and the Franchise Inquiry is not ready for a pitch.

Your job at this point is to confirm your Franchise Inquiry's interest in your brand and are they qualified to invest in your franchise.

The close on the 1st call with a Franchise Inquiry is confirming a date and time for the next call in your franchise sales process.

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5 Surefire Ways to Convert Web Inquiries to Franchise Sales

By Joe Caruso on January 6, 2015 1:22 PM | 0 Comments

One of the biggest complaints I hear from franchise salespeople is

"I have been leaving messages for Franchise Inquiries and they don't call me back.

What can I do about it"

Well the first thing you can do is stop expecting Franchise Inquiries who have never spoken to you, don't know who you are and are unsure about franchising to call you back.

You're just not that special. So stop it.

And quit sending insipidly weak emails begging candidates to call you. This just makes your franchise brand look desperate.

Call your Franchise Inquiries a lot.

More than you think you should.

There's one thing about your Franchise Inquiry that's true and you know for certain.

They clicked a button expressing interest in your franchise investment.

It's all you have to go on and it gives you sufficient confidence to follow up.

It's also best to get out of your head that you are being a nuisance since you have the information Franchise Inquiries want.

They asked you to call.

Here's how I recommend you ramp up your Franchise Inquiry follow up calls.

Use a CRM program and time stamp all your follow up calls.
Have killer voicemail scripts
Call Franchise Inquiries everyday for the first ten business days
Leave voicemails for every other call
After two weeks schedule a call a week

Franchise-Info helps franchisors with lead generation programs and strategies.

If this sounds llike your franchising story & you want some help solving your problems call me at 443.502.2636 [email protected]. Lease the talents of 20+ year proven franchise executive, who has seen and solved these problems before.

7 Awful Franchise Things You Will Hate About Being a New Franchisor

By Joe Caruso on December 15, 2014 12:35 PM | 2 Comments

You decided to become a newly minted franchisor.

And when that day finally arrived how exciting was that?

You were going to conquer the world with your franchise brand.

Here's what you did right.

Started with a tested business model with a verifiable proof of concept.

Hired a competent and experienced franchise attorney to develop your franchise agreement and franchise disclosure document - FDD.

Your franchise attorney strongly suggested (or insisted) since you have a strong proof of concept for your franchise model that you include an Item 19 Financial Performance Representation - FPR and you did it.

Developed an operations manual, training system and support system that is scalable as you grow your franchise system.

You had a reasonable budget to market for franchise recruitment.

But, after a while, you will hate being a franchisor. Here are your 7 biggest beefs.

Early franchisees you selected seemed very passionate about being franchise owner/operators but they are not living up to what they promised and you're more than disappointed.
Multi-unit franchisees are not current with their development objectives and they expect you to not hold them to what everyone agreed to. They want some or all of the following extensions, refunds or credits against franchise fees and in return you get nothing. Not even what you originally bargained for.
You have a great training program and franchisees are shortcutting what your program offers and requires.
Franchisee local market success depends on local store marketing, your franchisees don't make the investment in it. And they complain to you that sales are too low and your brand is not well known enough in their area.
Franchise owners expect you to fix their unit level problems with employees, landlords, suppliers, insurance, local municipality, their business & operating partners. You had no idea that you'd be expected to do so much hand holding and babysitting when you set out selling & opening franchises.
Franchise recruitment for a new franchisor is tough. However you couldn't have imagined how difficult generating and managing leads would be. And the cost per new franchise recruited is far more than you anticipated.
You discovered that your management team had a much greater learning curve for transitioning your business to a franchise development and operations company. And now you're faced with some tough staffing decisions as you move forward.

This is not an exhaustive list of awful franchise things and readers can feel free to add to the list.

Good news is that you had a good underlying business at the outset. And all these franchising challenges can be remedied.

If this sounds llike your franchising story & you want some help solving your problems call me at 443.502.2636 [email protected]. Lease the talents of 20+ year proven franchise executive, who has seen and solved these problems before.

Blog Your Brand to Franchise Sales Success

By Joe Caruso on December 9, 2014 11:05 AM | 0 Comments

It's pretty clear that franchise brand blogging is an effective way to communicate to probable franchise buyers.

How do you begin?

Start with a clear vision of why you are writing articles and for whom.

You want your probable franchise buyers to see how your franchise investment does these things -

Fits into their life
Helps them solve their problem
Gives them something to achieve and be proud of
Gets them to see themselves as your franchise brand owners

Your brand writing is all about what resonates with your probable franchise buyer.

Here are your 3 essential franchise writing topics and one thing you should stop doing -

Why your franchise brand came into existence. Every brand has an origin and stories to tell.Think of these as chapters in your franchise brand's book.
Tell stories about your franchise owners. How they see the franchise brand. How they got started.
Talk about your industry. How your brand competes. Does things in interesting and novel ways. Solves your customers' problems
Stop putting out boring run of the mill press releases that don't get you anywhere

Have reasonable and achievable franchise article writing objectives.

This is important and easier than you think.

Choose to write 2 articles a month as a realistic goal.

Here's the easy and good part.

As you add new articles most of them are evergreen and they become part of your brand archive and you can use them again and again.

These articles no matter how often you distribute them they will always be 'new' to new probable franchise buyers and that's the 'for whom' you are writing to.

The best to way to begin this is to start.

And when you do and you want Franchise-Info to look your article over email it to me at [email protected] 443.502.2636 and I'll tell you what we think.

Get your franchise stories placed and read - 90 Day LinkedIn Content Marketing & PR Program

5 Modern & Common Franchise Selling Problems You Can Overcome

By Joe Caruso on December 1, 2014 9:55 AM | 0 Comments

Franchise selling is competitive.

People have a lot more franchises to choose from than ever before and there are only so many franchise buyers.

If you have any of these 5 franchise selling problems you need to do something about them.

Not enough of your franchise leads answer your calls and emails.
When you do get leads to talk with you it feels like a "Cold Call" and many times they don't know you or your brand.
You discuss your financial standards with leads and they are shocked at the cost.
After having great conversations with leads they say they will send you their franchise application. And they don't do it.
Once you send your Franchise Disclosure Document - FDD to a lead you think is interested and qualified. They stop talking with you.

And you can take steps to solve all of these problems.

The first thing you should avoid concluding is that your leads are no good.

If I only had a dollar for everytime a Director of Franchise Sales said that to me. It's just too easy to say.

And you don't know if it's true. You do know your franchise selling isn't working out as well as you would like.

You need to take all those inactive leads of yours and do something new with them. You need to nurture them.

Put them on nurturing newsletter program.

It is not a 'buy my franchise" email.

It is not a drip campaign that will bore people to tears or annoy them.

Your newsletter program must be informational. And it has to offer assistance that helps your probable franchise buyer solve their problem.

You can try this yourself.

Or use Franchise-Info's Newsletter Nurturing Program for as little as $350 per month.

Now that you have taken an important step to get your leads active in your franchising process let's talk about that process.

Here's what you need to look at -

Do you have the right sequence of steps?
Are each of your steps structured properly?
Where in your franchising process are people dropping out?

What to do about your leads -

Fix your franchise sales process before you attempt this.
Add your nurturing newsletter.
Measure each lead source for -
- Inquiries
- Qualified leads
- Applications
- Sales
Reallocate your franchise recruitment advertising and marketing spending.
Keep measuring lead sources every 6 months.

If you have limited internal resources or you just want a set of experienced eyes on this with you just give me a call 443.502.2636 [email protected].

3 Tragic Ways CEOs Kill Off Franchise Sales

By Joe Caruso on November 17, 2014 12:01 PM | 0 Comments

Growing your brand through franchising is a demanding and exacting proposition.

You need to mindful of all the franchising rules, regulations and administration requirements.

And you have to have a great plan with a talented franchise sales leader working the program.

Here are 3 huge errors CEOs make when hiring a VP of Franchise Sales -

You expect the VP of Franchise Sales to rely on their rolodex for leads. Assuming that could work. What do you do after they run through their contacts. Were you hiring a franchise sales professional or hiring their rolodex?
You want to sell multi-unit deals to established and proven operators and you think all your VP of Franchise Sales needs to do is cold-call multi-unit franchise owners and sell them on your concept. You can't explain to anyone how this works. And there isn't anymore to this plan than an executive order to smile and dial. Here's what happens. Your VP of Franchise Sales will do it and give up or pretend to do it and tell you he is. In either case this won't work.
You will pay a market rate for an experienced VP of Sales. But invest little to no money in franchise recruitment marketing to reach potential franchise operators. Instead you'll rely on VP of Marketing's consumer marketing to build interest in the brand's franchise offering. Despite the fact the consumer messaging is about your products and franchise sales messaging is about the franchise investment.

Now if you made any or all of these mistakes it's not too late to right the ship.

They will require some concentrated effort on your part and thoughtful collaboration with your VP of Franchise Sales.

Get over item number 1 and then take items 2 and 3 one by one and fix them.

If you need help with righting your franchising program give me a call at 443.502.2636 and we can work on this together.

Let's Be Upfront about Franchise Fees

By Joe Caruso on November 12, 2014 10:54 AM | 2 Comments

Here's a conversation I've had more than once with clients and CEOs of franchising companies. It's about upfront franchise fees.

The conversation typically starts with the C-level executive saying: "We make our real money on royalties & not on franchise fees."

And I oblige them with a quizzical response of: "Wow how does that work or what do you mean?"

I then hear something on the order of well, if we had 50 (or pick a number) highly qualified franchise candidates a year, we would give the franchise fee away to them in favor of making all that royalty revenue.

And on its face this sounds logical and even attractive. What franchisor wouldn't want to do this? They could even have the CFO dream up a great Excel spreadsheet showing obscene profits from royalties to convince the board of directors that this is a good idea.

Here's the reality.

Unless you are a franchisor with an unlimited and inexhaustible supply of qualified candidates you don't have 50 great prospective franchisees to give away your franchise fee to.

I almost always ask the franchising executive - okay do you have 50?

And of course you already know the answer to that question!

So, I ask them: "How much would you pay for that list? How would you finance it? Maybe ... with franchise fees?"

Even McDonald's who does have a waiting list for franchises charges a franchise fee.

Here's my list of what you need your franchise fee to cover.

Franchise salespeople are assets and you need franchise fee revenue to pay for the best.
A great franchise sales, recruitment and selection process requires resources to ensure you get the results you want.
Having a low fee or no franchise fee won't sell more of your franchises and it may sell less.
Great franchise owners are recruited. You need a budget to market to your target audience of potential franchise investors.
Franchise buyers look at the total development cost and do their own calculation of return on investment. And if your franchise fee doesn't support an attractve franchise investment you don't have a franchise fee problem. You have a unit economics problem.

If you need help looking at your franchise fee structure and competitiveness call me at 443.502.2636 - [email protected].

It's Easier to Ask Forgiveness than It is to Get Permission

By Joe Caruso on November 9, 2014 1:52 PM | 0 Comments

Changing things for the better requires an element of risk.

After a large reorganization of a major QSR franchisor I worked for, I ended up with greater responsibility and not enough resources.

We had a set way of doing things - lots of procedures & steps. And that was fine when we had more people. But not now.

I also had a new boss.

He wasn't actually new to me. Reporting to him was new.

(My old boss took an "early retirement" as part of the reorganization.)

I had been with the QSR just over two years.

The new responsibilities were a bit of a shock. However, I did have some new ideas on how to make things work and sell some more franchises.

So I got to work.

One of my first ideas was to change how we processed incoming leads. Very basic but important stuff on how we answered the phone. Yes, leads in the early 1990s came in mostly by telephone & we screened and qualified inquiries.

My small team of three developed a plan. I wrote the plan up and then scheduled time with my boss to see what he thought. It wasn't a major change and so he approved it.

The second thing I wanted to do was to change some of our lead generation plans. I wasn't changing the budget but I was rebalancing the allocations. I went to my boss presented the plan and got it approved, too.

Now I had great boss. He was open to new ways of doing things and wanted the new franchise development to be successful.

I had a big job to do and more improvements planned.

But, when I brought to my boss my third idea for his blessing he stopped me dead in my tracks and asked me a question?

"When are you going to take some risks and stop asking for permission on everything you think is best to do?"

He didn't need to spend more time listening to my explanations.

He told me he would know if it was a good idea down the road when the franchise results for the year were accounted for.

So I took some risks, without asking for permission first. Made a lot of sales that way. Sales to some great franchise operators!

When you need for your franchise sales process, don't ask for permssion, just contact us & we'll get started right away.

If a Franchise Deal Sounds to Good to Be True...A Great Franchisor Lesson

By Joe Caruso on November 4, 2014 3:11 PM | 8 Comments

I remember the time I got a call from a hot prospect in a market we were targeting.

We'll call him Charlie since that happens to be his first name.

Charlie really sounded like he knew what he was doing.

But, I'd only been selling franchises for about 14 months. I was greener than green.

As a potential franchise buyer Charlie asked great questions like:

How much does it cost to develop this franchise?

What are the real estate and site requirements?

How long did it take to build the franchise?

I answered all his questions respectfully and carefully.

And then I took the opportunity to ask him some qualifying questions.

I wanted to know if he met or exceeded out financial requirements.

Charlie surprisingly answered that his net worth was about $5 million with 80% in real estate and he had cash or cash equivalents of about $1 million.

Now Charlie already had me excited with his questions at the outset! And now he had told me his financial profile which exceeded our requirements.

Charlie was my kind of guy and we were having such a great call.

It was now time to get Charlie approved. Send him a NextDay UPS franchise information packet with an application and instructions on how to fill it out (back in early 1990s that's how you did it).

Charlie said that would be terrific!

At this point Charlie and I were like family.

And then Charlie said to me -

"You know Joe I've got this piece of land that I think will make a great QSR restaurant site and I'd like to build one of yours on it. Do you think you could have one of your real estate guys come take a look at it before we go any further? I'd really appreciate that, Joe. You'd be doing me a big favor and we'd both be moving this process along faster."

Now I had a dilemma we didn't pre-approve sites before a franchise candidate had been approved to be a franchisee.

But Charlie was perfect and so easy to talk to. I told Charlie I'd have to check and get back with him the next day.

Then I looked at the Director of Real Estate's schedule and saw that he could be in that market next week if he stayed out in the field another day. My real estate guy said he'd do it if I thought that Charlie was that good of a candidate.

I called Charlie back the next day with the good news. And he thought it was fantastic that we would break with our franchise sales process for him.

Well the week goes by and the Director of Real Estate is back in the office with good news that from a preliminary look at the market, demographics and competition the site was acceptable.

I was delighted!

So, I phoned Charlie back with the good news about his location --and now it was time to get his application in to us and get him approved. Charlie said would get right on it and that I'd have it faxed in within 3- 5 days.

After to waiting the 5 days and one more day for good measure I called up Charlie to check on the status of his application. No answer so I left a voice message. I thought for sure that I'd get a returned call straightaway from Charlie.

But I didn't.

I dutifully called Charlie for the next 4 weeks until one evening late in the office I gave Charlie a call and he picked up. Charlie apologized for not getting back to me sooner but assured me that he'd like to see one of our restaurants on his piece of land.

I said okay when do you think you could get you franchise application in?

And then Charlie said -

"About the application, I've been talking to my real estate guy here in town and he says that some of your big competitors have been sniffing around at sites around town including mine. I was thinking Joe that I might be better off as a landlord on this location and I'm wondering if you've got any franchisees who like to be in our town or maybe you'd want to put one of your company units in here".

I asked Charlie just to be clear you no longer want to be a franchisee? His answer as you would expect at this point in the in the story was a resounding No.

I'd been duped. As you might suspect Charlie was never interested in being our franchisee. He was selling a real estate deal. And I was providing the validation and possibly the tenant.

We never did a deal with Charlie.

And my very experienced Director of Real Estate would in a nice way ask me from time to time how I was doing with my Uncle Charlie.

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The Franchise Sales Process Trick that Makes All the Difference

By Joe Caruso on November 2, 2014 2:36 PM | 0 Comments

Franchise selling is about effective qualified lead generation and a franchise sales & recruitment process that works. Getting these two things right goes a long ways to winning you more franchise deals.

Franchise buyers usually don't enter your franchising process with their minds made up that your franchise concept is the one they will buy. And if they do they don't typically tell you that they are ready to buy.

They might not want you to 'sell' them on your franchise. However they do want to be 'sold' on the idea of owning your franchise concept. They have to see themselves owning it and visualize doing what it takes to be successful.

Franchise sales processes from a franchise seller's perspective probably seem longer than they need to be. You likely have around a sixty day timeline plus or minus in your process.

However it's important to remember that franchise buyers need to go through a series of mental operations before they conclude it's time to commit, sign a franchise agreement and pay the franchise fee.

Franchise buyers buy on their schedule not yours.

There are techniques and tactics you can incorporate into your franchise sales and recruitment process to improve. Many require a certain amount of careful consideration and planning.

I am going to focus on just one technique that you can implement right now, today without any delay. And it will change your franchising efforts dramatically.

Most franchise sales and recruitment processes have 6 or 7 steps from inquiry to franchise sale. Franchise buyers drop out of the process at different steps and it's the franchise seller's job to keep them engaged and advancing.

Here's what you do faithfully before the conclusion of the step you're on with each and every candidate. You schedule the next event in your process while you have them on the phone or across the table from you.

Franchise sellers are the calendar keepers for franchise buyers.

So pick a mutually reasonable time to schedule the next event with your franchise buyer. If they hedge on it you know you have a problem and you need to look into it right then and there.

If it's just a scheduling issue that's easy. Tell your candidate that's okay we'll put this on our respective calendars and if we need to change it we can.

This seems really easy to do. It's not.

I found the better the meeting I had with a candidate the more likely I was to forget to schedule or think it was not necessary to use this sales tactic.

Build the discipline to do this simple straightforward task every time and you'll get more & faster franchise sales without rushing your franchise buyers.

Dragnet Approach to More Franchise Sales & 5 Do's and Don'ts

By Joe Caruso on October 22, 2014 5:02 PM | 4 Comments

Franchisors need to have financial standards for their franchise candidates. In fact they are a 'must have' in your franchising sales and recruitment process.

And your franchise candidate financial requirements for net worth and liquid capital (cash or cash equivalents) should match up with the Item 7 Estimated Initial Investment in your Franchise Disclosure Document - FDD. And be bankable by meeting or exceeding bank lending requirements.

Now I look at a lot franchise sales processes and a big area of opportunity to generate more franchise sales is your application. Most franchise salespeople don't think of their franchise application as a candidate attraction and sales tool.

I think you should. And here's how.

You should use the 'Joe Friday Dragnet Approach" of "Just the Facts Ma'am". You want the 'bare essentials' at this stage and most franchise applications ask too many questions gathering information the franchisor and sales team will not ever use.

Let me ask you how many times do you look at the franchise candidates application after you have confirmed they meet or exceed your requirements?

Okay here's the quick fix list of do's and don'ts.

Do make it easy to fill out the application. Get it to 20 minutes or less.
Don't ask for Social Security numbers at this stage. You don't need to.
Do get the 'bare essentials' of net worth and available cash. You need to know they qualify.
Don't let someone in the Finance or Accounting Departments control this part of the franchise sales process. You need to. Franchise sales is your thing.
Do keep your franchise application to one page. You'll get points for this with candidates and more will apply.

Remember it's the financial wherewithal of the candidate that's important. And the trust you build at the beginning of the sales process. It's not about making people do more work than is necessary. You're not the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Have the right financial requirements for your concept. But make it easy & dead simple to apply.

We fix gaps on franchise sales processes. And if you need me to look over your franchise application process call me at 443.502.2636 or [email protected].

Death of a Franchise Salesman

By Joe Caruso on October 14, 2014 11:20 AM | 0 Comments

Arthur Miller's character Willy Loman is the tragic protagonist in the 1949 play "Death of a Salesman".

Miller's play is an enduring story about an aging and now mediocre salesman who has lost his enthusiasm for selling.

Willy is in the twilight of his career. He does know his product well, maybe better than most of his peers.

Great actors like Brian Dennehey, Fredric March, Dustin Hoffman, George C. Scott, Lee J. Cobb and Philip Seymour Hoffman have all portrayed Willy on stage and screen.

There's no question that "Death of a Salesman was one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century.

So what's Willy Loman got to do with the Death of a Franchise Salesman?

Well I don't think Willy sold franchises?

In the play Arthur Miller never reveals what Loman sells. Could you imagine getting into a car and going from town to town equipped with a briefcase and sell franchises in 1949?

Who would ever do that?

In 1952 Colonel Sanders did just that.

He traveled across country from Corbin, Kentucky to Salt Lake City, Utah to sell his first Kentucky Fired Chicken franchise to Pete Harman.

And KFC franchising was born.

I talk with a lot of people in across franchising at all levels. And franchise company presidents have expressed a concern. They think that they may have Willy Loman selling franchises for them. Not the tragic version in the play, but a failing franchise seller nonetheless.

This is their perception right or wrong.

Their solution however is to do something radical to change franchise sales and take them to unprecedented heights.

They are going to automate the sales process so that an over-the-hill mediocre Willy Loman can sell or even Biff or Happy for that matter.

Franchisors are buying into the hype that franchise buyers are going to self-discover everything they need to know about buying a particular franchise. And all you need do is automate this process for them.

Build it and they will buy.

Here's how it's supposed to work in theory. Leads flow into the CRM. Candidates follow the application instructions and gain access to a series of steps or doors and learn what they need to know to buy the franchise. You can't get from one door to the next without successfully unlocking it.

So all Willy, Biff or Happy has to do is guard the doors and assist the franchise prospect if they run into trouble with the CRM. Once the prospect completes the CRM process one of the Loman's schedules a Discovery Day to get the deal done.

But one day Happy gets an idea!

If he just unlocks all the doors and rushes franchise candidates through the CRM process he can get them to a Discovery Day faster and get more deals. How do I know this you say.

I talked with Happy Loman about it and he told me.

Don't get me wrong I like sales force automation.

I have been using these databases for over 20 years. I think to do it right you need to first have your franchise sales process set up so that it works for both your candidates and your Willy, Biff and Happy.

Using a CRM to keep the salesperson engaged, in control and attentive to your franchise buyers makes sense.

So before you try to replace franchise selling with a CRM we should talk about why Mr. Loman is not selling as many franchises as you want to sell.

The Surprising Relation between the Roman Empire and Selling Franchises

By Joe Caruso on October 8, 2014 6:47 PM | 0 Comments

The rise and fall of the Roman Empire has a lot in common with selling franchises.

The Romans built an enormous empire that at its height spanned from Spain to the Middle East. They built great cities and famous aqueducts.

They were able to do this well because they developed an exceptional formula for concrete.

The Romans were not the first to use concrete. But they improved upon it by using volcanic ash which allowed it to set underwater and the addition of horse hair made it less prone to cracking after the concrete dried.

Unfortunately, with the fall of Rome by 500 AD their technique for concrete was all but lost. The Visigoths were not much interested in building roads.

(The use of concrete not revived until the 14th Century through 18th Century. Modern concrete with Portland Cement and reinforced concrete were developed in the 19th Century.)

We are in danger of losing the formula to sell franchises. Because technological visigoths who are yelling about "social selling" don't know how to screen and qualify.

In franchising up until the mid to late 1990s inquiries for franchises came in primarily on the telephone. And franchisors trained people to screen and qualify the callers interested in a franchise. Many had fine-tuned scripts to use for incoming telephone inquiries.

On the first call you determined if the inquiring party's area was available for development, whether they had the requisite liquidity and net worth and answered basic questions.

Only if they qualified they became a lead.

You then sent them a franchise information packet by mail, Priority, NextDay or FedEx. And they were in the top of your franchise sales funnel.

You followed up in two days to ensure the lead got your package and you could advance the prospect through to the next step. Franchise sellers had an easier time then because they had a good telephone number and that's all you needed to reliably be able to contact franchise candidates.

In the 21st Century a telephone franchise inquiry is a very rare occurrence. Franchise qualification specialists and franchise sellers go to their email inbox or CRM to see who has "expressed an interest" in their franchise.

The advent of internet and web-based lead generation in franchising means that franchisors have development teams who have never had to screen and qualify candidates effectively at the outset.

Franchise sellers have to trust the Request Information Form to do the qualifying for them & trust they get the inquiring person's telephone number and email address.

In the pre-web lead world franchisors had the opportunity to have a great formula for incoming telephone franchise inquiries.

Yet with all the fantastic technologies that the internet and digital age affords us franchisors have lost this formula.

People who inquire today don't have to qualify and they don't have to use a real telephone number to get the franchisor's information.

All you have to do to get a current comparison of web franchise inquiries to an inquiry similar to the ones we used to on the phone is to look at how franchisors get leads at trade shows.

At trade shows we talk one on one with people, get to ask qualifying questions, get their telephone number & email and tell the franchise lead what to expect next in the franchising process.

So what's a franchise seller to do about their formula and make it better?

Re-think the top of your franchise sales funnel
Stop overwhelming inquiries with too much information
Get inquiries to do something that expresses their real intent
Give your qualified leads reasons to call you

Technology has changed the way we communicate with one another.

What hasn't changed are the mental operations that franchise buyers must go through before they buy your franchise and you can't sell unless you get the prospect on the phone.

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The Secret to Selling to Multi-Unit Operators

By Joe Caruso on September 18, 2014 10:45 PM | 0 Comments

Most franchisors want to sell to multi-unit qualified area developers.

Companies write about it in their press releases and in their 10Ks that they plan to grow their brand with these supremely qualified multi-unit operators.

Multi-unit operators who have proven experience in multi-unit development and operations know they are attractive to franchisors.

So, they play hardball.

One trick they use is to by-pass the franchise sales team altogether and only talk with your CEO.

So how do you prevent these sought after potential multi-unit franchise candidates from keeping you out of the loop?

Make a deal with your CEO to get those inquiring potential multi-unit franchisees into your process.

Have your CEO take the incoming calls from potential multi-unit franchisees.

Give your CEO a roadmap and scripts for these calls so they know the process you'll use to make this type of sale.

The CEO's single objective is to get the potential multi-unit franchisee back to you.

Once you have the potential multi-unit franchise candidate talking with you, take control of the sale. You take control by giving it up.

Let the the candidate tell you their -

Franchising story.

Vision for their future.

Process for adding franchise brands to their portfolio.

Convince them you're the person that can get their deal done for them.

Describe the business development path in a way that fits how they make a buying decision.

Yes Qualify them -

Ask them who else you'll be working with on their team.

Make sure early on that the territories they want are available.

Find out how much capital they intend to dedicate to your franchise brand.

Move them through your franchise sales process.

Never treat them like first time franchise buyer.

More tips and tactics on successfully recruiting these prized qualified multi-unit operators - give me a call. Or sign up for the Franchise Sales Tips newsletter.

Strategy vs Tactics: A Chicken & Coffee Story

By Joe Caruso on September 4, 2014 9:04 PM | 1 Comment

One of my favorite boss's of all time Mike Jenkins taught me a great deal about business and life.

Mike was big guy towering over 6'3" and the size of a linebacker with a deep booming voice. If Mike was in the room you knew it. He was very intimidating when you first met him.He was brought in to turn around Diedrich Coffee and Gloria Jeans where I was VP of Development.

Now Mike was not new to fixing what was broken with a company since he had just finished taking Boston Market through bankruptcy and selling it to McDonald's. Before Diedrich and Boston Market Mike had been at Steak & Ale, Bob's Big Boy, T.G.I. Friday's, Metromedia Steakhouses, El Chico Restaurants and Vicorp Restaurants.

He started as a waiter at Steak & Ale. And he probably got great tips given his physical stature and presence. I would have tipped a guy like that generously.

Mike told me his story about fixing Boston Market before selling it to McDonald's.

As Mike described it Boston Market was out of control with food costs and labor too high and sales too low.

Now his solution seemed very simple. Boston Market was addicted to discounting and thought their competition was McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino's, etc...Mike told his team they were wrong and proclaimed that the deep discounting would end. And not only that the big advertising spending was over too.

He got Boston Market back to 3 basics:

1. A focus on customer service;

2. Selling food at a full and fair price, and;

3. Simplifying the menu so the restaurant team could serve great food hot and fast.

The average unit volumes decreased but the units became profitable.

Mike said to me that there's way too much silly talk about strategy when what really matters are the tactics.

What Mike believed was that you take the business one piece at time and look at what's working well and fix or get rid of what isn't.

He told me the biggest challenge weren't the actual fixes. It was getting people to buy into them. He believed if you didn't get the buy in you were inviting failure before you started and doomed.

I remember what got Mike started in telling me his Boston Market stories. You see we had the Orange County Register delivered to the office and every time he saw deep discounted Boston Market free standing inserts it would get him going that the handpicked McDonald's team was going down the wrong path.

Was he right at the time? Well, McDonald's did eventually sell it.

(Mike did great things at Diedrich Coffee too. About 6 weeks into the job there we were faced with being put in the recovery group with Fleet Bank, threatened NASDAQ de-listing and a huge accounting nightmare with an unrealized material loss of close to $17 Million.

Mike got us together and we got through that too. However that's another story.)

Mike's story ended May 2, 2002 after less than a year's battle with gastric cancer. I miss Mike and I will be forever grateful to have learned from him. He was one of the kindest and best people I've known in my career.

Who Else Wants a Reliable Predictive Performance Tool for Recruiting?

By Joe Caruso on June 18, 2014 4:23 PM | 2 Comments

Fred; I have been pitched over the past 25 years in franchising all manner of snake oil for "profiling" and many have said that they can measure top performers and we could use the model to recruit high caliber and similar franchisees and employees.

What do you say to a franchisor who wants a reliable predictive performance tool, other than buy yours?

How should they approach it practical manner? What should they expect from using such a tool?

Joe - Let's start with the 5 basics of all good design.

1. Predict Performance:

Make sure that whatever system you're considering was actually designed to predict performance for the job, in this case, owning a franchise.

2. Designed for Selection or Recruitment

Make sure the system under consideration was designed for selection. Several of the most common personality profiles specifically state on their websites that they were not designed for selection.

One even goes so far as to say it's unethical to use it for selection. Even so, people are out selling these profiles for selection purposes.

3. Don't Discriminate in an unreasonable manner.

Third, make sure that the system you're considering does not discriminate. Even unintentionally. See Griggs v. Duke Power Co. A good summary is at http://www.answers.com/topic/griggs-v-duke-power-co#ixzz32NTJOd4J

4. Verify Performance Carefully, using an Independent 3rd Party.

Unfortunately, there's no simple way to run an analysis between performance and "profile scores". No matter what you're told.

There's a fair amount of complexity involved in comparing scores and actual performance.

And by performance, I don't mean simply a gut feeling of they're good or bad.

That's subjective criteria because the ratings can change depending on who's doing the rating and their relationship to the franchisee. That's not to say you can't use subjective data, just that if it's available, use objective data with subjective thrown in.

Objective data is something to which you can relate to hard numbers.

Things like actual $ sales per location, % increase one year over the next etc. I've even had clients in auto repair use $ sales per bay.

It all works as long as you can put a hard number on it. Then you have to use rigorous scientific methods to analyse the relationships between "profile" scores and performance. Hopefully this analysis is done by a 3rd party with no stake in how the results turn out.

5. Include Everyone and Increase Sample Size.

You'll need to include good, bad and average performers.

Here's an example of what I mean: Let's assume you've just made a movie and want to project what your ticket sales will likely be.

If you only include good reviews you could say that 100% of the people that saw the movie like it.

True, but not accurate. Only by adding the bad and average do you get an accurate idea.

In the same scenario, how many people would you need to ask before you are comfortable with a projection? Five? Ten? Twenty-five? One hundred?

Generally accepted sample sizes are a minimum of 100 before you can accurately predict performance. Anything less than that and the best you could do would be to assume you've identified a possible trend.

As far a reliability is concerned, my definition is to be able to say with 95+% confidence that the there's a definite causal relationship between performance and profile scores.

With larger sample sizes, our confidence level could be 99.5% or even higher.

Having said that, it really boils down to what you're willing to accept as being reliable. Being able to predict accurately 50% of the time? 75%? 95%? What's your comfort level?

The bottom line is that it's simply not appropriate, accurate or legally defensible to just pick your 1. or 20 franchisees and base your decisions on that small a sample. Even if you include poor performers in the mix.

Having said that, if the system you're considering was developed to predict performance of franchisees in similar type of franchises, and can provide you with documentation of such, in all likelihood you'd be safe just going with the "template" already designed by the developer of the system.

Hope that answers your question Joe. Did I miss anything?

Update on How You Can Build a Durable and Sustainable Franchise System - The Next 6 Steps

By Joe Caruso on June 12, 2014 8:53 AM | 0 Comments

Capital Area Franchise Association founder and well known franchise attorney Warren Lewis led the important panel discussion:

How to Improve On Your Franchisees' Unit Economics, on July 16th, 2013.

Joining Warren on the panel were Gregory Plotts, CPA of Yount, Hyde & Barbour an expert in franchisor/franchisee audit, accounting and consulting services and John A. Gordon of Pacific Management Consulting Group an analysis, advisory, expert witness and business intelligence aggregator focused on the franchise restaurant sector.

1. The Problem - Lack of Timely Reporting

There is great opportunity for better franchisee unit level performance reporting and corresponding franchisor support.

However, the audience concluded that less than 40% of franchisors get meaningful and timely reporting from franchisees.

Warren also pointed out that in 35 years of franchising, he has never terminated a franchise agreement solely because the franchisee wasn't reporting on a timely basis.

2. Why it Matters Even More

John Gordon pointed out that the U.S. restaurant marketplace is overbuilt, yet still growing.

So, the competition for sites is intense pushing rents up for prime locations and requiring franchisee and franchisor operators to be focused on unit level performance like never before.

Those franchise systems that are better at getting their data have a competitive advantage. Popeyes is out muscling KFC, for example.

Greg Plotts emphasized that creating dashboards with Key Performance Indicators - KPI- in as close to real-time as possible enables both franchisees and franchisors to be nimble and act on what the KPI reporting is telling them.

3. The Opportunity for Franchise Systems

The audience asked how do you get to a point where a franchise system can get the reporting and KPI platforms built and adopted?

Every franchise systems need a Standard Chart of Accounts. (Restaurants can start with the National Restaurant Association's uniform chart of accounts.)

Here are the 6 takeaways from the experts and CAFA audience:

A. Franchisors should:

1. Produce reports that are valuable to both the franchisor and franchisee. Franchisors need to find out what reports their franchisees need.

2. Get the franchise field consultants focused on the franchisee's unit level P&Ls. To have onsite in the field meetings without good numbers with franchisees is not the best use of franchisee and franchisor time.

B. Franchisees should:

1. Understand that some of them will want to know how they rank, and that group should be the first to work on a standard chart of accounts together with the franchisor and service providers.

2. Understand that money spent on accounting platform now will pay off in future growth.

C. Service Providers/Suppliers Should:

1. Not push the franchise system to a cloud based platform or even dashboards until there is sufficient buy in by the franchisees.

2. Understand the different needs for reports, by franchisee and franchisor and tailor the product accordingly.

CAFA's next Lunch and Learn on Unit Economics will be Tuesday, July 15th, 2014

How to Close Your Franchise Deal with the New, Smart and Savvy Franchise Buyers

By Joe Caruso on May 28, 2014 10:53 PM | 0 Comments

Smart and savvy franchise buyers almost always ask for your Franchise Disclosure Document - FDD at the outset when they contact their target franchisors.

Or they get the FDD from another source before inquiring directly to a franchisor.

There are 23 Items in the FDD.

The franchise buyer initially is looking at Item 7 Estimated Initial Investment and Item 19 Financial Performance Representation - FPR of the franchise concepts they are vetting.

Item 7 Estimated Initial Investment gives the prospective franchise buyer a high & low range for the investment.

Item 19 FPRs or what prior to 2008 was called an Earnings Claim provides franchise concept financial performance information.

The franchisor must have a reasonable basis for their Item 19 FPR.

Item 19 FPRs come in a variety of formats and level of financial detail can range from a minimal gross sales representation to full blown profit and loss statements.

Great franchise buyers use the Items 7 and 19 combination to develop a basic return on invested cash - ROIC calculation.

This preliminary ROIC calculation helps rule in and rule out franchise concepts for further consideration.

Franchise concepts with Item 19 FPRs insufficient to estimate cash flow are ruled out.
ROIC calculations within the range of 3 to 5 years franchise investment payback are ruled in.

There are over 3000 franchises offered for sale in the United States.

Only 40% or less of franchisors include the optional Item 19 FPR in their FDD.

And the as competition increases in franchising more franchisors are including an Item 19 FPR or improving the quality and depth of financial disclosure they provide

Smart and savvy franchise buyers see little reason to spend time on potential franchise investments with franchisors who cannot or will not provide financial performance evidence proving that their franchise is investment grade.

If you are a franchisor without an Item 19, you are at a real competitive disadvantage.

So, give me a call to chat how we can help you with your Item 19.

Call Me at: 443-502-2636

Click here to email me, Joe Caruso.

How to Get Your Franchise Web Portal Leads to Call You Back

By Joe Caruso on May 22, 2014 10:05 PM | 0 Comments

Print leads were different from internet leads.

It used to be that a print lead would phone you after seeing your print ad.

While on the phone with the prospective purchaser, you had to qualify them financially.

You also had to separate pretenders from the contenders. In restaurant franchising, the pretenders would often want to know if we would come and "look at their site". "Well, not until we are in the site selection phase - which happens after you sign the franchise agreement."

Prospects were easier to qualify because they phoned you.

But over the last ten or eleven years, internet leads have replaced print leads.

Qualifying leads has grown exponentially harder for two reasons:

1. There many more internet leads.

2. It is very hard to get the internet lead on the phone.

I have spent many years reviewing a franchise sales programs - from the time when all the leads were print to now, when most of the leads are digital.

I have always found the same thing.

Leads can be sorted or segmented into three groups: Cannot Buy, Ready to Buy & Not Ready to Buy, Yet.

Internet leads are much harder to segment because it takes so much time to get in contact with the lead.

We have developed some ad hoc systems to handle this problem, but we weren't really happy with this solutions performed.

For example, telephone verification was either too costly or they did not sort the groups properly.

Early in 2013, we started experimenting with an entirely new system - one that relied upon some sophisticated autoresponder rules.

We can classify a lead into: cannot buy, ready to buy, or not ready to buy, yet based on how the lead would respond to our messaging sequence.

Best of all, it was a great combination of human verification & autoresponder technology.

We are confident that we can help you sort out your franchise lead problems.

So, give me a call to chat about your franchise lead problems.

Call Me at: 443-502-2636

Click here to email me, Joe Caruso.

Stop Giving Away Everything You Know & Start Making More Franchise Sales

By Joe Caruso on May 8, 2014 9:24 PM | 0 Comments

The Franchise sales process has changed since I began over 20 years ago.

Back when I started out, people interested in franchises used the telephone to inquire and request information.

Because they saw our ads in the Wall Street Journal or some other important franchising magazine.

We talked to them and sent our info packets out through the mail or UPS NextDay. The sales process had begun.

But, today franchisors are building costly & elaborate franchise recruitment websites.

They give probable purchasers glossy franchise brochure PDF downloads.
They use higher-powered full-blown & expensive CRMs to move the probable purchasers through to a sale.

Yet, here's the biggest complaint I hear today from franchisors.

Their sales teams can't get people on the telephone. The leads will not call them back -or the phone number was fake.

Now that is a big problem.

You cannot sell franchise to someone who won't answer their phone or call you.

Why aren't they returning your calls?

You built a wonderful franchise "information platform". These probable purchasers have all the research they need. Don't they?

But, they still won't return your call.

Do you know why?

The probable purchaser feels as though he doesn't need to talk to your franchise sales team members. You have provided all the information.

You had the best of intentions. You wanted to make it easy for their sales team to sell franchises. It is disappointing to spend all this money.

I know what the problem & I can fix it.

Because I have been doing franchise sales development for a very long time.

And Mike Webster knows a thing or two about how people really make franchise investment decisions.

So, when you need a combination of great practical skill and wonderful social science - which no other franchise developer group can give you- give us call and we will fix your sales process for you.

Why You Cannot Get Your Franchise Leads on the Phone & What to Do About It

By Joe Caruso on April 23, 2014 2:59 PM | 0 Comments

The Franchise sales process has changed since I began over 20 years ago.

Back when I started out, people interested in franchises used the telephone to inquire and request information.

Because they saw our ads in the Wall Street Journal or some other important franchising magazine.

We talked to them and sent our info packets out through the mail or UPS NextDay. The sales process had begun.

But, today franchisors are building costly & elaborate franchise recruitment websites.

They give probable purchasers glossy franchise brochure PDF downloads.
They use higher-powered full-blown & expensive CRMs to move the probable purchasers through to a sale.

Yet, here's the biggest complaint I hear today from franchisors.

Their sales teams can't get people on the telephone. The leads will not call them back -or the phone number was fake.

Now that is a big problem.

You cannot sell franchise to someone who won't answer their phone or call you.

Why aren't they returning your calls?

You built a wonderful franchise "information platform". These probable purchasers have all the research they need. Don't they?

But, they still won't return your call.

Do you know why?

The probable purchaser feels as though he doesn't need to talk to your franchise sales team members. You have provided all the information.

You had the best of intentions. You wanted to make it easy for their sales team to sell franchises. It is disappointing to spend all this money.

I know what the problem is & I can fix it.

Because I have been doing franchise sales development for a very long time.

And Mike Webster knows a thing or two about how people really make big ticket franchise investment decisions.

So, when you need a combination of great practical skill and wonderful science - which no other franchise developer group can give you- give us call and we will fix your sales process for you.

Fire Your Franchise Sales Team Every 18 Months

By Joe Caruso on March 18, 2014 2:46 PM | 2 Comments

Every end of year you ask your franchise sales team how many franchise deals will they close next year. And they tell you a number.

Almost always the number is higher than the previous year and you believe them, or at least you want to believe them.

Your team is being optimistic. They want to do well and they want to please you.

But you might end up blaming them when the results don't happen and you will consider making personnel changes. About every 18 months, a franchise sales director is terminated.

It's no secret that franchise sales teams have high turnover and you can chalk some if it up to a bad hire here and there. But in my experience that's not the reason why most of the time.

The turnover happens mostly out of frustration. You fire under-performers or they quit because they know they are failing. You find a new person and cycle repeats itself. Every 18 months.

Stop being set up for disappointment and having to get a new team, every 18 months.

You can do something about it now to make things better for this year.

Here is how to do something different? Try improving on one of these dimensions.

Confirm your team actually follows your franchise sales process - You will be surprised at what you learn.

Find the leaks in your sales funnel - Where are your franchise candidates losing interest & dropping out?

Rebuild your franchise sales process - Most processes have too few or the wrong steps to match your prospects timing and decision making.

Become expert at using your franchise sales CRM software - You need to be great at it so you can coach your team and know what's happening.

Read everything out loud that you are sending out to prospects from your auto-response to closing letter - These emails & letters have changed over-time and need fixing.

Listen to your franchise sales scripts - They have to make sense to prospects and your sales team or they won't use them or work.

Do these six things faithfully and you will have a killer franchise selling machine.

You will get more sales out your team and your disappointment will vanish.

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Are You Making this Mistake At Your "Discovery Day"?

By Joe Caruso on March 10, 2014 12:39 PM | 0 Comments

I previously wrote an article "How to Quit Having Discovery Days & Sell More Franchises".

I suggested you come up with a new and better name for "Discovery Day".

Here is what you need to do before and during your "New Name Discovery Day".

If you are like most franchisors you carefully track your closing ratios.

And the sale closes soon or just after you have met your candidates at your corporate office.

Here's what you should know about your candidates well before meeting day.

How many. Financially qualified for the number of units they plan to develop.
Where: Area of Interest is available and you want development in that market
Who: Key person or operator has the talent you require to run the business
Ready to Buy? Candidates are ready-to-buy

The franchise sales team has been living with the prospective franchisee throughout the franchise sales process, however the rest of the headquarters team haven't.

You need to inform your operations, training, marketing and real estate teams about your franchise candidates. Make it easy for them to buy-in on your prospects.

Write up a summarizing profile including the vital information and decision logic or business case for approving your candidates.

On meeting day here's what you need to do make it come off without a hitch.

Have a simple agenda, give it to your candidates & headquarter team in advance and follow it.
Define exactly what you want the company presenters to say and give them scripts to follow.
Have only the essential franchisor staff meet with your candidates.
Do a "What Happens Next" at the meeting by scheduling a closing date and review your closing process with your candidates.

When you embrace these basic franchise sales process control elements you'll improve your closing ratio and sell more franchises.

Bottom-line: You have approved the candidate and meeting them is simply a confirmation of a previously made decision.

For the 5 Most Fascinating Stories in Franchising, a weekly report, click here & sign up.

How You Can Sell More Franchises by By Doing Less

By Joe Caruso on February 25, 2014 1:29 PM | 0 Comments

I once took over a franchise development department where the sales team was getting 5000 leads a year.

The sales team was very proud of that 5000 lead number and so was the CEO of the company.

We were popular with people inquiring about our franchise offering. And it seemed we were especially popular with just about every franchising web portal out there.

(In franchising we tend to use the terms lead and inquiry interchangeably and most of what we call leads are really inquiries. And that's okay as long we understand we can't sell to an inquiry until they have been qualified as an active lead.)

We had been selling a fair amount of franchises every year but given the amount of leads we thought we were missing out on some sales opportunities. So we decided to take a closer look.

Here's what we discovered about our web portal leads.

Our financial qualification filters on the web portals were incorrect & too low.
International leads were turned on but we only developed in the US.
Some of the portals we were using had never generated a candidate application.

Here's what we did.

Created a uniform franchise landing page for our web portals.
Filtered out International leads.
Dropped 50% of the web portals .
Reallocated our lead generation budget .

Here's what happened after 12 months.

Leads decreased 40%
But, qualified applications increased 10%
Franchise sales increased 23%

It took the sales team a lot of hard work and confidence to make these improvements.

They loved the results. And so did the CEO.

How to Sell Franchises Like They Do in the Movies

By Joe Caruso on February 17, 2014 12:39 PM | 0 Comments

We all love movies like "Glengarry Glen Ross".

Well, I do.

To hear and watch Alec Baldwin doing the ABC of Always Be Closing and a lot of foul language speech is awesome theater.

Before we say yeah baby Always Be Closing, let's take a closer look at the movie plot.

Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris and of course Alec Baldwin were a great cast. And compelling characters all of them. Right?

Well these guys were scammers, confidence men, the guys that would sell your mom swamp land in Florida and ocean front property in Arizona all in the same day.

They were liars and cheats.

If you have a franchise sales vice president like "Blake" (Alec Baldwin) fire him now.

He's a threat to your franchise company. You don't want him selling any of your franchises, managing any of your people or in charge of franchise sales compliance.

You don't want "Blake" sweeping the parking lot for cigarette butts.

And if you have any "Blake" franchise brokers or franchise sales outsourcers get rid of them too. They are a greater threat because you can't watch how they sell outside your control (of course keep your honest brokers).

You see in Glengarry Glen Ross they were selling undeveloped land to people who could nary afford to make any investment let alone one as speculative as raw land. It was unsuitable and dishonest to entice these people into buying no matter how pretty the sales pitch and process.

You see there's a big difference between Al Pacino or Jack Lemmon selling a piece of property, closing the deal and moving on to the next mark and you selling a franchise to your new franchisee. Don't get me wrong, what Al's and Jack's characters did was reprehensible.

In Glengarry Glen Ross after the deal was done, Mitch & Murray were done. They had the buyer's money and that was it. On to the next...

When you sell a new franchise you're not Mitch or Murray and you know you're not done. Not by a long shot.

You and your brand spanking new franchisee have just begun a 10, 15 or 20 year business life together.

If Al or Jack sold them the franchise Glengarry style you will likely begin with problems at the start. Your new franchisee will likely not have enough capital to get financed or the operational expertise needed to make the franchise successful. This will not end well.

We can all agree great franchise sales is about recruiting both talent and capital. You want both.

To get what your franchise company wants you need an honest & effective franchise sales process and salespeople you and your candidates can count on.

Franchisees will remember how you sold them.

Get Rid of Your "Discovery Day" & Sell More Franchises

By Joe Caruso on January 27, 2014 12:31 PM | 2 Comments

I've been selling franchises for quite awhile. It might surprise you to learn that I had never held a Discovery Day until years after I began selling franchises.

Yes, that's right I sold franchises without a Discovery Day with tremendous success. And I'm confident having a Discovery Day would have sold less franchises!

When I started selling franchises at a capital intensive quick service restaurant - QSR- franchisor I went through my franchise development process training to learn how they sold franchises.

Here's some of what I learned about their franchise sales process.

About three years earlier the QSR franchisor had hired a franchise consultant to come in and redesign their franchise sales process.

And they didn't have a Discovery Day in the new franchise sales process.

Although they ended up with one of longest franchise sales processes in franchising. However it did include inviting our qualified prospective franchisees to a Corporate Interview at headquarters.

But, I discovered our process was simply not as effective as it could be and was costing us time and money.

It lacked grace & worse it didn't describe what actually happened.

My opinion is that you need a process for simple sales transactions as well as complex ones.

Of course franchise sales is a complex sale, but it doesn't have to be painful for the participants. It seems to me that if it's graceful for the franchise-buyers & the franchise sellers you will likely get better compliance and faithfulness to it? People just do better with things they like and understand. I know I do, and you probably do too.

Now I was working with sophisticated high net worth prospects.They were already successful and they were smart. They also didn't love the idea of having to go to a "Corporate Interview". It was a tough sell, a brick wall, and it didn't need to be that way. Our team agreed. So we decided to change it.

We began looking around at what similar franchisors were doing. We found that many if not most franchisors had a Discovery Day.

And, we thought Discovery Day didn't fit exactly with what we wanted in the architecture of our new franchise sales process.

We had already designed the process to be give & take in the exchanges of information through out the sales & decision steps.

So, we looked at: Decision Day, Confirmation Day, Meet the Franchisee Day and many others, some better some worse.

We decided on Development Strategy Meeting. Here's what we liked about that name and why we chose it over Discovery Day.

Discovery Day seems to always get shortened to D-Day in everyday corporate-speak which is fine for WWII buffs, but not for building a franchise relationship. And "Development Strategy Meeting" didn't roll of the tongue shortened to DSM in the same way or regularity.

With Development Strategy Meeting we could keep the description of the content focused how the candidate was going to develop, what schedule & where, who was going to be the operating principal and who would go into training.

You see we already had successful content and schedule for the Corporate Interview, we just had a poor name. Probably just as poor as some of your names.

The result was the sales scripts to get franchise prospects to the Development Strategy Meeting worked better after the change to that name and we sold more franchises.

So if you have a Corporate Interview or an unforgivingly named equivalent step in you franchise sales process you should get rid of that name. And find something that works because it describes what you really do.

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How To Grow Your Franchise System & Bring in Qualified Operators

By Joe Caruso on October 7, 2013 8:55 PM | 2 Comments

Franchisors need to grow! What better way to grow than to sign multi-unit development agreements.

How do you find multi-unit operators to create growth in your franchise system? Well, you have to recruit for growth by matching talent and capital.

Some franchisors recruit established existing franchisees of their own brands who possess the operational expertise, development know-how, and who are also well-funded.

Dunkin Donuts just used this strategy in California: "Dunkin' Donuts, America's all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods, and one of the fastest-growing quick service restaurant (QSR) brands based on unit growth, announced the signing of a multi-store development agreement with existing franchisees, Harry Patel and Parag Patel, to develop 18 new standalone restaurants in North Orange County and the Central Inland Empire."

Dunkin Donuts likely have a great feel for what the Patels can achieve.

But, what about recruiting multi-unit operators from other brands?

Three Myths about Multi-Unit Operators Expansion

First, there is the standard or run-of-the-mill franchisor expansion myth:

Just go and find the multi-unit & multi-brand operators, sign them up for your concept and watch the development territories build out as new units come on-line.

Like clockwork.

The franchisor only has to collect the upfront area development agreement fees, the unit franchisee fees, and the expected the windfall of royalties and advertising fund contributions.

Don't let the multi-unit operators fool you into believing this myth. Brand expansion doesn't happen that way.

Second, when you talk to those multi-unit operators you'll be told straight away they won't need all the hand holding, training, and guidance that those attention stealing needy newbie first-timer franchisees demand. Those experienced operators will manage themselves! You will likely be told that you could learn a thing or two from these highly experienced operators.

Again, the reality is different.

The reality is that many development agreements are not strictly complied with, according to the terms the agreement.

Searching the SEC corporate filings from publicly traded franchise companies you can find that many area development agreements are in default, technical default, terminated, or re-negotiated.

You may need to review the historical Franchise Disclosure Documents, FDDs, which may be harder to access.

The third myth is that experienced multi-unit operators are easier to manage. There are four reasons why this may not be true, either.

1. Multi-unit operators are further away from the day-to-day operations. They may require or even demand more training and support from the franchisor.

2. Multi-unit operators may challenge your training, support delivery systems, or standards.

3. They may have different ideas on site selection criteria and who has final say on site approval -despite what the agreement states.

4. A seasoned multi-unit operator may change your concept, menu, build-out, equipment package and they may not ask your permission. Again, despite what the agreement states.

So, recruiting mult-unit operators from other brands does require a bit more due diligence. Here are four tips to get you on your way.

1. Access to Capital: Do they have access to capital to build out the development schedule for your new concept?

Many multi-unit operators look more profitable than they are. Their development schedule may have been drafted in a moment of enthusiasm. Their capital maybe entirely locked-up in their current brands.

Don't automatically assume that a 40 unit operator has sufficient capital or access to capital to commit to your project.

Don't fall into the trap of getting excited about signing up a large multi-unit operator for your brand, unless they show you the money.

2. Other Development Obligations: What are their development obligations, including remodel commitments, to their other concepts?

Just knowing that they have the money isn't enough. You need to know about their development obligations to their current brands. You have to pay to attention to their remodel commitments. Much of their capital may already be spoken for.

Can they build the stores and remodel the units that they are already committed to without exhausting their capital? Is the multi-unit operator meeting its current lender obligations and staying within their loan covenants?

3. Compliance with Schedule: Are they in compliance with the schedule in their current development agreement(s)?

The mulit-unit operator may have sufficient capital to expand your franchise system. But, are they dragging their feet in their current development agreement?

Development schedules can be slowed if operating revenue has been reduced. Beware of the multi-unit operator who uses a slow development tactic to extract territorial concessions from you mid-deal.

4. Compliance with Operations: Are they in operational compliance under their current franchise agreements?

Not all multi-unit operators are actually great operators - despite what they would claim! Don't be fooled by a multi-unit operator who is merely tolerated in the system because they own great locations or control the underlying real estate.

Check to make sure that they are exceeding the franchisor's standards.

Conclusion

Franchisors need to grow. And you should recruit from established existing franchisees of other brands. But they need to possess the operational expertise, development know-how and be well-funded.

Always stay focused on building a durable and sustainable franchise system.

Click Here to find out more about Our Franchise Filter and Lead Amplifier Program & Start Selling More Franchises Easier & Cheaper.

Recruit Better Franchise Owners that Your Team Can Be Proud Of

By Joe Caruso on May 22, 2013 9:56 AM | 0 Comments

For almost 25 years, I have been selling franchises - usually for capital intensive projects.

I have always used a sales process, instead of relying upon magical phrases like: "Be Your Own Boss", or "In Business for Yourself but not by Yourself." To the sophisticated probable purchaser, these and similar phrases are trite.

There are six benefits to having a sales process - benefits for any sized franchise.

1. Consistent: With a specific and focussed sales process, a sales force can be taught, manage and coached to excellence. Your sales process has to provide a consistent and professional face to the probable purchaser. A sales process does that.

2. Repeatable: Standardized delivery to consumers is the heart of franchising. Standardized delivery of your marketing message to the probable purchaser is equally important.

3. Less Work: A sales process will eliminate inquiries early on. You will stop wasting time & start closing more deals by working with less inquiries and more probable purchasers.

4. Accurate Item 20 Projections: Sales is an optimistic profession. Too optimistic. A salesman will give a highly optimistic opinion of which deals will close and when. Just look at the item 20's in any FDD - how many projected openings year to the next turn into locations opened? Not many. A sales process helps the franchisor project gross royalties better. And all planning starts from accurate numbers.

5. Manageable: A sales process has clearly defined steps -ones that could be outlined with a decision tree. If you pay attention to what is happening in the sales process, it is easy for the sales manager to monitor that staff's progress to their quota or targets.

6. Teachable: Because a sales process breaks down the complex sale into a series of steps, it is easier to learn. New sales staff can progress through the complex sale without getting overwhelmed.

Finally, a franchise sale process has to lead a probable purchaser through the questions that are important to the purchaser and not on what you believe are the great features of your system!

How to Really Sell More Franchises.

Register for How to Improve Your Franchise Sales Process on May 21st

By Joe Caruso on May 13, 2013 9:41 PM | 0 Comments

David Gould is one of our franchise sales experts on our upcoming round-table discussion on franchising. Get a preview of what he'll be saying about franchise sales in his article -

Franchisors: Why the Best Candidates Don't Buy Your Franchise & One Smart Fix
http://bit.ly/17PowqE

If you want to Learn How to Dramatically Improve Your Franchise Sales Process http://bit.ly/ZStilj register to attend CAFA on May 21st at the Columbia Country Club, Chevy Chase, MD

Whether you're a new franchise or seasoned franchise sales leader this event is for you.

If participating in this Round-table event sells you only one extra franchise this year it will be worth your time and attention.

1. Is your franchise sales process producing the results you want?

2. Do you have the right 7 steps in your franchise sales process?

3. Do you know the 3 questions all franchise candidates ask?

4. Are you engaging effectively with qualified candidates from start to finish?

5. Is your sales approach right for your concept, sales team and target profiles?

Register online and reserve your seat - http://cafafranchise.org/meeting-schedule/26

See you at CAFA!

Learn How to Dramatically Improve Your Franchise Sales Process

By Joe Caruso on May 2, 2013 6:15 PM | 0 Comments

I am delighted that CAFA is able to introduce both a young new and exciting franchisor, Buffalo Wing Factory and Pub Franchising and Nikki Sicilian, along with a seasoned franchise salesman and good friend of mine, David Gould, recently of Kiddie Academy.

We know a number of younger franchisors and more established franchisors have trouble selling franchises on a consistent basis. A quick peak at many franchisor's Item 20 comparing their last year's projected openings with actual openings is revealing. When those numbers aren't consistent, you know that the franchisor doesn't have an effective sales process or funnel.

David will explain some of the elements of an effective sales funnel, Nikki will share their sales challenges as an emerging franchisor, and Warren Lewis will navigate us all through the conversation.

David Gould, Panelist

Nikki Sicilian, Panelist

TBA, Panelist

&

Warren Lee Lewis, Moderator

Whether you're a new franchise or seasoned franchise sales leader this event is for you.

If participating in this Roundtable event sells you only one extra franchise this year it will be worth your time and attention.

1. Is your franchise sales process producing the results you want?

2. Do you have the right 7 steps in your franchise sales process?

3. Do you know the 3 questions all franchise candidates ask?

4. Are you engaging effectively with qualified candidates from start to finish?

5. Is your sales approach right for your concept, sales team and target profiles?

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013, from 11:45 - 2pm;

Registration 11:45 - 12:15 - Lunch 12:15 - 12:45 - RoundTable 12:45-2:00

Columbia Country Club

7900 Connecticut Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Click for INFO and RESERVATIONS

How to Improve Your Franchise Sales Process -Save the Date- May 21st

By Joe Caruso on April 28, 2013 6:54 PM | 0 Comments

Franchising is a complex sale.

The best way to increase the effectiveness of your marketing budget is to take a serious look at your sales process.

We can all do better at selling, especially when selling something as complicated as a franchise.

Whether you're a new franchise or seasoned franchise sales leader this event is for you.

If participating in this Roundtable event sells you only one extra franchise this year it will be worth your time and attention.

Is your franchise sales process producing the results you want?
Do you have the right 7 steps in your franchise sales process?
Do you know the 3 questions all franchise candidates ask?
Are you engaging effectively with qualified candidates from start to finish?
Is your sales approach right for your concept, sales team and target profiles?

Put Tuesday, May 21^st on your calendar and plan to attend the Capital Area Franchise Association -May 21, 2013 @ Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, MD. Topic: Expert Roundtable Discussion on Franchise Sales

Who should attend - CEOs, CDOs, franchise sales executives, candidate qualifiers, franchise brokers, franchise sales outsourcers, CRM & franchise marketing suppliers, legal compliance experts and franchise buyers interested in how franchises are professionally sold.

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