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.
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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Joe Caruso You may want to start with this article - "Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs"
The author Merve Emre has some interesting and shocking things to say about relying Myers-Briggs.
http://digg.com/2015/myers-briggs-secret-history?utm_content=buffer5bf84&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker MB is good. But IMO. The DISC. Profile is simpler - easier - more fun - and results oriented. Just saying.
Joe Caruso One of the common criticisms of Myers-Briggs is that a person can take the test on Monday and again on Thursday and get two very different assessments.
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker Yes. And 99% of the time DISC nails it every time You're right joe.
Michael Biggins I am struggling a bit to apply these profiling tools to franchisees. But I am open and willing to be convinced. (Just sayin'). I agree that being a franchisee is not a good choice for everyone and there are certain characteristics and capabilities that make a real and important difference. I see way too many people buy into a franchise that is not 'right' for them or when they are simply not prepared for what it will take. Thoughts?
Joe Caruso Not sure that DISC is any more reliable than Myers-Briggs.
"Personality Scores and Job Performance
Are scores on personality tests highly predictive of performance? There is a long history of research showing: maybe. That is, if the employee has all the other performance elements necessary to do the job, and the personality test is job-related, personality can make a difference. Self-descriptive test scores represent how the applicant wants to present themselves -- it may not be reality. So, even if an applicant tells an interviewer he/she is organized, it's no guarantee he or she will be good with details. It is just bad science to claim the DISC (or any other personality test) will accurately predict managerial performance, capability for organization, character, or personal responsibility." http://www.eremedia.com/ere/dissecting-the-disc/
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker Disc is not a personality test. Its work style. Pretty accurate in my life time. Always room for improvement as we know. But pretty good
Monique Hernandez When it comes to discovering individual and organizational personalities, I highly recommend the Myers Briggs personality assessment. Given the persons being assessed understands that the questionnaire is not going to be spot on but everyone has a preference. That preference is key to receive accurate results. I've turned to this assessment when I've noticed a team is having difficulty understanding one another, or the team is not understanding myself. The time spent doing this and openness brings everyone together. I suggest Myers Briggs ! True believer
Michael (Mike) Webster @Monique, what have you used MBI for? Thanks.
Greg Nathan A couple of thoughts. The Myers Briggs is an awesome tool for leadership and personal development. It is useful as an adjunct in recruitment, but will not predict performance. Just how someone will probably approach their work.
DISC is also a great tool for management development. Be careful using it as a predictor of performance. Again it will tell you how someone will approach their job, not the outcomes they will get.
There are several profiling tools that have been developed from solid research into franchisee performance. We have one at the Franchise Relationships Institute that is part of a total recruitment system called The Nathan Profiler, and Fred Berni has one that I think is called The FranchiZe Profile.
Don't rely on a personality profiles alone. Structured interviews, on the job trials and past performance are also useful to consider when trying to predict future performance.
By the way I am a registered psychologist with 35 years up my sleeve working with a range of these types of tools, so I speak from experience, not hearsay.
Vivienne Beech Love the Nathan Profiler but also really like Ripe Strategies system by Lynne Schinella
Michael (Mike) Webster Vivienne, what do you use these profilers for? Thanks.
Michael (Mike) Webster Greg, what we have seen in the franchisor sales departments is an extreme reluctance to do anything which would cut down their pipeline.
It makes sense to filter using a tool which assesses expected performance, like your tool & Fred's assessment, but we have found sales departments very reluctant to employ them as part of their screening process.
So, I wonder if these predictive assessment tools aren't more usefully deployed right now as part of the onboarding process, by the operational folks.
Mary Clapp In my experience the personality assessments can be useful if they go both ways. The tools are supposed to help people understand how to communicate better with each other. For a franchisor to understand if a franchisee is likely to be a good fit for the system's style of communicating and making decisions, the franchisor has to understand the personalities of the decision makers and key ops folks in the franchise system, as well as those of the franchisee. Sometimes a change in the zor management is necessary. If the franchisor isn't considering that as a possibility, it probably won't matter what the zee assessments say.
Bernie Moscovitz Think the best application is A DISC/PIAV or Behaviors and Motivators. Goes beyond the basic personality assessment and adds personal interests, attitudes and values.
Greg Nathan Michael - your observations are correct. The priority for most franchise sales folks is to hit their recruitment numbers. Better quality operators factor in franchisee suitability as an equally high priority. Having operations folks also involved in the recruitment process acts like a conscience and balances the short term and longer term perspectives. (The ops folks have to live with the franchisee long after the recruitment folks have handed them over, so to speak). And I agree, using profiling tools for onboarding, coaching and improving communications is very useful.
Mary Clapp's comments are, in my view, all spot on.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor I've been in organizational devel for franchisors since 2000, have seen many products in this space...I'd be happy to discuss my experience & share with you an objective workshop I've delivered to USA franchisor groups about this topic - [email protected] 732 4811-5188
Ron Bender, CFE I have used (and taken!) many, including MBI, DISC, Wunderlic, ProvenMatch and Spot-On, and I think your development staff can be trained to get great use out of all of them. I love the newer, more 'workstyle and communication-related' programs like ProvenMatch since they become very useful for better training and coaching after they become franchisees.
Michael (Mike) Webster Mariel, have you got a link to your seminar? Thanks. You could post in your comment.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor Thanks Michael, here it is: https://prezi.com/yacdqnocdlbv/copy-of-assessing-competence-character-and-compliance-in-franchising/
Michael (Mike) Webster Mariel, you are welcome.
Greg Nathan Mariel - I just looked through this. It looks fascinating but is a bit hard to follow. Can you explain the context?
Thom Crimans Check out Proven Match. DISC, Myers Briggs and such are fine, but they are off the self products used for a wide variety of purposes. Proven Match is specifically designed to determine a prospects fit to your business model. Here is the link from the IFA website: http://www.franchise.org/proven-match-supplier Or contact [email protected]
Craig Slavin The oldest and most reliable franchise profile is the Franchise Navigator. Launched in 1997, after 7 years of research, Franchise Navigator has had incredible success with its clients. http://www.franchisenavigator.com.
Fred Berni Greg - Thanks for the mention.
Craig Slavin Let me know if anyone would like to "test-drive" the Navigator. It was built from the ground up for franchise application. It is also not a "generic "psychometric" assessment but actually becomes customized to each brand that uses it.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor Certainly, I was asked to present an objective picture of assessments in the franchise space and discussed several valid and reliable instruments and how they would fit inside the recruitment process - The focus was how to work with an instrument and how to have a better process including "fit" even without an instrument. The key issue is how valid the assessment is and can it, in fact, predict future behavior. There are a good number of valid tests out there, but a franchisor should ask a lot of questions about how long the instrument has been used, how long specifically in the franchise sector, and ask for white papers, studies, etc. to insure the tool is appropriate for selection. Contrary to some commentary, personality has been proven to predict "job performance" in many studies. So has an individuals Value System. Tons of research is out there supporting this. Hope that helps put my work in a bit of context.
Daniel Alberto Bernard Here in Brazil we use our own Teste Aldeia Gaulesa. It was based upon studies developed by professor Yves Enrègle, Ph.D. on Psychology and Sociology from Harvard and my professor at Groupe ESSEC in France in the early 90´s. We selected more than 10,000 franchisees by using this very accurate assesment test. It represents an evolution from PEAI and considers laboral relations later from the digital revolution from the mid 80´s. Just check the portuguese version at http://www.netplanconsultoria.com.br/principal/home/?sistema=conteudos|conteudo&id_conteudo=2
Dave Sullivan I currently use SpotOn by Zoracle. It has proven to match my candidates with concepts that line up with their competencies and compatibility. When I match a franchisee who shares a company's Values, Stages of Growth, Culture and Work Style they perform better and ramp-up quicker.
Jan-Marie Hall Hello Everyone - Proven Match is a scientific based assessment since 1987, designed specifically for Franchising to help you know the characteristics of your to top performing franchisees which helps you measure your candidates to their attributes.
Proven Match also help you with talking styles to get the best out of all your franchisees plus where to market to attract those top players.
I would be happy to give a demo or connect you with a franchisor using Proven Match
www.provenmatch.com
Craig Slavin Since 1987? I would check on your statistics. Proven Match was launched 5 or 6 years ago at best according to the creator.
Craig Slavin Spot-On is less than 2 years old.
Simon Lord Most franchisors I have talked to who started off using general profiling tools stopped using them after a while as they didn't accurately reflect the peculiarities of the franchisor/franchisee relationship. I'd recommend looking at the Nathan Profiler http://www.franchiserelationships.com/tools/profiler/
Craig Slavin Here's my take on using assessments/surveys in the franchising space. First, using one is a better idea than not using one. Anytime you can "model" something and be able to replicate it you are likely to be in a better position. Secondly, based on my experience, research, creation, usage and administration of a Behavioral Recognition Assessment called, the Navigator, I personally feel the value of an assessment/survey comes in the ability to use, adapt, and leverage the results. Most of the data, and results, of assessments/surveys becomes either under-utilized or misunderstood. The focus should not be solely about the assessment/survey but should address how to implement the recommendations in real life situations, with franchise operators, employees and others that participate in the franchising efforts.
Michael (Mike) Webster Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.
.1.We made a feature & highlighted it at:
https://www.franchise-info.ca/supply_chain/2015/11/personality-assessment-for-franchisees---a-panel-discussion.html#.VmjU1d-rTm0
.2. It was also in the Franchise-Info newsletter.
Greg Nathan Wow that 's been a wild ride. Enjoyed looking back over that thanks!
Fred Berni I apologize in advance if this appears as a duplicate post. I've been told that my original post didn't appear in this thread which is strange as I can see it.
Ulf - Let's start with the basics.
First, decide whether you want a tool designed to give you information on "cultural fit" or are you more concerned with performance? The two are not the same. If you're looking to see if a person is a good cultural fit, then likely any "personality" profile will do the trick.
If, however, you're looking to find out if your candidate will perform, then one of the best ways of identifying how a person will do in a specific job is to measure their skill-sets and their job-specific judgment. Since every job has a unique set of situational judgment needs and skill-sets, no single questionnaire can accurately be used for multiple jobs.
Continued in next post....
Fred Berni The reason the FBI uses job-specific judgment questions in their agent hiring process is because it's so accurate in predicting performance. That's also why we include situational judgment in our FranchiZe Profile.
Second, make sure the system under consideration was actually designed for selection. Several of the most common personality profiles specifically state on their websites (Meyers Briggs) or in their validation documents (DiSC) that they were not designed for selection. The Meyers Briggs site even goes so far as to say it's unethical to use it for selection. Even so, people are using these profiles for selection purposes.
The article Joe mentioned in an earlier post http://www.eremedia.com/ere/dissecting-the-disc/ does a good job of explaining these first two issues.
continued...
Fred Berni Third, if the "test" you're considering doesn't include job-specific questions you run the risk of running afoul of the EEOC and the ADA. The Supreme Court ruled in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. 401 U.S. 424 (1971): "What Congress has forbidden is giving these devices and mechanisms controlling force unless they are demonstrably a reasonable measure of job performance."
Fourth, make sure the profile you're considering has been validated by an independent third-party with no monetary interest in the results. By validated, I mean proven to demonstrate that it does accurately predict performance, not just that it's internally reliable. Doing so goes a long way to cutting down on your risks with the EEOC.
continued...
Michael (Mike) Webster Thanks for adding in these ideas, Fred.
Alan Branch As a franchisor for a new franchise system, we organised for a Psychologist to sit in in several recruitment interviews and then give an independent observation on what is needed both for our interview techniques and the answers from applicants. Just like developing critical business software, if you can afford to do it yourself (with some help at the start) then you get a good result.
Craig Slavin Alan, good idea in theory but if the Psychologist is not experienced in franchising and has never been in the "front lines" then it is either all theory or subjective based on his/her own set of rules. There is a huge difference between "theory" and "practical application" as it all relates to whether someone has the "right stuff" to execute a particular business model, especially for a new start-up franchisor where there is neither a lot of people or data to "model.".
Ulf Muller Thank you, All for your great contributions. Following on from your input and my research I have come to a conclusion. There are three points which stand out:
1. Having a Personality Assessment for Franchisees is better than not having one.
2. Successful franchisees have specific personality profiles. An assessment tool which is targeted towards franchisees is better than a generic one.
3. Assessment tools are not static. They develop with your network. Calibrating your assessment tool by assessing your best and least good performing franchisees is useful.
Thank you again everyone. Have a great Christmas and all the best for 2016.
Craig Slavin I don't believe Personality is the key. Our Navigator Assessments are Skills, Values and Behavioral based. Meaning, that if you can identify behavioral traits of a person it is an enormous insight that is not gained through a Personality Assessment. In franchising, it is all about whether an individual can execute a business model and that isn't personality based.
Second, yes, a tool targeted towards franchise ownership is better than a generic one.
Your third point is a little confusing. The assessment changes as the business model changes not as the company evolves. Sears has been using the Navigator for 18 years and their analysts have re-validated the Navigator Profile 4 times. Also, looking at just the best and least good is also not a valid indicator. You must look at everyone - the High, Mid and Poor performers and a valuable assessment talso shows how to turn mid performers into higher performers.
Finally, length of time an assessment has been in usage is key.
Caroline Balinska - Digital Innovation Strategist I did an awesome interview with Craig Bissett about choosing franchisees with assessment tools. It is definitely with listening to http://www.smartfranchise.marketing/podcast/
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