How to Qualify the Capital Intensive Candidate
Back in the 1990's, when "in-bound 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 filing 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 siganl and then asking for the commitment.
