Five tips to manage your sales funnel and sell more Franchises in the Children’s sector
The children’s activity sector is booming. In fact, it is now the largest community of Franchise brands in the UK! That’s great news for Franchisors as it means that the model is well proven, and that it’s in demand. The other side of that coin is that the sheer volume of Franchisors all looking for the same candidate means that competition is fierce, and finding the right franchisees is getting tougher.
If you are struggling to grow your network at the pace that you want, allowing yourself a meaningful pause to take stock and plan your sales process is the single best thing you can do. Often, the desire to grow results is the knee jerk response of “let’s throw more marketing money at it!”
Here’s why that might not be the best thing you can do right now and the five things you should consider first.
1. Master your sales funnel
Think of your franchise recruitment journey as a funnel, or more specifically as a colander. Doing more marketing may increase the volume of enquiries at the top – but what’s the point if they all fall out of the holes on the way down. It’s natural to lose candidates throughout, but don’t lose your dream franchisee because your process isn’t good enough or even worse, because you don’t have one. That’s just pouring money away.
Think about each touch point that you have with a candidate, and understand that this this starts long before you ever speak with them directly. Does your marketing, website, brochure etc. look and sound the best in class and excite and inspire? If not, then fix this first and don’t spend a penny more until you do.
Have a unique voice
You may think that your concept is cutting edge and offers something that nobody else does, but the chances are that a lot of your messaging to prospective franchisees is the same as your competition. Yes it can be a business that is emotionally rewarding, one that offers a much better work-life balance and a chance to do something that you are passionate about. That’s all powerful stuff, but everyone is saying it – so if that’s the centre of your sales pitch, you are simply selling the beauty of a children’s activity franchise, but not going the extra mile to sell your own.
So review everything you put out to the world, and assess what you are saying and why you are saying it. Franchising has a habit of repeating the same stock phrases. So stop, be daring, be inspiring and speak in a language that your candidates will respond to.
Understand your target audience
If you know that your franchisees are always from a certain background, have a specific skillset or experience – then why are you marketing anywhere else? Most franchise marketing channels put your brand out to the widest audience of candidates, and chances are that your money is being wasted by speaking to people who won’t be interested in your concept, or to whom you’d never want within your network.
You are much better served by marketing specifically to your ideal candidate in your collateral, and by finding non franchise sales channels that you can reach them in. Find your dream candidate and explain to them why it’s a great solution for them even if they have never considered franchising.
Be honest, and assess how you stack up vs. your competitors?
The chances are that you are not the only show in town, and that others are doing what you do. You might have very direct competition, or it may be that you feel you’ve created a niche. Either way, your candidates will know all of their options and may be considering a broad range of franchise brands that appeal to their life goals.
Have you ever measured yourself up vs. them and how you appear online? Your prospective franchisees certainly have. If, hand on heart you know that other rivals look and sound better – then no matter how much money you spend on marketing, you’ll never grow.
Give it the time and dedication it needs
Finding franchisees takes time, effort, skill and resilience. Despite what others may tell you, there is no silver bullet – it takes multi faceted, multi channel marketing and PR to get your brand visible. Putting your franchise on a listings website and waiting is never going to work.
Grab your own destiny, take a long hard look at your franchise brand and make sure that everyone and anyone that comes across you believes you are the best in the market. You can grow, and you can scale but be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and make changes where needed!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Walters is the Founder of Kindling, a boutique Franchise Consulting firm. He’s one of the UK’s leading experts in Children’s activity franchising brands, with close to two decades of leadership experience at some of the UK’s best loved brands including Stagecoach Performing arts and Mad Science.