Franchise recruitment is a lot like matchmaking. Like Cupid, you must find the right match for every brand in your stable. Volume might look profitable in the short term, but this cannot be a numbers game. Recruit for insta-profits, and you’ll lose long term revenue. Do that for long enough, and you’ll even lose your brand identity. Franchise sales best practices always put your reputation first. The result is a healthy network that will reward you decades into the future.
Building a Solid Selection Process
McDonald’s has become one of the most powerful franchise brands in the world. It’s achieved roaring success by putting potential franchisees through a grueling nine-month selection process. It invites candidates to work in existing stores for seven months before onboarding. Psychometric testing has become another universal way to find the right fit, measuring suitability based on aptitude and behavioral style. Some franchisors take that a step further by interviewing applicants’ marriage partners. Social support can mean the difference between booming success and resounding failure. The more you develop and refine your recruitment strategy, the more powerful your brand will become.
Onboarding for Passion
Recruitment doesn’t end when the franchise fee is paid. Businesses with a structured onboarding process are 58% more likely to hold onto their recruits. It lays the foundation for a glowing future and arms your franchisees with the secrets they need to succeed. If your systems and automation are airtight, your onboarding will be a uniform, turnkey affair even when dealing with thousands of new recruits. This is where artificial intelligence comes to the rescue. Build it into your initial training, and every franchisee who joins your team will enjoy the best beginning you can offer.
Marketing in a Google Era
Today’s franchisors have better toolkits than their predecessors once did. With the help of search engine optimization, you can push your brand to the top of Google search results, both globally and locally.
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Use location-based marketing to target recruits at a local level.
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Use AI to customize your pay per click advertising to every target market within your demographic.
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Email campaigns deliver a 65% return on investment. Personalize them with automation, and you’ll push that ROI even higher. Build automated response messages and chatbots into your strategy, and your campaign will run itself.
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Social media marketing is one of your core franchise sales best practices. It develops your social marketing channels while building your brand presence.
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SEO tools like keywords, link building, and website sculpting will win you the traffic you need to attract the right recruits.
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Franchise videotapes can appeal to distant prospects through the testimonials of your most successful franchisees.
At heart, SEO is simply a way to get your brand within the sites of your recruits. Think of your Google rank as the Superbowl advertising campaign of the internet. It brings you the massive audiences required to win over new franchisees. That doesn’t make traditional marketing materials irrelevant, though. Franchise brochures are still one of the most essential components of your campaign, even in a digital age.
Building Your Sales Team
Your sales team is the face of your franchise. As the first point of human contact, they must represent your brand culture precisely. Your existing franchisees are equally powerful as brand ambassadors, but they can only sell well if you feed them qualified leads. Rely on AI to scrape away the chaff and turn out high-quality, buy-ready prospects.
An old idiom says, “Marry at haste, repent at leisure.” Time is one of the most important franchise sales best practices. Dedicate your patience to generating high-grade candidates, and the profits will follow.
