Nine Lessons About Selling More Franchises in Today's Changing Economy

Number one, franchise candidates want a relationship first.

Those who try to market and sell before developing trust will be ignored, forgotten, and likely shunned.

I recently had a conversation with a franchise owner about her frustration with the apparent lack of success from some of the marketing that she was doing.

When I quizzed her a little bit about what she was doing, I discovered that she was marketing to a list provided by a number of other portal lead sites.

The list is also being received by many other franchisors that are all instantly sending out their marketing promotions, inviting candidates to check out their franchise.

Her marketing and sales message did little to build trust, instead going immediately to the offer and why the franchise candidate had to come check out why her franchise was the best choice for them to buy.

The essence of this sales lesson is that you have to build trust today more than ever.

Franchise candidates are so skeptical that a mere marketing message, no matter how good it is, and whether it is a postcard, email, phone call, or contact from a portal site or broker lead, will do little by itself to persuade.

Franchise candidates aren't likely to drop everything they are doing in their busy lives simply because you send out a marketing piece that explains why your franchise is the best option.

With all the recent commotion of the economy and the marketplace, it is easy to see why your sales and marketing messages are getting buried in the clutter and, most importantly, ignored.

Add to that the skittish nature of franchise candidates who have gotten that way by constantly being told by the news media and others around them that times are bad and they will be better off to put their plan to start a business on hold until things get better.

So what can be done about this? Franchise candidates will suspend their disbelief about the experience of buying a franchise if they feel like you relate to them and, most importantly, if you target what they want most.

If you don't quickly build trust and relate to your concept as a legitimate business that they can build, they will be very skeptical about whether you can actually solve their problem of finding the perfect business.

On top of their skepticism, franchise candidates today are scared with all the doom and gloom they hear in the news every single day.

When they aren't confident, they have to get their confidence from you.

In other words, they have to borrow yours, and that means that you have to be confident every single day.

Aspiring entrepreneurs desperately want to have the business of their dreams, but they are scared that they can't have it right now, that it isn't really affordable, possible, or that they will even be able to make it succeed.

You can change all of this by being more certain and expressing that confidence through the helpful information that you share, and by sharing more social proof from actual franchisees about why they're so happy they chose to buy your franchise.

If you aren't releasing podcast interviews with your franchisees, you're missing a big opportunity to help alleviate fears and build more trust in your brand by helping them see success from actual franchisees.

Many franchisors are hesitant to provide any social proof for fear that they will make a revenue claim.

Podcast interviews can be done that don't make revenue claims, but that do help prospective candidates feel more secure and confident in all aspects of your franchise.

Are you providing the tools that will help your potential franchisees see the benefits of joining your franchise? If you don't have a podcast yet, let the Franchise Sales Association help you through FranchisePodcastStudio.com as a way to deliver informative interviews that highlight your unique differences and making sure that you offer social proof without discussing anything that's not already in the FDD.

Here are some suggestions to create content where you can better relate to franchise candidates and express your confidence.

Number one, create podcast interviews or video interviews that show how you can answer the franchise candidate's most pressing questions and build their confidence that your franchise is the best choice for building a new business.

Create a podcast episode with the 10 most commonly asked questions about your franchise and another episode that features 10 more questions candidates should be asking that they don't think to ask until much later in the discovery process.