Sponsored Content by All Points Public Relations.
At times, franchise lead generation can take franchisors on an emotional roller coaster, and for good reason. Franchisors spend upwards of tens of thousands of dollars on franchise marketing and craft targeted messaging in hopes of attracting quality leads that turn into franchisees. However, too often leads stay in an initial inquiry stage and never go through a comprehensive qualifying process. It’s a failure in franchise marketing and sales that quickly hampers development teams, renders lead gen efforts wasted and sets back company growth goals, sometimes several years.
To stave off franchise development struggles, here are lead qualifying practices that will help keep sales teams accountable and pipelines flowing:
Time is Money
When it comes to contacting the franchise candidate, it’s critical that the sales teams follow up on the inquiry within a matter of hours, if not immediately. According to FranConnect’s Franchise Sales Index Report, 85% of franchise deals were with candidates who were contacted within 4 hours or less. By doing so, you’re much more likely to close a deal.
Personalization vs. Automation
These days, our CRMs make it easy to automate the entire lead qualification process. Technology has revolutionized franchise sales efficiency, with the ability to send automated email and text message campaigns at any time of the day. However, as much as these processes have increased efficiency, there must be a balance between automation and personalization. As many sales professionals know, striking the right balance between automated and personalized outreach could mean the difference between a prospect choosing you and your competitor.
Relationship Building
Franchisees are not just investing in a business; they are investing in a partnership. They want to feel confident that you are invested in their success and that you will be there to support them every step of the way. Building relationships with potential franchisees is therefore critical to effective lead generation. This means taking the time to get to know them, understanding their goals and concerns and providing them with the information and support they need to make an informed decision.
An Integrated Approach
The first step in lead qualifying starts with an effective lead generation strategy to attract qualified candidates to your franchise opportunity. Your franchise marketing plan should include a diverse mix of tactics to reach potential franchisees through multiple channels. This increases the likelihood of attracting the right target audience and generating high-quality leads. With over a decade of franchise lead generation experience, our agency specializes in an integrated approach, balancing a mix of public relations, digital marketing and trade advertising facts to capture the attention of high-caliber candidates. From there, the leads are nurtured with content marketing initiatives to further engage interest and provide additional information.
Our franchise sales department takes our involvement in a brand’s sales process a step further. Now, we help generate, nurture and qualify leads. Since launching the department, we’ve noticed a positive correlation between our integrated efforts and sales process, as feedback is immediately shared and implemented to adjust messaging, imagery or keyword targeting to effectively target the correct lead persona. When sales and marketing are intertwined, ongoing tweaks to the efforts can profoundly affect your lead generation, producing a robust pipeline resulting in more deals signed!
Effective franchise sales requires more than just a pitch. By incorporating personalization, timeliness and relationship-building into your lead qualification strategy, you can build trust, capture attention, and stand out from the competition.
Bailey Hewitt is the Vice President of Sales and Strategy of All Points Public Relations, a franchise-focused integrated PR agency based in the Chicagoland area, www.allpointspr.com.