The Moving Goalpost

Six reasons it's getting harder to hit your sales targets.

By David Chapman

Awarding a franchise to the right candidate is harder than ever. There are more competitors and fewer prospects. Yet the bar keeps rising higher and higher to sell more units. Here are six reasons it's getting even harder to hit your goals.

Reason 1: Your Website

According to HubSpot, 70 percent of the buying decision has been made before a franchise prospect talks to a franchise sales representative. Therefore, what prospects find out about you online is critical. Further, repeat website visitors are much more likely to convert into customers than first-time visitors. In fact, studies show that it takes at least three or four visits to your website before potential candidates think of doing business with you.

Franchise sales prospects are actively evaluating your brand based on your website and social media content, search engine results, media coverage, and increasingly, your management team’s online presence. At the same time, they are evaluating other franchise concepts and non-franchise options.

That means the top-of-funnel franchise candidates are forming perceptions about your brand, and your competitors, based solely on the power of your online brand story. How many high-quality franchise prospects have secretly evaluated your brand and decided not to contact you?
Can you even answer that question with confidence?

Reason 2: Copycat Marketing

Franchise sales is full of copycat franchise development marketing campaigns.

Be honest – when you built your franchise development website, did you “borrow” content and ideas from your competitors? Are you making critical franchise marketing decisions based on what others are doing?

The problem with that approach is that the herd mentality only ensures one thing – mediocre marketing results, at best. Stop guessing, or assuming, that your competitors know what content your brand needs to create to attract prospects to your website and social channels, or what content is actually converting visitors into qualified prospects for your brand.

Reason 3: Too Many Dogs, Not Enough Food

Prospects are being hunted by multiple franchise sales teams at the same time – broker networks, portals, sales consultants, etc. And that doesn’t even include the sales teams from 3,800-plus franchise brands or the 300 new franchise brands entering the market every year. Considering Reason 2 regarding copycat approaches, it’s hard to differentiate your brand from the pack, which leads to the next reason.

Reason 4: Trust

Franchise prospects are confused and overwhelmed, and their trust of companies is at an all-time low. The body of research is undeniable – consumers (franchise sales candidates) mistrust companies and brands more than ever. All franchise sales teams boast impressive earnings, great corporate support and happy franchisees throughout the system.

And, of course, prospects are keenly interested in all those attributes, but what they really want are answers to help them make the right decision about their livelihood. The franchise sales team viewed as the most authentic, genuine and trustworthy has a true competitive advantage. This is called establishing yourself as the “anchor” brand. You become the first brand that connects with a franchise candidate once they decide to pursue change, and therefore, your brand becomes the one with which they compare all other franchise brands they consider.

Reason 5: Marketing Shortcuts

Too many franchise brands search for magical “silver bullet” marketing shortcuts. We’ve already covered a few of the typical industry shortcut approaches – from copying what the competition is doing to developing a one-size-fits-all website, then placing ads on traditional portals and waiting for the leads to roll in.

After working in the marketing business for almost three decades, I can assure you there are no marketing shortcuts or silver bullets (other than the Coors Silver Bullet, of course). And even if there were, every brand and franchise marketing company out there would be copying it, and then you are back to the same herd mentality results mentioned earlier.

Reason 6: Poor Planning

Franchise brands fail to meet sales goals because they fail to plan. I get it, you’re working too many hours as it is. On the other hand, how much time and money are you losing by investing in marketing campaigns based on hunches and copycat approaches versus real market intelligence and the buying behaviors of your best franchise candidates? Take the time to set a future franchise sales vision of the company. Outline the marketing milestones and goals to reach between now and then – versus always chasing the latest “shiny object” marketing gimmicks.

Tips for Selling

Find out what content is driving prospects to your website and convert those visitors into qualified leads. Make sure your brand’s website experience keeps you in the game with the hundreds of invisible prospects shopping you and the competition.

Once a prospect establishes contact, stop selling before you build the relationship. Start the buyer journey as a trusted advisor, in order to become the anchor brand your competitors have to overcome.

David Chapman is CEO of 919 Marketing. Find out more here.