FranConnect Releases 2021 Franchise Sales Index Report
(HERNDON, Virginia) April 27, 2021 — FranConnect, the leading provider of franchise management solutions for driving success in franchise sales, operations, and marketing, today released its 2021 Franchise Sales Index Report. Now in its seventh year, FranConnect’s Franchise Sales Index is the industry’s most comprehensive analysis of the franchise development function, offering franchisors unparalleled insights into the state of franchise development and strategies for increasing effectiveness and efficiency in the franchise sales process.
This year’s data represents the real-world franchise sales activities of over 600 of FranConnect’s customers in 2020, from Micro-Emerging brands (10 locations or less) to Enterprise concepts (200+ locations), segmented by industry, including personal services, quick-service restaurants, commercial and residential services, retail food, and more.
Key findings in the 2021 Franchise Sales Index Report include:
· Lead generation was significantly down, with Enterprise brands seeing leads decline by 36%. By industry, Business Services saw the largest decline in leads (72%).
· Total deals closed declined 28.8% year-over-year, but two industries — Commercial and Residential Services and Retail Food — saw increases in the number of deals per brand.
· Trade Shows & Conferences were the only lead generation source that saw a slight increase over 2019, showing that the national shift from in-person events to virtual ones didn’t diminish interest in franchising.
· Franchise referral consultants were the biggest source of deals, indicating their status as a trusted, objective source amid pandemic-driven uncertainty.
· The number of days from inquiry to close rose dramatically. On average across all industries, the sales cycle time more than doubled.
“While our data reveals that the franchise sales function overall took a big hit in 2020 because of the pandemic, franchise brands of all sizes continued their recruitment efforts and reported strong results despite the incredibly challenging environment,” said Keith Gerson, president of franchise operations for FranConnect. “What’s abundantly clear is that there has been pent-up demand, so as the country continues to recover, franchise sales teams should be preparing for a rebound. They should be ready for an influx of leads and focusing on speed-to-lead and booking appointments to ensure they don’t lose great, qualified candidates.”
To download the full 2021 Franchise Sales Index Report, visit www.franconnect.com/salesindex. FranConnect is also offering franchise brands a unique opportunity to request a custom report comparing their sales performance against anonymized data from more than 800+ franchise brands. To request this custom benchmark report, contact FranConnect at franconnect.com/SalesBenchmark.
About FranConnect
FranConnect is the leading franchise management software provider. For 20 years, the FranConnect platform has served as the sales, operations, and marketing backbone for over 800 brands worldwide. Nine of the Franchise Times Top 10 Fastest-Growing franchise businesses rely on FranConnect to drive growth, improve profitability, and streamline operational performance. FranConnect customers span all sizes, growth phases, and industries and they grow 44% faster on average than the broader franchising market. Backed by private-equity investor Serent Capital, FranConnect is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with global follow-the-sun operations. For more information on FranConnect, visit www.franconnect.com.
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