Franchisee Recruitment and Selection

After investing time money and effort in developing a franchise strategy, a franchise management system and putting the right franchising team in place, franchisors are invariably eager to sign up franchisees quickly to gain momentum in the successful franchise network growth.

It may come as a surprise to franchisors that at this stage of recruitment, another set of strategic planning becomes necessary. Besides building a robust Franchise management strategy, developing a systematic franchisee selection and recruitment process contributes significantly to the overall success of the franchising. This time around, it’s not focused on its internal business processes but rather a more macro strategic planning that considers territory, lifestyle, trends, spending power, competitor positioning and consumer readiness.

Before embarking on a franchisee recruitment campaign, It is important for the franchisor to invest some time in strategic analysis of the different territories it intends to enter and how its brand would perform in that market.

After working with hundreds of franchise systems both large and small, it is clear that many of the problems experienced by most franchise systems originate in the way franchisees are recruited, selected, qualified and brought into the system. We believe that a franchise system can only reach its true potential if, over and on top of a strong franchising strategy, a systematic franchisee selection and recruitment strategy must be in place.

We believe that if franchisors wish to increase the scalability of their franchisee relationships, the focus of franchisors should shift to recruiting the right candidates and the value each of them brings to the brand throughout the franchise relationship. Granting franchises goes beyond a numbers game to a consultation process that produces more qualified applicants, in less time, and results in better franchisees.

Developing a Franchisee Recruitment Strategy

1. Overarching Franchise Growth Strategy

A Franchise Growth Strategy provides the direction for building the system to achieve the vision of the brand. The franchise model growth Strategy documents the company’s marketing and operational decisions related to market analysis, market selection and penetration goals, competitive analysis, and franchisee structure and form.

2. Territory Focused Market Research

Too often Franchisors assume that every country has the same business fundamentals as the Brand’s Home country. The assumption that successful franchisee onboarding is simply the effective replication of the brand exactly can contribute to the failure of franchisees in new territories.

Franchisors need to invest time and effort in local market research focusing on:

  • Country Consumer Spending
  • Habits
  • Competitor Presence
  • Pricing Strategy
  • Brand Promotion
  • Local government regulations for import and local taxes.

3. Structured Franchisee Recruitment System

A structured franchisee Recruitment system is designed to achieve the results of the Market Development Strategy and Plan. To help the recruitment representative take the franchisee through the entire licencing process, this recruitment process will start from:

  1. Identifying candidates
  2. Presenting the Franchise offering first impressions count. Franchise recruitment representatives must be equipped with an engaging and informative franchise concept introduction deck. The Franchisee recruitment representative should also be well trained to articulate the strengths, mission and objectives of the franchise.
  3. Qualifying and Interviewing the candidates to understand their franchise investment profiles. Here it is important to also be able to identify if the goals of the franchisee align with the brand growth objectives of the brand.
  4. Following up with Qualified Franchisees. Once a franchisee is deemed qualified and shows interest, the franchise recruitment representative should at this stage, along with the completion of a non-disclosure agreement, present the franchise investment highlights for the prospective franchisee’s consideration.
  5. Clarification and conclusion. Once all the terms of the agreement are clarified and agreed upon, a letter of intent can be signed. Some franchisors include a deposit (often non-refundable) payment to take the process to the final grant of the franchise license.

4. Skilled Franchise Marketing Personnel

Franchisors need to provide training for their franchise recruitment representatives to use a structured licensing system to achieve the results of the Franchise Growth  Strategy.

The role of the franchisee recruitment representative is to help the franchisee candidates make an informed business decision about whether the franchise is the best opportunity to achieve the candidates’ goals, dreams, and objectives.

Sustainable growth for your franchise system

The success of your franchise system is dependent upon

  1. A well-planned Franchise Strategy
  2. A robust SOP
  3. A well-designed Franchise management system
  4. A strong and professional management team
  5. Franchise management Technology
  6. A clear franchise recruitment strategy

The franchise recruitment strategy, whilst not the ONLY key pillar of franchise growth, is a very important factor for sustainable growth. When we include franchisees that bring incremental value over the life of the franchise, we are more likely to perpetuate lasting growth for the franchise life cycle.

A successful franchisees or franchise owners recruitment and selection process create the future of your franchise system. To remain competitive into the next century and to reach the full potential of franchising, a franchisor must have a strong recruitment and selection process.

To find out more about developing your Franchise Business Recruitment strategy contact us now.

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