Article

Panel puts franchise marketing under the microscope

Finding the right individuals to become franchise owners requires a well -structured marketing and recruitment program. Four veterans offered their insights last week at the annual Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit in Dallas.

Keith Gerson, at left, poses questions to Travis Edmondson, Josh Kern and Richard Simtob. Photo credit: Matt Tilbury.

April 5, 2017 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

One of the most important factors in successfully growing a franchise is having an effective franchise marketing program. But what type of marketing tools and campaign yields the best results? A panel discussion at the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit in Dallas last week took a hard look at this important topic.

Panelists included Travis Edmondson, vice president of franchise sales and development, Marco's Pizza; Josh Kern, chief marketing officer, T-Bird Restaurant Group; and Richard Simtob, president and partner at Zoup. Keith Gerson, president and chief client advocate at FranConnect, a provider of franchise management software, moderated the panel.

The top sales challenges

Gerson wasted no time getting into the meat of the topic showing a chart listing the greatest franchise sales challenges based on a recent franchisors' survey. The top four were:

1. Lead generation
2. Closing effectiveness
3. Lack of a budget
4. And franchise validation.

In comparing the effectiveness of different lead sources, Gerson showed a chart listing the lead-to-deal ratio for brokers, referrals, websites, portals and trade shows/conferences. Referrals topped the list at a 3.4 percent closing rate, followed by brokers at 2.9 percent, websites at 1.8 percent, portals at 0.6 percent and trade shows/conferences, 0.6 percent. The average rate for all of these lead sources is 1.2 percent.

"I still believe brokers are a viable source of growing your business since it's incremental growth," Edmondson said.

What about lead follow-up?

Generating leads is one thing, but follow-up is just as important.

Hitting home on this point was a chart listing the percent of leads that receive no calls from companies at different growth stages. The "no follow up" percent was highest for "micro-emerging" companies (71.3 percent), followed by emerging companies (58.7 percent), mid-market firms, (46.6 percent) and enterprise firms (42.9 percent.) The average is 51.3 percent.

The faster a company responds to a lead, the greater the chance the lead will take the company's call, Edmondson said.

Who's the best fit?

The discussion then moved to identifying the best personas for prospective franchisees.

Edmondson said one of the first things Marco's looks for is an outgoing persona.

"They've got to be a cultural fit for us," he said

Marco's focuses on recruiting candidates living in the local communities that it wants to develop.

Simtob of Zoup said there are digital tools available for assessing persona. The company also provides success stories of existing franchises to prospects.

"We use the story to attract similar people," he said.

Edmondson said the company has a 10-step franchise qualification process that includes in-store meetings, an in-store operational assessment and a franchise validation with full transparency. In addition to this, there is a "full discovery day" at the company facility in Toledo to meet the executive team to determine if they are a fit for Marco's.

Simtob said prospective Zoup franchisees attend an initial webinar, followed by a marketing and training webinar, followed by a real estate and construction webinar. The applicant then receives disclosure documents, presents a business plan, visits an existing location, attends a "meet the team" day, signs an agreement, then meets real estate agents to find a site location.

Register here for the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, July 18-20 in London. Register here for the 2018 RFIS, April 9-11 in Louisville.

About Elliot Maras

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Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.