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FRANCHISE SELLING TIP: # 1

Guest post by: Paul Dorsey

Article Overview: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

FRANCHISE SELLING TIP: # 1

I accompanied by my wife, we set out recently to buy a new car to replace the one she uses in her business. We visited a Nissan dealer for the Quest, a Chrysler dealer for a Dodge Caravan, and a Ford dealer for the Windstar. In all dealerships we indicated we wanted a new vehicle to replace ours that has 100,000 miles on it, said we were cash buyers, and were "just looking around and gathering information". In all three instances, we left the dealerships and no one had asked for our name or phone number. Were there so many prospects that we just "slipped through the cracks"?

Part of the dynamics of sales has to do with careful planning, managing, and decision making regarding "what to do with your leads/prospects/candidates". What we witness happening among many franchisors today is paralleled by the experience detailed above. Many franchisors have too many prospects, and this may be causing a serious problem.

What to do? Start out by doing a little math: You need to figure out and know exactly how many leads per month (average) you have generated over the past 12 months. You also need to calculate how many "applications" or "requests for consideration" you have received over that same 12 month period. Next, determine how many leads it takes to get to one application. If you are like most franchisors, it is going to be somewhere between 1/40 to 1/100.

If you have a sales staff that is "flying through leads" like there is no tomorrow looking for 6" putts and lay-down sales, your company is really suffering as a result.

Here is the only way to solve the problem:

IF YOUR RATIO IS 1 "APPLICATION" FOR EVERY 50 "LEADS",

YOU NEED TO RAISE THE BAR TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

ASSIGN YOUR LEADS IN GROUPS OF ONLY 25, AND REQUIRE

AN APPLICATION OUT OF THAT GROUP BEFORE THEY

GET ANY MORE LEADS.

Here's what will happen on an immediate basis: (1) Much more care will be taken with each individual inquiry; (2) Your sales staff will have to learn to be more productive; (3) Your "application" ratio will be cut in half; (4) Your sales will accelerate.

Isn't this what you really want?

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Article Tags: franchise



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These maybe the coldest franchises out there: - Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops. WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure % 1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56% 2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94% 3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18% 4 COPY CLUB 36.36% 5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71% 6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71% 7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59% 8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78% 9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48% 10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33% 11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33% 12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33% 13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33% 14 BLIMPIE 31.39% 15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77% Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Information about doing franchise business in China - CHINA’S FRANCHISE LEGAL SYSTEM Introduction Franchises has a history of more than one hundred years in foreign countries, now it has developed to be a mature business mode, and it is widely used in many countries, especially the developed ones. Recently, franchises has been developing fast in China, covering more than sixty industries and trades such as catering, retailing, clothes-washing, indoor decorations and gym. However, the market order of franchises is chaotic in some industries and areas. There are also some illegal and criminal activities under the guise of franchises. Under such circumstances, several important laws have been promulgated to regulate the commercial franchising activities. 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It seems that the Ministry of Commerce has restrictions in recognizing trademarks, since it only provides “own trademarks to be licensed to others” at large, which causes chaos in practice. In the cases relevant to franchising disputes which we provided legal service to, all of them involve the situation that the franchisors granted licenses of non-registered trademarks or the trademarks which were in application to others, and when there was infringement on trademarks, the franchisors were unable to prevent infringement on trademarks. Then the interests of the franchisees could not be realized. What’s more, franchising activities with non-registered trademarks also, to some extent, encourage commercial frauds. Thirdly, the logos, patents and proprietary technology of enterprises are included in the business sources to be licensed to others for the first time, which enlarges the application scope of franchises and will improve the development of franchises. 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