Franchise sales script
An article about what script professionals use to sell a franchise.
Probably my favorite topic on franchising is selling a franchise, since I myself have extensive experience and knowledge in the field of sales. At my first job they gave me a phone and I sold front doors. It's this experience that makes me love sales so much. Even in the field of franchising, the topic of franchise sales has always interested me, perhaps most of all.
In this article we will talk about the franchise sales script, i.e. about the procedure for a franchise sales manager to successfully sign an agreement and attract partners to purchase a particular franchise.
So, let’s try to sketch out the main steps or scenario of actions of a franchise sales manager and, accordingly, we will understand what needs to be done in these steps, but the most important thing is what kind of mood you need to have to sell a franchise, and even more important, not what actions need to be taken, but who to be to sell a franchise.
We will structure our article in points, and in each point we will give a detailed explanation. The sales structure itself is built in this way: there is a landing page, our potential franchise buyer comes to this landing page, leaves a request, and the franchise sales manager contacts him, and we will now describe the further steps.
In this article we will talk about the franchise sales script, i.e. about the procedure for a franchise sales manager to successfully sign an agreement and attract partners to purchase a particular franchise.
So, let’s try to sketch out the main steps or scenario of actions of a franchise sales manager and, accordingly, we will understand what needs to be done in these steps, but the most important thing is what kind of mood you need to have to sell a franchise, and even more important, not what actions need to be taken, but who to be to sell a franchise.
We will structure our article in points, and in each point we will give a detailed explanation. The sales structure itself is built in this way: there is a landing page, our potential franchise buyer comes to this landing page, leaves a request, and the franchise sales manager contacts him, and we will now describe the further steps.
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1. Application processing
At this stage, the manager has the contact details of the potential franchisee, and his task is to conduct the first live communication, find out the context of the client's request and determine the way to work with this lead.
When the manager receives an application, his task is to contact this application within 24 hours using the contacts indicated there. Telephone communication is preferred. That is, the first step is to contact the person so that everything matches: he left an application, and they called him back.
If you call him in a week, he may not even remember where he left the application. Perhaps he left applications on many sites, and is already in the final stages of negotiations with some manager. Therefore, if the manager does not contact the lead within 24 hours, then the probability of this deal immediately decreases by tens of percent.
2. First dialogue
The manager called, got in touch with the contact person who left the application. The first thing he should do is clarify whether the application was actually left, because anything can happen, perhaps it was not left by him, or there is some error in the phone number.
Then I would recommend him to conduct an interview. Come up with the questions for this interview yourself for your franchise, but this first conversation should consist of questions, i.e. the essence is this: "You left an application, tell us what you wanted."
Here are some questions that can be asked: "What city are you in?"; "When are you planning to open?"; "Do you already have a premises?" and so on. There can be a lot of such questions.
In return, your interlocutor will also ask questions. Usually they are like this: "How much does the franchise cost?"; "How much investment will be required?"; "Will you give an exclusive right to the region?" and so on.
Your task is to find out everything about him, i.e. the manager must understand whether this is a targeted request, competitors, or just some curious people. Guided by intuition and answers to questions, you need to understand this.
3. Information about the franchise program
Usually, after the first conversation, the person who left the application says: "Send me everything about your franchise." That is, you answer his questions, if he did not have enough information during the first conversation, send the information that you can disclose and which is included in the primary information about the franchise.
What could be there? There can be all sorts of presentations, descriptions of the franchise, conditions. That is, you send him this package, this is the next step.
Further steps depend on the sales tactics you have chosen. If you have aggressive managers, i.e. they do not give up, they catch up with each partner who had the negligence to leave an application, then they make repeat calls.
4. Repeat calls
The first call should be made in a week, the second in a month, then in six months, and then in a year. These are the calls that need to be made if you are engaged in aggressive sales.
It is important to understand that you make calls with such periodicity if no obligations were given during the first conversation.
What could these obligations be? For example, you were asked to provide some additional information, you, accordingly, prepare and make a call not in a week, but as soon as you do everything.
For example, a person says that he is going on vacation and asks to call him in two weeks, then you set a reminder and call when you agreed, and then - according to the written interval. Once a year and the stick shoots. Maybe someone will buy in a year, it happens, in my case people bought, in whom I did not believe at all and called them just for show.
List of requirements for a business to become a franchise
5. Managing clients in a CRM system
If you are selling a franchise, then each lead, each missed call, each lost contact is very expensive, so do not save money where you do not need to, and communicate with partners only in the CRM system.
There are many such systems, choose the one that you like more, with which it is more convenient for you to interact, but you definitely need to work with CRM to control the work of the manager, so that if this manager suddenly leaves, you do not lose the history of negotiations with your regular customers.
We discussed how to communicate if you are suddenly in an aggressive sales strategy. By communicating regularly, you do not let yourself be forgotten.
If you are not pursuing an aggressive strategy, then I call it "anti-sales". In this case, I don't call anymore at all. Never. If a person received information from me, and after that he did not make a purchase, then there is no point in calling again.
I do not engage in aggressive sales because I do not consider franchising to be suitable for them. But lately the information field has been overheated, the phone has been overheated, everyone is trying to call you, sell something. It is very difficult to run in this crowd and try to become one of those who sell something.
And vice versa: all the most valuable things have to be sought, stand in queues, ask for recommendations from friends. All good things do not try to catch up with you, you need to look for them yourself. I prefer this approach, so I do not preach the aggressive method.
6. Communication and answering questions
You should communicate with the person who left the application on an equal footing, because you will be talking to the top managers of the company, and they feel whether you are a decision-maker or an intermediary. If you are an intermediary, then you do not need to communicate with you so that you give the contacts of your management.
You should be more knowledgeable in your industry than your potential buyers. That is, if they buy a franchise from you, because they lack knowledge, experience, technology, and if during the conversation they know more than you, and you have no stuffing, knowledge, then they will not want to communicate with such a manager and buy such a franchise.
And the usual sales laws - we always end the conversation with an obligation. At the end of the conversation, there should be a result, that someone owes someone something. Or the conversation should never be repeated again, i.e. we understood that we do not suit each other, or some obligation should be taken, for example, the next call, information, Skype conference, live meeting. If this did not happen, then the call was made in vain.
Do not forget about the laws of politeness: when we call, we ask if it is convenient for the person to talk. When we ask a question, we do it politely, ask permission, communicate on "you", do not forget the person's name, if he gives his first and middle name, then we call him by his first and middle name, etc. You can learn the rest in etiquette books.
7. Agreement and signing
When the franchise sales manager understands that his interlocutor is 80-90% ready to purchase the franchise, it is worth moving on to this stage. The agreement is usually drawn up by a lawyer, the manager in this process acts rather as a liaison. An important rule is never to let the lawyer and the lead communicate directly, otherwise your deal will most likely fail with a 90% probability.
8. Payment of the lump sum
The terms of payment of the lump sum are spelled out in the agreement, the manager's task is to track the payment, remind if necessary. As soon as the money arrives, and the accountant has confirmed this, you can transfer the deal to the opening stage.
These are the main things about the franchise sales script that I wanted to say. If you have any questions or additions to what you have read in this article, please use the feedback form.