It is NOT the franchisors responsibility to run YOUR business!
Becoming a franchisee, it is not an excuse to shift your responsibilities onto the franchisor.
Certainly, the Franchisor has responsibilities BUT if you want to be successful and build a robust and profitable business then you need to get off your arse!
With this in mind, I thought it might be quite useful to detail some of the key things I think you need to do to build your franchised business.
The business is your business and your responsibility and buying a franchise is NOT an opportunity to put the onus for success on to someone else, e.g – the franchisor.
That said, the franchisor DOES though have responsibilities and good franchisors take those responsibilities very seriously.
To begin with, it is the franchisors duty to lay down the processes and methodologies of the business and deliver to the franchisee a proven business system.
It is also their responsibility to support the franchisee in key business disciplines – including, but not limited to, training, sales, marketing, procurement etc. and I would also expect the franchisor to be a guide and a mentor to the franchisee.
HOWEVER, the franchisor is NOT RESPONSIBLE for running the business for you.
In fact, I have always said to my franchisees that I am NOT going to tell you how to run what after all is YOUR business – but what I will do is to provide you with a route map to how I believe you should run the business to maximise your return and optimise the business.
Added to this I will provide the tools, strategies, processes and collateral which if followed and utilised will assist in achieving the business goals.
Moreover, I and the team will be on hand to advise and guide throughout your time with the franchise.
But,this is your business and to this end there are things incumbent on you.
As a MUST, you need to build on what the franchisor has given you, on the training provided, and on the support and collateral available to you.
Thereafter, there are some specific activities you should undertake.
I deal primarily in the B2B arena and in business to business there are THREE things I think make a real difference.
First, it is imperative that you get exposure in your local community – so get out and about and do as much local networking as possible.
There is a plethora of opportunities out there from the BNI, BRE, 4-Networking and BOB through to Chamber of Commerce, Women in Business and other local enterprise clubs.
Networking will help to raise awareness of both you and your business and if you can get at least three referrals from each event then networking will also help you to build your customer base.
Second, I’m a great believer in walking the patch and ‘smelling’ out prospective customers.
The closer I get to a customer the more I understand them and the more I understand them then the more I know how to get business from them.
You can only build this understanding if you are prepared to get ‘down and dirty’.
Thirdly, we need to ask for referrals.
The British are terribly stoic about asking for anything – if we can’t do something on our own then ‘damn it just keep trying, old boy’ – well, frankly, that just doesn’t work, and referrals can be a key area for recruiting new customers.
People tend to be nervous of asking for a referral in case of ‘upsetting my contact’ and the process is certainly different from networking which is much more straight forward because the environment encourages the activity.
What we should be doing though is getting referrals from friends, family, existing customers and suppliers by encouraging them to give us a contact or an ‘in’ into companies we want to get into.
Business (especially B2B) is about getting intimate with your customers and building relationships.
This is something the franchisor just can’t do, must not do and certainly will not do at a local level – but you can, and you must.
The franchisor can though work with you and help you to maximise your involvement in all three areas and can share best practice with you and help you to do the right preparation (BNI presentations for example) and create the right impression for your meetings with prospective customers.
Other things you need to be aware of and where possible make use of include:
- Direct marketing – IF you want to make an impact with customers, get noticed by prospects then why not market directly to them and build the intimacy by sending something that appeals to them personally?!
- Social media – in B2B most social media is not appropriate BUT LinkedIn is a powerful weapon to locate decision makers and to open an initial conversation.
- Personalised promotional products – send or hand delivery a gift with details that are personal to the customer, thus giving us the opportunity to make that customer feel special.
Whatever the product the most important aspect is the intimacy you gain with the customer.
You are perfectly placed to build a personal relationship with your customer/prospect and in all the examples outlined in this piece none of them can be done effectively by the franchisor – but all are mandatory for the franchisee.