Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2014 | Page 56
Grow Market Lead
Challenge
the pros
“What changes to your
lead generation practices do you
plan for 2015?”
Jeff Cox
President & CEO
Colors on Parade
In 2015, we plan to
continue to shift more
resources toward PR
and social media. The
quality of the leads we
have seen from these
sources over the past
year have reinforced our commitment
to move toward lead generation techniques that allow us to share our story
and to attract candidates who are a great
fit for us. Our franchise is unique in
several ways, so finding the right franchisee is critical to our success. Leads
coming from sources that educate the
candidate on our brand and business
“We plan to continue
to shift more
resources toward PR
and social media.”
before first contact tend to be better
qualified leads, which allows us to spend
time with the best candidates.
Another recent change in our lead
generation strategy has been to focus
our efforts on a few target groups, rather
than taking a broader approach. We are
seeing positive results from limiting
our advertising and contact efforts to
groups that fit our “ideal franchisee”
model closely. This focus allows us to
spend our limited time and resources
more efficiently as we determine which
groups are the best targets. Once we
have our franchisee leads, then the
hard part starts.
Based on recent positive results, our
franchise sales efforts will continue to
focus on the development of relationships to find the right fit for our brand.
We have seen increasingly better clos-
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Franchiseupdate ISS U E IV, 2 0 1 4
ing results from our efforts to build
relationships over time with the leads
we receive. Our sales cycle for new area
developer franchisees can range from 6
to 24 months. So we focus on getting to
know these candidates who are months
away from becoming Colors on Parade
franchisees. The process is slow, but the
success rate is very high. We know the
factors related to success in our franchise pretty well. Over time we get a
very good idea of how each candidate
fits into the “ideal franchisee” model.
Ultimately, the relationships developed during the franchising process
builds connections to other prospects,
including clients, franchisees, and employees. This foundation is producing
positive results even when the initial
candidate turns out to not be a good fit
for our franchise. Our business model
needs area developer franchisees, operator franchisees, and technician employees, so we can use the relationships
developed to find a number of different
prospects for our franchise family. The
approach fits our culture and people,
so at the end of the day, it comes pretty
naturally.
Pete Lindsey
Vice President, Franchising
Sport Clips
Lead generation is an
area of constant
change, and identifying new opportunities
remains the most critical challenge in franchise development. As
Sport Clips has been successful in our
development efforts, we are migrating
from a national lead generation strategy to a geo-targeted approach. In many
cases this can be more expensive and
complicated.
As a consequence, we are significantly
adjusting how we test going into 2015.
Our objective is very specific: we need
to know that we have done everything
we can to maximize the opportunity
of a lead source before determining
whether a test was a success. Goalsetting is conducted so all parties are
on the same page. Monitoring is critical and is established and agreed to by
all parties up f