Can the Franchise Sales Process be Improved? Just ask Prospects.
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
May 15, 2024 – Persons inquiring about franchises were mostly satisfied with their experiences, according to recent mystery shopping surveys over the six months ending in April 2024. Over half (50.9%) said they were either “satisfied “or “very satisfied”, and only 17.4% said they were “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.”
Only 17.4% said they were “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.”
But those negative responses, and the other 31.7% who were neither satisfied or dissatisfied suggest that there is room for improvement.
An analysis and categorization of another six months of suggestions on that question yielded not-so-surprising action items if you have been following the Mystery Shopping survey and franchise lead generation best practices from FranchiseInsights.com.
The respondents’ comments were categorized into specific suggestions. About 17% had comments about representatives not showing up or late for calls, or reported that they were just never contacted, up from 7.6% in August 2023.. While it is hard to explain, this is consistent with our surveys regularly showing that about 20% of inquiries receive no follow up within seven days and only about half are contacted by all franchises they inquired about.
A list of comments bundled into “it’s me, not you” made up 7.5% of them, and included feedback like “I’m doing research now in anticipation of retirement in two years.”
Another 7.5% just wanted franchise representatives to abide by their contact preferences and pre-schedule calls prior to making them, given work schedules and gaps in time zones.
Just under 6% wanted more information than is available in the short descriptions and profiles found on franchise portals, which is a key factor in why about 70% end up visiting franchise development websites after inquiring on the portals.
Another 5.7% said that more information about funding options and approaches to financing would be helpful. Concerns about financing continue to top the list for aspiring franchisees, with about 63% citing it as a top concern in a recent survey as interest rates rise and credit tightens.
On another note of progress, less than 2% suggested sending an email before calling, down significantly from 10.8% in the August 2023 survey. We regularly repeat this suggestion from years of survey data showing its effectiveness.
About 4% of respondents suggested less calling, in favor of more texts and emails. A similar percentage suggested that franchise representatives “not push so hard” in the early stage of the process. The remainder included “provide more information via the franchise website.” Franchise sales teams have to come to their own conclusions about what level of sales pressure is appropriate for their offering and the stage of the prospect in the sales process.
Note that “N/A” responses were interpreted as neutral (neither bad nor good), and not included in
this analysis.
The Franchise Insights monthly “Mystery Shopping” survey collects responses from individuals who have recently inquired about businesses or franchises for sale on the digital assets of the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Wednesday, May 15th, 2024.