So, you’ve decided to franchise your business. The franchise model is ready, you’re excited about growing the brand and you’re ready to start looking for franchisees. There’s just one small problem – you need franchisees.

And not just anyone with enough money to buy a franchise. You need the right people – people who understand your business, share your values and have the skills and attitude to make a success of it.

This is where franchise recruitment comes in.

It can be tempting to think of franchise recruitment as simply a marketing exercise: advertise the opportunity, generate enquiries and turn those enquiries into franchisees. In reality, it’s much more than that.

Good franchise recruitment is about finding people who are a good fit for both your business and the franchisee.

What is franchise recruitment?

Franchise recruitment is the process of finding, attracting, assessing and selecting people who want to become franchisees of your business.

It starts before you advertise the opportunity. You need to be clear about who you’re looking for, what you’re offering and how you’ll decide whether someone is right for your franchise.

The process might include:

• Defining your ideal franchisee
• Promoting your franchise opportunity
• Generating enquiries
• Qualifying potential franchisees
• Having conversations with interested candidates
• Assessing their skills, experience and motivation
• Discussing the financial commitment
• Meeting candidates
• Deciding whether they’re the right fit

And there’s an important point here: franchise recruitment works both ways.

You’re assessing the potential franchisee, but they’re assessing you too. They need to decide whether they want to invest their money, time and future in your business. So the recruitment process should give them the opportunity to ask questions and understand exactly what they’re getting into.

Finding the right franchisee is more important than finding lots of leads

It’s easy to get excited when the enquiries start coming in. Ten leads become twenty. Twenty become fifty. It looks good on a spreadsheet.

But if most of those people aren’t suitable, it doesn’t necessarily mean your franchise recruitment is working. In fact, lots of unsuitable enquiries can create more work rather than less.

The aim shouldn’t be to find as many franchisees as possible. It should be to find the right franchisees for your business.

One good franchisee who follows the model, performs well and becomes a positive part of your network is worth far more than several franchisees who were rushed into the business simply because they had the money to invest.

So, what makes a good franchisee?

This is one of the first questions you should ask before you start recruiting.

And the answer isn’t simply: someone with enough money.

Of course, financial resources matter. A franchisee needs to be able to afford the investment and have enough working capital to give the business time to establish itself. But money alone doesn’t make a good franchisee.

Depending on your business, you might also be looking for someone with:

• Good communication skills
• Commercial awareness
• Leadership ability
• Customer service experience
• Relevant industry experience
• Resilience and determination
• The ability to follow an established system
• The confidence to make decisions
• The right attitude towards working with a franchisor

There is no one-size-fits-all franchisee. The person who makes a fantastic franchisee for a homecare business could be completely wrong for a food franchise. Likewise, a business-to-business franchise may need a very different type of person from a customer-facing retail business.

Before you start recruiting, think carefully about what a successful franchisee looks like in your particular business.

Don’t confuse franchise leads with franchise recruitment

This is an important distinction. Marketing can generate enquiries but it can’t guarantee that the people enquiring are suitable franchisees.

You could have a fantastic advertising campaign that generates hundreds of leads, but if those people don’t have the right skills, finances, motivation or expectations, you still don’t have a successful recruitment campaign.

This is why lead generation and franchise recruitment need to work together. Once someone has shown an interest, you need to understand more about them.

Why are they interested?
What are they looking for?
Do they understand what franchising involves?
Do they have realistic expectations about running their own business?
Can they afford the investment?
Are they comfortable working within a franchise system?

And, perhaps most importantly, do you think you could work with this person?

Because you’re not choosing someone to work for you for a few months. You could be entering into a business relationship that lasts for many years. That’s worth taking seriously.

Where can you find potential franchisees?

There are plenty of ways to promote a franchise opportunity, including:

• Franchise exhibitions
• Franchise websites and portals
• Google and other search engines
• Social media
• LinkedIn
• Email marketing
• PR and media coverage
• Referrals and recommendations
• Networking
• Existing business contacts

There isn’t one magic source of franchise leads – what works for one franchise may not work for another.

A franchise aimed at experienced business owners may find LinkedIn particularly useful. A consumer-facing franchise might get better results from social media or exhibitions. The important thing is understanding where your potential franchisees are and what they’re looking for.

And remember, someone doesn’t necessarily wake up one morning thinking, “I’d like to buy a franchise today.” They might be thinking about leaving employment, looking for more control over their working life, wanting to start their own business or simply looking for their next opportunity.

Good franchise recruitment considers these different motivations.

Franchise recruitment is about conversations

Technology can help you find and manage candidates. Advertising can put your franchise opportunity in front of thousands of people.

But when someone is considering investing a significant amount of money into a business, conversations matter.

You need to understand the person behind the enquiry.

What experience do they have?
What are they hoping to achieve?
What are their concerns?
What motivates them?
And do those things fit with what your franchise can actually offer?

The same applies to the candidate. They should feel able to ask questions – including difficult ones.

What support will they receive?
What does running the business actually involve?
What are the challenges?
What is expected of them?

A good recruitment process shouldn’t hide the difficult bits. It should make sure both sides understand what they’re getting into.

Don’t be afraid to say no

This can be one of the hardest parts of franchise recruitment. You’ve spent money generating the lead. You’ve had several conversations. The candidate is enthusiastic. They have the investment available. But something doesn’t feel right.

Perhaps their expectations are unrealistic. Maybe they aren’t comfortable following a system. Perhaps they don’t have the right skills or experience. Or maybe you simply don’t think you’d work well together. It can be tempting to carry on because you don’t want to lose the sale.

But franchise recruitment isn’t just about making a sale.

Sometimes the right answer is no.

Turning away an unsuitable candidate may be frustrating in the short term, but it can save a great deal of trouble further down the line. After all, a franchisee who isn’t right for your business can affect more than their own outlet. They can impact your reputation, your customers and the wider franchise network.

Successful franchise recruitment starts before you advertise

If you take one thing away from this article, make it this:

Successful franchise recruitment isn’t about finding people to buy your franchise. It’s about finding people who can build a successful business within your franchise model.

Before you spend money on advertising, make sure you understand:

• Who your ideal franchisee is
• Why they would want your franchise
• What makes your opportunity different
• Where you’re likely to find potential franchisees
• How you’ll qualify them
• What makes someone unsuitable

Get those things right and your recruitment marketing has a much better chance of delivering the people you actually want to speak to.

Because ultimately, the quality of your franchise network is only as good as the people you recruit into it.

And that’s why franchise recruitment deserves more thought than simply putting an advert online and hoping for the best.

At Ashtons Franchise Consulting, we help businesses develop and recruit franchisees, with a focus on finding the right fit for both sides. If you’re considering franchising your business, or you’re already recruiting franchisees and want to improve your approach, we’d be happy to have a conversation.