02 Jan How a transparent sales process can deliver the best franchise candidates
The Franchise Review spoke to InXpress Australia & New Zealand’s Asia Pacific Franchise Development Director, David Wilkinson, to find out how the shipping and logistics franchise uses a transparent sales process to attract and recruit the best candidates.
According to Wilkinson, implementing a clear, transparent and documents sales process is fundamental to enhancing the brand’s reputation with potential franchisees.
“The greatest benefit with presenting candidates with a clear and documented process is that they feel comfortable in pursuing information about the brand and business model, without the concern of having signed a binding upfront agreement. Ultimately, the best candidates are the ones that are educated and informed, having taken the right amount of time to do their research and due diligence,” he says.
“For us it shouldn’t ever feel like a sales process. It should feel like a journey of discovery. The process really puts candidates in the driver’s seat in terms of education and awareness but also allows them to go along on this journey of discovery and start to build a really good understanding of our business model and practices,” Wilkinson says.
“The biggest concern for many of our candidates is that we’re going to try and sell them something when they’re not ready, or they don’t know enough to decide if this is the right business for them. We can avoid this pitfall by allowing the candidate to enter a process of education and discovery by offering them a clear, transparent and well documented process at the very beginning,” Wilkinson says.
“Most franchisors will have a franchise sales process which will be documented; however, many don’t share it with candidates as part of the introductory phase. They’re presented with bite sized steps as they progress. My learnings have been that the more transparent we are with our candidates, the better the quality information they will provide us,” Wilkinson says.
Extracted from article originally published in issue 4 of The Franchise Review 2019, the Official Journal of the Franchise Council of Australia.