How do I find the right franchise? With openness and optimism!

As a franchisor, franchisee and franchise developer, we have experience converting leads that originally came in for something else.

For example, we had a candidate whose initial inquiry was about opening an Xpresso Delight franchise, but together we discovered that PetWellClinic fit his skillset, goals and resources much better.

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This is the nature of lead generation in franchising. When you’re building your lead pool, you often have the opportunity to present them opportunities for business ventures they might not have been aware of at the time.

Now, within the franchising world, this approach to lead generation is uncommon. Oakscale has generated our own unique way of matching potential small business owners with brands that will work for them. Here’s what we’ve observed:

• Some entrepreneurs know what they want
• Some entrepreneurs don’t know what they want
• Some entrepreneurs think they know what they want, but it’s a surface understanding
  

Part of the franchise search process involves peeling back the surface layers to discover what’s going to be right for a given candidate. For example, a brick and mortar retail concept may not be the right fit if someone doesn’t want to manage a staff. But someone with a background in human resources who would enjoy hiring thirty staff members, would be ideal to run a boutique fitness franchise.

Or consider an office-less franchise opportunity with no steady office to commute to everyday. That may not be the best fit for an extrovert with high social affiliation needs, whereas someone who is shy and needs more flexibility to be home with their family, would prefer that opportunity over being in a physical office all day.

Truth is, there are hundreds if not thousands of franchise opportunities in each category. And part of our job is amassing a database of qualified people interested in a franchise who we can leverage in a number of ways. 

Lead generation, in that respect, succeeds when you combine openness with optimism. The openness element means identifying the key skills, motivational systems and pedigree of your leads and considering a variety of concepts that would be a good match. Meanwhile, the piece about optimism is reminding them that along their career journey, there are so many options out there, and you’re confident you will find one that’s right for them.