Three Ways to Maximize Your Investment in Franchise Expos
KNOW YOUR RATIOS
Franchise expos are teeming with individuals fully intending on signing a franchise agreement. As a brand, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of possibilities on the convention floor. An easy fix for this is to narrow your scope by knowing your target number of signings and the ratios that will get you there.
How many appointments with candidates does it take for your brand to sign a single franchise agreement? If you don’t already have this information tracked and readily available, that’s your biggest current problem in your development strategy. Reaching a set number of signings is suddenly a lot more realistic when you can point to a specific number of meetings it will take you to reach that goal.
You can find more information on how to utilize this information at cgi franchise.com, or discuss it more in depth by reaching out to one of our team members.
YOUR EXPO STARTS BEFORE THE EXPO STARTS
Now that you know how many meetings you need to have with qualified candidates to reach your target number of franchise agreements, the next step is to make sure you can actually fill all of those appointment slots. There are going to be a lot of willing buyers at the expo, but there will also be hundreds of other brands competing for their attention.
Do the necessary research and pre-event marketing to make sure you have enough meetings set up in advance to hit your goal. To give yourself the highest chance of success possible, strive to have at least 20-30% of your meetings booked and scheduled before you even arrive at the event.
If you work with broker networks in the area, try to arrive a day early to meet with them and secure as many qualified leads as possible. The less fishing you have to do on the convention floor, the more time you’ll spend with actual candidates.
HAVE THE RIGHT CONVERSATIONS
Knowing your ratios and setting the appropriate number of meetings are massively important steps towards getting your signings. Those are both meaningless, however, if you’re not having the right conversations in the meetings you’ve booked.
A quality lead will have done some level of research into your brand prior to your meeting. They’re less interested in knowing what kind of business you are than they are interested in knowing how you model functions and what their potential earnings are. Come prepared with data, sales figures, and any other necessary information to show them that your brand has a model to lead them to a successful small business.
On the flip side, make sure you are learning as much about them as possible in the beginning. It doesn’t matter that they’re in love with your brand, if you know that they aren’t the franchisee that would fit in your network. This is where it’s important to know what your ideal candidate looks like.
Probe them about themselves. If they fit your idea of an owner in your brand network, great. Keep talking. If not, politely and quickly end the conversation. Make sure to keep their information for your own data and tracking purposes.
