Make Smarter Candidate Decisions with Franchise Lead Management Tools

The old employers’ adage that “good help is hard to find” takes on terrifying new significance for franchise development. Hiring a bad employee is quite the headache, but picking the wrong person to represent your beloved brand is a nightmare.

That’s why FranchiseSoft developed franchise lead management tools to help brand owners make smarter candidate decisions. Read on to learn how–or skip the preamble and book a demo now.

Assess Lead Coachability Early

Forbes published an unsubtle article by Adrienne Graham titled “You Won’t Land A Job If You Can’t Follow Directions” back in 2011. Graham focused on the ways in which professional candidates disqualify themselves from opportunities by failing to follow simple application instructions, like including cover letters or sample work with resume submissions. In her view, these “minor” slip-ups show “that you only care about what you think is important and don’t feel it’s important to provide what the employer is looking for.” In other words, ignoring application instructions shows that you’re not coachable.

In franchising, coachability is key, but we can’t rely on Graham’s application errors as reliable coachability indices. Unfortunately, you’ll get perfect submissions from perfectly non-coachable people.

So how can we assess candidate coachability early in the process–before the franchise agreement is signed?

Coach them. Simple, right?

If you want to assess whether a candidate will be willing to follow instructions as a franchisee representing your brand, give them instructions to follow. When done right, this “coachability test” will also move the lead further through the sales process by giving them a meaningful task–reviewing some relevant information about your opportunity, for example.

FranchiseSoft’s lead management tools create organic, engaging opportunities to run candidates through this “coachability test,” and give you deeper insight into their task performance.

The virtual brochure is a good starting point. Franchisors can create custom digital documents that work as mini “training courses” for your leads. These brochure documents can be filled with useful information to help convert the lead, such as FAQs and videos on sales, royalties, territories, and investment options. Additionally, brochures can include to-do lists for leads, where tasks such as viewing PowerPoint presentations can be assigned–this is your coachability test. Once the lead agrees to watch the PowerPoint, use back-end analytics to track their progress through the document and assess their coachability.

Did they do what they promised? Did they spend adequate time on each page, or skim through the document 5 minutes before your next call?

This lead management tool helps you gauge a candidate’s ability to follow instructions, and also provides another opportunity to educate them on your “selling points.” It’s just one way we help you make smarter candidate decisions.

Manage Multiple Leads More Effectively

Franchisors often have to divide their attention between multiple leads, which can make it harder to keep the facts straight and give each relationship the attention it deserves.

As current and former franchise owners themselves, the FranchiseSoft team prioritizes lead management functionality at every stage of the conversion process.

Many of our users automate the early stages of lead generation using triggered “welcome” emails for candidates just entering into the system. The franchisor is immediately alerted to the new lead, and can begin filling out the 360-degree lead profile, which includes their referral source, contact information, inquiry date, cash available for investment, net worth, projected closing month, and more. This profile is designed for easy parsing and at-a-glance reference, so you can quickly bring representatives up to speed or message groups of leads that meet certain criteria. The franchisor can reach out to the lead at any time (with SMS or email available from the same app), and the lead can review the resources provided in the introductory email while they wait.

Our franchise lead management tool also makes it easy to log all SMS, email, and phone correspondence.

And once the lead is active, the franchisor can monitor their progress through the sales cycle using the “Workflow” tool.

Learn more about FranchiseSoft’s franchise lead management tools at https://www.franchisesoft.com— book a free digital walkthrough or just explore on your own.