This event on the BFA calendar is always one of the best attended, as recruitment of franchisees is the lifeblood of the industry.
It took place at the Stoke offices of the lawyers Knights and what a fabulous setting it was. James Fay-Sedgwick from the BFA hosted the event and there were some fantastic speakers on the day.
Some of the most interesting aspects from the event that I took away were:
Franchisee Decisions May Be More Focused Than Expected
55% of franchisees only considered 1 brand before they bought. Personally I’m not at all sure about this statistic and there was much discussion on the day. The consensus, right or wrong, is that the prospect may well have had a cursory look at many more but then honed their decision down to a small number to give some serious consideration.
Top Performers Still Need to Follow the System
Ensure even your top performers follow the system – main example from Dugan Aylen regarding Access for Lofts top franchisee who never attended events or provided financial information. They were relaxed given their individual contribution to the company but out of the blue went into Administration. Their employees took over the territories but for a while there was mild panic.
Why Franchisee Income Concentration Matters
This led them to look at Prices Law. This is only really when you have a reasonable number of franchisees. You take the square root of the franchisees and look at the tope performers MSF income. If it’s more than 50% it is a potential issue and you should reduce this figure as much as you can so your income is more evenly spread. For obvious reasons in the early days of your network this might be more challenging. I expect Pareto’s Law will be similar – the usual 80/20 rule.
Recruitment in numbers
Overall recruitment from lead is relatively unchanged at c1%, though some individual brands are better
The session was closed by David Glover of Caremark covering the do’s and don’ts of recruitment. They also have a FIM outlining all the key aspects of their franchise, the support structure and much more. A really great end to an informative day.