Franchise Recruitment Trends and Strategies

If you’re a franchisor interested in finding out more about franchise recruitment, learning about current trends and strategies can help you recruit the right candidates to help your business succeed.

While having an efficient business model is critical to your success, so is ensuring that you have dedicated, hard-working, and committed franchisees to implement it successfully. If not, your franchise can fail to live up to your established success, and your overall business can suffer. That’s why recruiting the right talent is essential. Let’s consider some strategies and trends that can help.

1 – Work out a profile of your ideal franchisee

Start by building a profile of your ideal candidate. Write down the critical skills or abilities that are necessary for success. For example, are you looking for someone with a specific professional background or experience? Does your franchise benefit from a particular type of personality type? For example, a gym franchise may require someone with experience in health and fitness, while a daycare will benefit from someone with experience with children. An established profile is helpful if you’re dealing with brokers or experts to help uncover the right prospects for your needs.

2 – Develop a franchisee prospectus

Once your ideal franchisee profile is established, we recommend creating an applicant pack to provide to interested candidates. Use it to provide details about your business so candidates can quickly identify if it’s a good match for them.

Doing this will save you time and resources down the road and help qualify your leads. You can include information such as your track record, experience, business model, existing workforce, locations, and financial projections. We also recommend including specific criteria for suitable candidates and available locations.

3 – Look at recruitment as the first step

You’re forming a business relationship with your franchisee that could last years. It’s important to remember that it’s not just a sales process– you’ll need to communicate with them and rely on their efforts to grow your business. Suppose you’re looking for someone with specific experience, such as managers with expertise in your industry. In that case, it’s a good idea to recruit where you know they’re located and to also utilize your existing relationships.

4 – Utilize social media

To reach your desired audience, consider running targeted advertising on social media, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. It’s also helpful to focus on relevant content creation to convey why the brand is profitable, unique, relevant, and sustainable over the long term. Working with an experienced franchise developer to build a marketing strategy and content plan can ensure you get the right tone and approach.

You may also wish to consider offering a sign-on bonus to find the right franchisee for your business. Take the opportunity to explain what your franchise offers, including time commitment, level of business acumen, financial obligation, and culture to ensure quality leads.

5 – Keep an eye on your network

Consider if any existing staff or managers in your organization would make a great franchisee and approach them to discuss it. Next, you can offer financial incentives within your internal networks and communication channels and ask your existing franchisees to make referrals. We recommend consulting with an experienced lawyer to ensure everything is vetted before considering these options.

6 – Build a dedicated franchise website

To attract franchisees, you’ll need different content from your website that promotes your existing business. When building your site, consider the typical questions potential candidates might ask you and respond to these. In addition, you’ll need to provide all the necessary information, such as statistics about your industry, why your offer is unique, the financial investment, and your track record.

Be sure to include contact details and respond to any leads quickly. As part of your franchising marketing strategy, it’s also worth considering search engine optimization to help boost your rankings so more people can find your site.

7 – Attend franchisee conferences

People who attend a franchise conference are genuinely interested in buying. However, their intentions may range from just starting their research or ready to buy. In addition, many competing franchises also attend these events, so invest in a presentation to attract the type of candidate you need. Finally, don’t rely purely on conferences–use multiple channels for your recruitment methods.

8 – Consider offering a franchisee trial

Trials can be a great way of offering candidates an opportunity to learn more about being a franchise owner–allowing them to experience the daily operations and discover if it’s right for them. They can also benefit you—by providing an opportunity to test the candidate’s suitability before signing any paperwork. They can, however, be a drain on resources, so only consider offering trials to those candidates you think are a good fit and are serious about ownership.

9 – Get help to boost your chances of success

If you’re serious about recruiting, getting help from a franchise developer specializing in franchising services can help you ‌free up your time to focus on running your business. At Pinnacle, we work closely with our clients through the whole franchise sales outsourcing process. In addition, our franchise experts can provide direction on branding, presentations, networking, and lead generation.

Contact Pinnacle to learn more

At Pinnacle, our dedicated team immerses themselves in your brand, ensuring we can find you the best candidate for your business. We customize our services and genuinely see ourselves as a part of your team. Our personalized approach to franchise development means we have well-established relationships with an extensive network of franchise brokers, giving us access to vetted prospective franchisees. Contact us today to learn more.