How to Nurture Your Franchise Leads Like a Pro
5 Ways to Convert More Leads
You’ve invested in franchise lead generation, and it’s starting to work. Now what? Filling the funnel is just the first step in your recruitment process. It’s crucial that you’re doing what needs to be done to advance your leads through your pipeline. This guide outlines our insights drawn from years of experience executing lead nurturing campaigns for dozens of fast-growing franchise brands. We’ve summarized five things that will help you successfully convert your leads into qualified franchise buyers.
- Nurture the curious
- Be a storyteller
- Offer multiple calls to action
- Always be qualifying
- Build your personal brand
1. Nurture the Curious
A large percentage of franchise leads are generated by Meta and Google ads, tradeshows, and franchise portals. These sources often generate curiosity rather than purchase intent. Many leads are captured in the early stages of their buyer’s journey. They need time to learn, evaluate, and prepare before progressing. Great franchise sales teams use this time to build confidence in their brand, business model, and leadership team.
Get the right infrastructure in place to nurture your curious leads.
CRM
Manage your franchise sales process with smart CRM technology. We recommend Zoho CRM, a world-class software suite, trusted by hundreds of reputable franchisors.
Lead Capture
To eliminate manual data entry and human error, ensure your lead capture mechanisms are setup right. Utilize landing pages, web forms, and email parsers to get your lead data into your CRM.
Marketing Automation
Achieve ‘speed to lead’ and automatically send continuous, pre-developed messages. We recommend Textellent for SMS text messaging and Act-On for lead journey building and dynamic email marketing.
Send a mixture of text-based and creative email templates, and make sure they are all mobile-optimized.
Lead Qualifier
Technology will simplify your process management, but don’t neglect the human touch. Make sure you have at least one person responsible for calling and pre-qualifying your leads – separate from your closers, and definitely not your Founder or CEO. At Cadence, we call them “openers”.
2. Be a Storyteller
A series of thoughtful stories will tell your leads what they should know about your franchise opportunity while simultaneously connecting with their emotions. Some people are hoping to own a business for the first time, and others are looking to expand their investment portfolios. No matter what types of aspiring entrepreneurs inquire, tell stories that do these three things.
Educate
Teach them about the support you provide as a franchisor, what it means to be a franchisee, and what’s required to be a part of your system.
Inspire
Excite them about the life-changing possibilities of joining your brand by telling inspirational stories from the perspectives of your home office leadership team, your end-customers, and your current franchisees.
Motivate
Encourage them to make the leap towards franchise ownership when the time is right for themself, their family, and their community. Be motivational and don’t be pushy.
Ask us for our list of 20 topics that every nurturing campaign should include.
3. Offer Multiple CTAs
Calls to action (CTAs) tell your leads what to do next. Without clear direction, potential buyers might not take action. Effective CTAs will turn curious people into engaged participants. Provide multiple options to advance different lead types, device users, and buyer personas. Remember, not every lead will react to your messages in the same way.
Include these CTAs in your messages:
Book a Call
Make it easy for your leads to schedule time to talk to your lead qualifier and get their questions answered.
Webinar Sign-up
Host virtual information sessions periodically (weekly, if possible) to engage leads who aren’t ready to speak to a salesperson, one-on-one.
Watch
Show off testimonials of happy people sharing their stories: home office team members, customers, and franchisees.
Read
Include links to website articles, media features, press releases, and thought-leadership pieces.
Download
Allow your brand overview brochure to be saved for future reference.
Request For Consideration
Enable your leads to fill out a pre-qualifying form, designed to find out if they meet your deal-breaking criteria. Include some open-ended questions, but make it short and sweet.
4. Always Be Qualifying
Qualifying your potential franchisees begins with your ad copy and doesn’t stop until an agreement is signed. We all know the importance of identifying the right fit to protect your brand and system-wide quality. Throughout your lead nurturing process, do your best to attract franchisees who are aligned and repel those who are not.
- Show off your brand’s values
- Set realistic expectations about the realities of owning your franchise
- Be clear about the financial capabilities
- Discuss the skills, experience, and personality requirements for success
The RFC should happen between your opener and closer. It should not be a fillable PDF. Use an online, mobile-optimized form integrated with your CRM. Direct users to a well-designed ‘thank you’ page after submission that clearly states what to expect next.
5. Build Your Personal Brand
Don’t underestimate the importance of building your personal brand. Promoting your company’s mission and values is only half the battle. Prospective franchise buyers are preparing to invest a significant portion of their life savings. They are buying into your personal vision as much as your company’s. Your nurturing efforts should build trust in your business model as well as the people behind it.
Humanize Your Business
Franchising is a business model based on relationships. Charismatic founders, CEOs, and sales executives with compelling personal stories can be the deciding factor when all other factors appear similar to competing brands. Leaders who share their journeys, challenges, and successes make their brands more approachable compared to faceless corporations.
Stay visible to increase trust and confidence in your system. Actively demonstrate your thought-leadership, franchisee support, community involvement, and disruptive vision. Get active on social media to enhance your lead nurturing efforts.
Founding Partner & CEO,
Cadence Franchising