How to Sell Franchises - The Buyer Persona

Years ago, I worked with a brand that sold franchises to anyone who had a penny. Some of those candidates had hustle and grit – which ultimately lifted them up to success. But many folded when the going got tough. I would imagine the 8 franchisees from the above limped into franchise ownership. In my opinion, we qualify people to own three, award one, reserve enough for a rainy day and enough to scale – and then build infrastructure around them to make them successful no matter what it takes. The bestest (I know I used that word) franchise brands grow smart and in concentric circles to maximize the potential of support, marketing and thus unit level economics. For the franchisees profiled (See the article on 1851), if you are being negative at the point of signing or opening it is usually driven by two things – a lack of transparency in the buying process (which will be instantly elevated if we qualify the persona correctly) and stress of bleeding money without revenues coming back in. Just because franchising allows business operators the ability to skip the line to business ownership, it doesn't mean that it doesn't require some crazy to muscle through storms. Who is your ideal buyer? Who is the franchisee who is worth more in royalty than others? Start there and be very strict who you let in – especially if you have a sound business model and opportunity.