Have you ever looked up opportunity websites and they all sound the same? Even different industries are promoting training, support, and their estimated initial investment. What they’re missing is telling a compelling story. How do you do this? Start with your “WHY YOU, WHY NOW”.
Why Now is the Most Important Time for your Perfect Franchisee to be Part of your System
When it comes to selling franchises and marketing your brand to prospective buyers (and even brokers), one of the most costly mistakes that emerging and startup franchisors make is not taking the time to develop a compelling franchise brand story and franchise sales website. The main question you need to be able to answer is why your franchise is the best opportunity now for your perfect franchisee?
How can you stand out? How can you avoid creating generic sales materials? And how can you build and deploy a compelling and unique brand story for your website?
If you can’t answer those questions, you’re not alone. Getting your brand story down will affect everything from your website, sales materials, media, paid ads, and more. In this article, we will help break down your “why you, why now” by following a 3-part framework.
It starts with being genuine about your purpose, the opportunity that you’re offering, and the transformation that your franchisees will experience.
3 Part Framework: Purpose, Opportunity, Transformation
Be genuine. There is a compelling story behind your brand. Whether it’s your current founder or leadership team, what is the passion behind opening your doors every day? What’s the passion behind the services or products you provide for your customers and the value you provide? How do you improve the lives of your franchisees?
Purpose
Starting with your purpose, simply put, why does your brand exist?
- At the consumer level: What is the service that you provide?
- At the franchisee level: What is the value that you provide to your franchisees?
If your purpose is “providing training, support, and collecting royalties”, you’re missing the mark and have to dig much deeper.
What’s the mission of your brand? For example, if you’re serving coffee, is your mission to serve the best coffee? Or is it for your customers to make their mornings enjoyable with a great cup of coffee? Remember, in many ways, your franchisees are also your customers.
So, answer these questions to get down your “Purpose”:
- Vision: What is the founder and leadership’s vision and passion behind opening your doors?
- Why does your brand exist?
- What are your brand’s Core Values?
- What is the mission behind your brand?
- Why are your products and services superior to your competitors?
- How are the lives of your franchisees going to improve?
- What are your leadership team’s wins?
Opportunities
The next section goes into what potential opportunities does your franchise system offer, that others may not? What is unique about your franchise opportunity?
Some examples:
- Item 7 Estimated Initial Investment costs
- Income potential in Item 19 Financial Performance Representations
- Potential ROI that your Item 19 is demonstrating compared to what your estimated initial investment costs
- Strong franchisee validation
- Better supply chain that leads to better ROI
- Superior selling features
- Exceptional pre-opening marketing program
This is where you go into detail about the true advantages of your system. Besides the standard initial training and ongoing support, what are you offering? Provide detail. Go deeper, not wider.
For example, if your initial training is unique, explain what’s unique about it. Explain to franchisees what they’ll experience in their initial training. If you already have franchisees, have videos of them talking about their experiences with training.
Your competition: We provide initial training.
You: Here’s our training process, here’s the detail of what you’ll experience.
Do you see the difference?
Transformation
This may be the most important piece of the puzzle. Focus on the franchisee’s experience… or what we call “transformation”.
For example, they go from corporate executive to a thriving franchisee with work-life balance, business builder, multi-unit business opportunities.
If you don’t have franchisees yet, go back to what your original founder experienced when he or she first opened up the business. They went from ____________ to ___________.
Putting it All Together
It’s important to get your “Why You, Why Now” down before you create your sales materials and franchise website. Some tips for implementing your brand story on your website:
- Add Contact Form to download a Franchise Opportunity Guide
- The main headline should not be focused on you. It should be focused on your franchisee’s transformation (i.e., Build a Thriving ___ Business)
- Sub-headline should relate to the opportunity (i.e., X% year over year sales growth)
- Add your unique advantages (i.e., Low start-up costs; positive ROI)
- Add videos: Brand story, values, mission, about the franchise system, unique selling points, and franchisee validation (if you have franchisees)
