Name: Internicola Law Firm
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Learn strategies for attracting the right franchisees, closing deals and setting your brand up for long-term success.

Whether you’re launching a new franchise system or working to grow an emerging brand, one of the most important steps any founder can take is to own their role in the franchise system.

“I'm a firm believer that no one will ever care more about your brand than the founder, and so you should always control the story,” says Kelley Rosequist, a franchise growth advisor at The Internicola Law Firm, a national franchise law firm that provides boutique-level legal and consulting services to brands and entrepreneurs.

As the former CEO and development director of a franchise that offered a range of dog training services, Rosequist helped scale the company from two units to over 450 locations nationwide before exiting in 2023. Today, as the operator of a multi-unit franchise system in Salt Lake City, Utah, Rosequist has developed a solid understanding of the founder’s role in growing a franchise system – especially when it comes to selling a brand.

To help new and emerging franchisors get a clearer perspective about their role in selling franchises, Rosequist sat down with The Internicola Law Firm to talk about strategies for recruiting franchisees, telling a great brand story and getting on the path to sustainable growth as a founder.

The founder's role in the franchise sales process includes:

Making a positive impression
Telling a compelling brand story
Engaging with prospective franchise buyers
Getting prospective buyers in the sales process
Focusing on improving the franchise sales process

1. Make a positive impression

When it comes to attracting the right franchisees, making a great impression can make a difference – especially during the recruiting and franchise sales processes.

Although founders often focus on the technical, legal and business-related elements of franchise sales, Rosequist says it’s equally important for franchisors to be involved in the “feel good” parts of the sales experience as well. That might include calling potential candidates to answer questions directly, making time to learn about candidates’ families, lives and personal interests over dinner during discovery days or simply adding a personal touch to the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) review process by joining the meeting.

“Numbers matter – people look at Item 19. People are looking at (a franchise offering’s) projections. But at the end of the day, I think the majority of people make an emotional decision when choosing a franchise. And that's why I think it's so important that the founders are involved,” Rosequist says.

2. Tell a compelling brand story

As a founder, connecting with prospective buyers on an emotional level is critical for organic growth. Because of that, having the ability to tell your brand’s story is important for attracting the right franchisee candidates.

“I know there's a lot of people – I was definitely one of them, in the beginning – who did not want my face out. I did not want to be the face of the company. I didn't mind being the voice of the company, but I didn't want videos. I didn't want my picture out. I didn't want to do all of these things, but it's so important, if you want to be a leader and you want your franchisees to follow you, that they know you,” Rosequist says.

Beyond understanding your brand’s story, values and goals, Rosequist stresses the importance of developing a high-quality website that communicates those concepts while reaching the right people online.

When building your franchise brand story and sales website, consider the following elements:

Purpose. What services do you offer, and what value do you provide to franchisees?
Opportunity. What unique opportunities does your brand offer to franchisees that differentiate it from competitors?
Transformation. How will your franchise offering transform the lives of its future franchisees?

Although working with franchise brokers and advertising agencies can be an excellent way to deploy effective marketing and recruiting campaigns, Rosequist points out that having conversations with peers about your website and social media presence can also be enlightening for identifying ways to differentiate your brand from competitors online and isn’t a strategy to overlook.

Founders should also remember that competitively positioning their FDD can help them tell a compelling economic story about their brand – a strategy that can be useful during the franchise sales process.

3. Engage with prospective franchise buyers

When it comes to selling franchises, attracting qualified franchisee candidates and staying engaged with prospective buyers are critical – especially while growing your brand organically as a new founder.

“One of the things that I did, which actually came to me as advice from someone else, which is phenomenal, is (that) I did a monthly webinar before anyone ever got to the brokers. So, once a month, I would host an open forum where potential franchisees, before they started the sales process with the broker or FSO, would hop on a call with me and I would talk about the brand. I give the brand story to do a brief Q&A,” Rosequist says.

Ideas for recruiting and engaging with prospective franchisees during the franchise sales process include the following:

Stay active. Offer monthly virtual webinars or in-person Q&A sessions to recruit good-fit franchisee candidates and help them learn about your brand.
Get personal. Build relationships with candidates by being present during important moments and getting to know them as individuals.
Show up. Leveraging AI and bots and automation to boost franchise sales can be useful, but it’s no replacement for showing up for “feel good” moments and important milestones in person.

“You can automate (a candidate’s) application. You can automate their background check, their screening. You can have someone else on your team do the initial call, where you're gathering information. But that first CEO call, obviously, should be you as the CEO or founder,” Rosequist says.

4. Get prospective buyers involved in the sales process

While founders must engage with prospective franchisees during the franchise sales process, they aren’t the only ones who should be making an effort.

To get candidates involved, founders should consider implementing the following strategies between calls:

Assign homework. Ask prospective buyers to do research or submit proposals related to the brand.
Conduct an analysis. Request that candidates submit a competitor analysis to help them understand the brand’s industry position.
Seek inspiration. Ask prospective franchisees to get creative by sharing ideas for in-store events or local charities to support in their community.

By engaging with each other at the same level during the franchise sales process, founders and candidates can learn about the professional relationship they will have while working together, and determine whether it’s a good fit for both parties.

“If it's not equal in the sales process, it's not going to be equal in that 10-year relationship, either,” Rosequist says.

5. Focus on improving the franchise sales process

Beyond engaging with franchisee candidates in more meaningful ways, founders can also benefit from establishing a consistent process for responding to franchise sales inquiries and managing relationships with candidates.

When developing your franchise sales process, consider incorporating the following elements into your plan for responding to leads:

Qualify the lead. Ask qualifying questions to confirm the candidate understands what they’re signing up for, and then send them general marketing materials.
Introduction call. Introduce yourself as the founder, share your brand story and validate costs.
FDD review. After disclosing the FDD to the candidate during the FDD disclosure period mandated by the federal Franchise Rule, review the document with the candidate and answer any questions they have.
Additional calls. Schedule a series of calls to discuss the brand’s mission, processes and systems.
Validation. Perform a legal review of candidates. Look for red flags like mismatched goals or funding challenges, as well as green flags like aligned values and proper capitalization.
Discovery days. When possible, host discovery days in person to build rapport and ensure candidates are a good fit.
Referral program. Once they’re onboarded, referral programs for franchisees like vacations or cash bonuses can help boost growth organically.

To maintain candidates’ interest throughout the sales process, Rosequist recommends pacing calls to avoid overwhelming candidates with information. Discovery days should also be limited to around a day and a half, and should ideally include a brand overview, meetings with staff, activities to familiarize candidates with the business and other informative programming.

Founders should also take advantage of opportunities to get to know potential franchisees during the discovery phase – a strategy Rosequist found helpful in her former development role.

“We would go to dinner and I always found I learned more about people at dinner than I did in the entire day. You know, people are a little bit more loose. It's not a work environment. We would even try not to talk about work,” Rosequist says.

At the end of the day, Rosequist says a founder’s role in the franchise sales process is to stay active and engaged – and to avoid writing themselves out of their own story.

“You created this business because you love it, so why would you not want to be involved in that process? And I think a lot of founders do, but I think sometimes they get pushed out. I should be clear – no one should be steering the ship more than you should,” Rosequist says.

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