Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 17
A call from a council member is much
more effective than a call from staff. If
your council members have regions, have
a fun contest and give a small prize to
the region with the highest attendance.
• Host your convention in the
best month for the event, not the
least expensive one. For example,
the best month could the one that
conflicts the least with your organization’s sales cycle.
• Provide economic incentives at
the convention. Offering special buys
and lower-cost services if purchased at
the convention provides value, makes selling easier, and is an incentive to attend.
• If your conventions are mandatory, use a variance committee for
franchisees to approve anyone who
cannot attend. This takes the heat off
management, and franchisees are normally tougher than management.
• If your penalty for non-attendance
is termination, provide an option of a
fine instead; termination is too drastic.
Put the funds for the fines in a special
account available for franchisees with financial hardship who need some financial
assistance to attend. The same variance
committee can choose who receives the
funds. You also can do fundraising for
How far in advance do you typically
book your meeting?
>18 months
12-18
months
that account. Having an auction to raise
money for the fund can be popular, fun,
and makes the point of how important
your conventions are.
• Plan your conventions at least
12 months in advance and offer a
special for signing up for the next
convention at the current one. The
convention is when franchisees are the
most excited. It’s easier to sign up people
then, plus it saves you from having to
make an effort later.
• Always promote what will be new
at your convention. What is new will
be of the highest interest and encourage the most attendance. This further
reinforces among your franchisees that
they will indeed be missing something
of value by not attending, which builds
on the concept of your convention being a “must attend” event.
In the next installment we will talk
about how to get the most out of your
franchisee conventions. n
Grow Market Lead
• Culturally, you need to make your
convention a “must attend” event. You
start this process in the recruiting stage.
When you are presenting your brand to
a potential fr anchisee, talk about your
convention as one of the major benefits of
being part of your organization, and why
no one would want to miss it. Continue
developing this idea during onboarding
and throughout the entire relationship
with your franchisees.
• Ensure that your staff sees your
convention as a “must attend” event.
It’s amazing how often your own staff
doesn’t fully understand the value of the
event. Your staff’s attitude is critical to attendance. How they present the convention to your franchisees (and encourage
attendance) will have a large impact on
getting people excited about attending.
• Measure results, looking at the
sales and profitability growth of the
attendees versus those who don’t attend. In working with several franchisor clients it’s also amazing to note the
correlation between conference attendance and sales growth and profitability.
This, of course, reinforces the value of
the event and gives franchisees a great
reason to attend.
• Get your advisory council involved.
Evan Hackel is the principal and founder
of Ingage Consulting. He has 25 years of
franchise experience having developed, implemented, and managed three successful new
franchise systems. He can be reached at 781569-5900 or [email protected].
What month is your meeting
typically held?
< 6 months
DEC
NOV 2.7%
3.2%
11.2% 11.8%
JAN
12.4%
OCT
14.5%
FEB
28.3%
9.7%
48.7%
8.1% MAR
SEP 12.9%
6-12
months
10.2%
5.4%
AUG
6.5%
JULY
7.0%
JUNE
7.5%
APR
MAY
Franchiseupdate I ssue I I I , 2012
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