Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2013 | Page 52
Grow Market Lead
By Eddy Goldberg
Wood Words
always knows where they are against
the business plan.
How do you measure development performance?
Do you mystery shop your sales
team? Twice per year.
T
om Wood, president and
CEO of Floor Coverings
International (FCI), served
as Conference Chair of the
2014 Franchise Leadership & Development Conference in October. Based in
Atlanta, FCI has been franchising since
1989. We asked Wood for his own opinions on many of the
topics that came up
at the conference.
What are the most
important factors
and characteristics you look for
in assembling a
successful sales
team? Sales peo-
ple who understand
what they are doing
in the role: “selling.”
While we are only
looking for the best
franchisee candidates, the right people
will still need a sales professional to guide
them through the process and keep the
process on track. Characteristics include
goal orientation; a realistic outlook on
the business and a strong communication
style to communicate it; and an ability
to manage by the numbers.
How do measure the performance
of your sales team? Three ways:
contact ratios with candidates, personal presentations and meetings, and
qualified candidates to discovery days.
What are the most important things
you measure? The most important
thing is meeting our quota of qualified
new franchisees coming into the business and the system. In addition, the
franchise sales staff is measured by how
quickly the new franchisee gets started
up and meets their business plan.
Do CRM systems and other marketing automation tools help you
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measure your sales team’s performance? They do, but I think that
they are even more valuable in helping
us measure the progress a candidate is
making. We use the automation tools
to help us maintain better contact with
our candidates and to ensure that information is provided to them on a near
real-time basis.
Would you say
your development
team has a performance-based
culture (KPIs?)
Do you use outside consultants
to help assess your team’s performance? Not at this time.
How do you attract and retain top
talent in your development department? I’ve been very fortunate
that I have not had very much turnover
through the years. I think this is becaus B