Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2015 | Page 24

CMOQ&A
How does this help your franchise
sales and development effort? It has
helped us become one of the world’s leading franchisors. Our prospective franchise
buyers come to know us at a personal
level. They experience our culture, our
Code of Values, our organization, and
the people who will be supporting them.
What ways/tools do you rely on to do
this? From the use of our CRM tool to
engage and educate the prospective buyer
during the early stages of the sales cycle,
to the personal touches provided by the
development team and executive team
during orientation and training.
Do today’s prospects expect more from
the franchise marketing department?
What, and how do you provide it? Yes,
and they should, as we are looking for
partners with a desire to grow. A “one-sizefits-all” approach doesn’t work. As their
business grows, owners expect marketing
to continue providing programs that fit
their size and needs. A new owner may be
more focused on low-cost/no-cost tactics
because of monetary constraints, while a
$10 million owner requires an altogether
different approach. Our franchise partners
do not have to worry about becoming
experts on the digital front. Marketing
provides complete solutions that are fully
researched and vetted for effectiveness.
How is technology changing the way
franchise marketing is done in terms of
one-on-one contact? We leverage various digital and automated communication
tools (email, SMS, ringless voicemail) to
keep our franchise partners informed.
We recently launched a new training and
educational portal that delivers a variety
of content designed to help our partners
grow their business.
How are you assisting your franchisees
with more contact and transparency?
What are their immediate needs? Creating easy access to our local marketing
support team has been a focus of the
team. We work closely with the franchise
consultant team to ensure they keep us
apprised of franchise partners who could
benefit most from a proactive personal
touch from marketing. As noted above,
we launched a new franchise marketing
support portal that offers our franchisees
24/7 access to the most requested pieces

22

Be agile, take risks,
don’t be distracted
by technology’s
“shiny squirrels.”
Don’t get stuck in
the past—simply
learn from it.
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