Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2015 | Page 50

BY HELEN BOND

HONORING THE BEST IN FRANCHISE RECRUITMENT

W

hen it comes to being a “STAR”
franchise development player,
the best keep winning—and
they keep working to get better.
Franchise Update Media honored
the top performers in franchise sales and
development at its annual STAR Awards
dinner, a highlight of the Franchise Leadership & Development Conference, held
Oct. 14–16 in Atlanta.
The STAR Awards (Speaking To And
Responding) recognize brands for overall
development performance and in the key
areas of franchisee recruitment, online
sales follow-up, telephone responsiveness, website effectiveness, social media,
and franchisee satisfaction.
“Franchise Update Media and the
STAR awards are the only kind of awards
in our particular part of the industry,” says
Pete Lindsey, vice president of franchising at Sport Clips, a 2015 STAR Award
recipient. “It is really the only way we can
benchmark how we are doing. We really
appreciate this environment so we can learn
and measure ourselves against others.”
STAR Award winners are chosen based
on evaluations by a team of Franchise
Update sales and lead generation experts.
We caught up with representatives of the
winning brands to uncover their secrets
to business success. (See page 51 for a
list of 2015 winners and top runners-up.)

BEST OVERALL
PERFORMANCE

1st Place:
Wild Birds Unlimited

Paul Pickett

48

When you capture two
STAR Awards—one
for Best Overall Performance and one for
Best Franchisee Satisfaction in the retail category—you know your
sales development program is on the right

track. And for Wild Birds Unlimited,
which placed second last year in this category, the two awards go hand in hand.
“You can have the greatest franchise
development response, the best website,
the best process, and the most incredibly
talented franchise development team, but
if your franchisees aren’t happy, you are
never going to grow your brand,” says
Paul Pickett, vice president of franchise
development for the backyard bird feeding
and nature specialty brand, which began
franchising in 1983.
Thanks to the popularity of bird watching as a hobby, business is soaring at Wild
Birds Unlimited—and so is interest from
potential franchisees. The company has
291 stores and nearly 20 more in the
pipeline—a growth rate that has prompted
tweaks to an [