Things to look for in a franchisor’s marketing package

 The most successful franchise businesses rely on two key aspects of business management: sales activity and marketing activity.

Sales activity is short term – instant response – and includes things such as networking, gaining referrals, dealing one-to-one with customers, after sales service etc. Its about gaining rapport and engaging in the customer or prospect such that you get a sale quickly.

Marketing is medium to long-term. It is about setting the foundation of the business – creating brand awareness and exposure for the business – ensuring prospective customers know who you are and what you do.

Marketing the basis of any successful business and a good franchisor will have programmes, systems and collateral to ensure that the franchisee can build the business from the bottom up.

A good franchisor will provide several levels of marketing support.

• Depending on the business (B2B, retail, food, ‘man in a van’) the support may cover some or all of these:
• Contact management system – critical to maintain and keep up to date
• Customer database
• Product literature
• Additional ‘hard’ collateral – detailing services and valued added proposition
• Centralised marketing programmes – generating appointments on behalf of franchisees