The initial first call is like your first date; you’re prequalifying your prospect. It’s recommended to have a “scripted”, but natural flowing, call with the prospect and perhaps their consultant or broker. We recommend conducting these calls as a video call so it’s more personable and each party can get a better “feel” for each other. The purpose of this call is to gain and share basic information with them which will help determine if they are suitable for your concept. If they had an application or form completed before your call, now is the time to go over it with them and probe or delicately poke at any “red flag” answers but now is NOT the time to dig deeper (keep to your schedule or script and don’t just sell to sell).
After the call you should provide your prospect with branded marketing materials for their review. As long as you have a good feeling about the prospect you should also share your FDD with them. However, if you are NOT “feeling” them, drop them (the right way) so neither of your time is lost on trying to “make the shoe fit”.
- If your brand has other applications or forms (like a candidate profile form) you’d like completed, now is a good time to send them along as well – making the completion a “test” of sorts to see how well the prospect completes them.
- If you pass along your FDD, make a date and explain the FDD Receipt and make it a piece of “homework” to have collected or completed before your next scheduled call.
- Depending on how well your call went, if the discussion of territory came about, a good homework assignment could be for them to start scoping out where they might find a good location that they could see themselves in. They could drive around on their lunch breaks or weekends to see the different patterns of business/clientele. Getting these creative juices flowing will help down the sales process road to keep their onboarding at a good pace. You could recommend that they reach out to a real estate agent for some research to be done or tours to be scheduled. Keep in mind this is only a suggestion and should only be recommended if there is definite compatibility and interest in one another.
- Territory Discussion: The discussion of a potential franchisee’s location or territory could be discussed after the initial call, but should only be discussed in detail (with their location specifics) after they have been qualified and are applicable for your offering. It’s recommended that the topic of a franchisee’s personal territory is discussed before or during the Discovery Day so it does not wait too long and risk slowing down the sales process.