Making sales or making excuses?
How to turn every lead into a hot prospect

By Mario Altiery
A craftsman never blames his tools. But when it comes to selling franchise units, increasingly both mature and start-up franchises are falsely blaming the “junk” quality of portal and web-based leads for their poor numbers. Undeniably, every now and then there are what coincidentally turn out to be exceptionally strong leads that end up converting to a sale faster and with less effort. But this is not to say that every lead, regardless of where it came from, does not have the same chance of turning into a profitable hit. Ask any successful sales person and they will tell you that if they only pursued leads from one or two sources, they’d be out on the streets in less time than it takes to say, “Brother can you spare a dime?”

Is the quality of sales leads dropping, or are we getting fewer results because of our lack of diligence and follow-up? Are sales people only reaching for the low-hanging fruit? In today’s busy society—and with so much noise from portals in the franchising industry—it is more important than ever to reach out to prospective buyers personally and repeatedly. Remember when you had one phone in the kitchen and it was a big deal if it rang? Technology has changed that, making prospects more immune to phone calls and emails, and requiring sales people to step up and own the process. Saying “if they were interested they would call me” is archaic thinking and a poor excuse for follow-up. Lack of response does not mean the prospect is not a qualified lead, only that they are busy or very possibly responding to other solicitations and the responsibility needs to go back to the sales person.

The franchise industry perception is that the leads have not gotten weaker, but the reality is that the sales process has. We have convinced ourselves that the leads are not as good, so we do not follow-up as aggressively, and when the prospect does not step up screaming “I want to buy!” we blame it on the lead. The perfect self-fulfilling prophecy.

Are the reasons for your sales team not producing based on perception or reality? The reality is that we have seen no change in the quality of leads and we continue to see healthy growth in all different segments of franchising at all different investment levels. The change we are seeing is that we have become fat cat franchisers who want something for nothing and are making excuses for our own flawed sales process. The sales process has to be varied from time to time, but core competencies never change: we respond early and often with an exact agenda that follows a concise system. Here are the top 10 steps that need to be worked through with every sales lead, regardless of its origin. As you read through them, honestly evaluate your own performance or that of your sales team and ask yourself if they are on their way to making more sales—or more excuses.

Master list—develop a master list of leads to call. Each prospect record should include phone numbers for the appropriate time of day, email addresses, and a space to make personal notes about the conversation. Using this list, schedule a time to make your calls and to do prospecting.

Speed to lead—franchise prospects receive an abundance of information very quickly. If you do not get to them early in the process, you will be forgotten. Respond to prospects by calling within hours—no matter what.

Move in, or move out—there’s no such thing as a “pending lead.” A prospect is either moving forward in the process or moving out. If it is bad timing for the buyer, due to lifestyle issues such as needing to wait until kids are out of college, or a pending retirement, keep them on the list for making monthly contact.

Diligence or die—if you have three numbers for a prospect, call all three. That means if you have 20 prospects, you have 60 calls to make. Period.

Timely calling, follow-up—if you call every day at 9 a.m. and never get an answer, try a different time. Leaving messages is okay, but do not count on the prospect to return your call. Follow-up should be customized phone conversations, other emails and phone messages so that each prospect is worked according to a system. Referring back to previous communications and being accurate shows that you are a critical thinker and value relationship building.

It’s a numbers game—if you don’t have a legitimate reason for calling a prospect again and again, make one. Also consider different forms of promotion that will garner varying results, including a comprehensive ad campaign that includes a mix of public relations, web site SEO, referrals, tradeshows, and print ads in national publications. Call and email at least five times before a prospect is put on a “dead sheet.”  Refer back to your master list to find gems of information that give you a reason to be back in the client’s face: did they mention it was going to be their birthday? Did they talk about a retirement date? Did they just return from vacation? If you do not have good follow-up seek out a screening company to ensure all leads are called aggressively and properly worked.

Reap what you sow—if you expect a prospect to be a “tire kicker,” then they will be. Lose any preconceived notions about who is on the other end of the phone or computer. Remind yourself that if someone was interested enough to inquire into a franchise, then it is worth it to call them back.

Be a robot—free forming does not work. Like a Broadway actor, use the same script every time, but always deliver it like it is the first time.

Squeeze it dry—a prospect in the lead pile will move forward if you wring out every opportunity listed above as you set the stage for the steps of the sale. It is a matter of being a better sales person, believing that calling leads is part of your job, having a set program and system for working leads, knowing what you are trying to accomplish and finding out the two most critical pieces of information while you are getting to know them: do they have the money and is the timing right?

Know your industry—there seem to be more and more unqualified sales people in franchising. In addition to having previous sales experience, make sure you and your sales team know about the intricacies of franchising industry.  Full effort needs to be put toward properly trained and skilled sales people long before blaming the leads.

Mario Altiery is President and CEO of Upside Group, an award-winning franchise marketing consulting group.