But do you know how to harness the most powerful recruitment tool available to you?
Good news and success stories are incredibly useful for franchise recruitment and also to maintain a buoyant consumer market. It’s as close to stating the obvious as we’ll get but being able to take a step back and identify the positives in your network is something that a lot of franchisors tell us that they struggle with.
It’s a simple concept that’s not always easy to execute. In order to progress smoothly and with any real pace or purpose, prospects need to see and hear relevant positive stories at every stage of the recruitment process. Here are a few easy tips to help you to do just that:
Give them a reason to compliment you: believe it or not, a happy by-product of social media is that people are more inclined to offer praise and compliments when they have a great experience. So give them one! Ensure your social media forms part of your PR campaigns, interact with prospects and customers without trying to sell to them. You’ll be amazed what comes out.
Blow your own trumpet: franchisee smashed their sales target? Products won awards? Helped a family achieve their ‘mortgage free’ dream? Shout about it. Press releases and case studies should be used to promote these positive stories at every stage of the process. Being able to identify with an existing franchisee and see themselves emulating that success is one of the most powerful tools of persuasion for converting a prospect.
Make it about them, not you: people will buy because of what your brand can do for them. Not you. It’s great if you’ve had multiple sign ups or beaten your own targets but that shouldn’t be the main focus for your PR. Instead focus on how those that have already bought your franchise have benefitted and how those who haven’t yet, stand to.
Happy customers = happy franchisees: What makes a happy customer? Great products and great service. Your franchisees will undoubtedly be providing both so you need to help them really get ahead by pushing that message out to the rest of the world. Linking consumer PR to franchise recruitment is a trick some franchisors are still missing. Boosting brand awareness amongst target consumers will ultimately lead to more sales for franchisees. And have you met a franchisee with a profitable, growing business who is likely to give negative feedback to anyone at due diligence stage? Didn’t think so.
So what am I saying today? Using PR effectively is about more than just understanding what you need to say; you have to know when to say it too. So, remember to look for those positive stories. And once you have them, feed them into focused PR campaigns that hit prospects in the right place at the right time.
To make the most of the successes happening within your network (or to get help finding them!) contact us for more information at spark@revpr.co.uk