Part 1 of The Commercial View, a new series looking at franchise growth, marketing and recruitment from the conversations I have with franchisors every day.
“We need more franchisees.” I hear this ALL the time.
And of course you do. You are a franchise brand. You want to grow your network, fill more territories and recruit more franchisees.
But “we need more franchisees” is the end goal.
It is not the marketing strategy.
I spend a huge amount of my time speaking to franchisors about growth and, quite often, the conversation immediately turns to leads.
“How many leads will we get?”
“How quickly will we see enquiries?”
“What response can we expect?”
They are completely valid questions. I am a Commercial Director, so I absolutely understand that marketing needs to deliver a commercial return.
But there is another question I think needs answering first:
Why should somebody choose your franchise?
And more importantly, if they have never heard of you before, what are you doing to give them the confidence to find out more?
Franchise recruitment starts before the lead
Becoming a franchisee can be a huge financial and personal decision.
If you were considering investing £20,000, £50,000, £100,000 or more into a business, would you see one advert and immediately fill in a form?
Probably not.
You would do your homework.
You would Google the brand. Look at its website. Research the people behind it. Read reviews. Find existing franchisees. Compare competitors. Look for news, awards, articles and independent information.
Increasingly, you might even ask an AI platform what it knows about the brand or which franchise opportunities it would recommend.
All of this can happen before you ever appear as a lead in somebody’s CRM.
That is why franchise recruitment marketing has to be about more than generating enquiries. It needs to build awareness, educate prospective franchisees, establish credibility and nurture interest until someone is ready to take that next step.
Do you actually have a lead generation problem?
Sometimes, absolutely.
But sometimes what looks like a franchise lead generation problem is actually a brand visibility problem.
Imagine somebody discovers your franchise today and searches for you.
What do they find?
If it is your website, your social media accounts and not much else, you are essentially asking them to take your word for how brilliant your opportunity is.
Now imagine they search for another franchise and find interviews with the founder, franchisee success stories, industry articles, awards, event appearances and independent coverage.
They have seen that brand before. They recognise the name.
Which opportunity immediately feels more established and credible?
That does not mean the second franchise is necessarily better.
But it does mean they have done more to build trust before asking someone to invest.
You cannot suddenly become visible when you need ten franchisees
This is where I think franchise brands can get caught in a cycle.
The pipeline gets quiet.
“We need more franchisees. Let us do some marketing.”
A campaign runs. Leads come in. Marketing stops.
Six months later, the pipeline needs filling again and everything starts from scratch.
But brand awareness does not work particularly well as an emergency response.If you have spent six months being invisible, you cannot expect prospective franchisees to immediately recognise and trust you because you have suddenly decided you need to grow.
Consistency matters.
The brands I see doing this well are visible even when they are not desperate for leads.
They are sharing expertise. Telling franchisee stories. Talking about growth. Entering awards. Appearing at events. Creating useful content and giving prospective franchisees reasons to remember them.
Then, when someone is finally ready to seriously consider investing in a franchise, they are not starting the relationship as a complete stranger.
Not every piece of marketing needs to generate a lead
This is another conversation I have regularly.
An article does not have the same job as a direct email.
An award does not have the same job as an advert.
An event does not have the same job as a landing page.
Some activity creates awareness. Some educates. Some builds credibility. Some nurtures. And some converts.
The strongest franchise marketing strategies make those things work together.
That is something we focus on heavily at Elite Franchise. When we work with brands, we are looking at the wider picture: editorial, thought leadership, digital visibility, email, events, franchisee stories and independent recognition through initiatives such as the EF100.
Not because every touchpoint will create an immediate lead, but because together they create something incredibly important.
Familiarity and trust.
So, do you need more franchise leads?
Maybe.
But before spending more money generating them, I would ask yourself:
Do enough of the right people know our franchise exists? What do they find when they research us? Are we clearly communicating what makes us different? Is there independent evidence to support what we are saying? Are we consistently visible? And are we talking to tomorrow franchisees as well as the people ready to enquire today?
Because franchise recruitment does not begin when somebody fills in an enquiry form.
It starts much earlier.
The brands that understand that stop asking only:
“How do we generate more franchise leads?”
And start asking:
“How do we become a franchise brand people want to know more about?”
You do not just need more franchisees.
You need more of the right people to know you, understand you and believe in your brand.
The lead comes later.
