The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales & Development

The biggest challenge for new franchisors is Franchise Sales and Development. Most franchise systems don’t know how to sell franchises. The result? They get very little traction in growing their system.

The average franchise brand gets stuck at 10 units or less because they haven’t implemented the proper franchise sales and development systems required to grow past this point. At Franchise GrowthLab, we refer to this as the 10/25/50 Trap.

And few entrepreneurs launch franchise systems with the goal of having less than 10 locations.

Franchise Sales and Development is no easy task due to the many hurdles prospects must jump over in order to become a franchisee. Think of it from the perspective of the potential franchise buyer. You, as franchisor, are asking for a lot:

Please give us all you have ever made and saved, then on top of that, go into debt to pay for it;
Now sign a 243-page legal document that a) you won’t understand and b) details how, if you make a misstep, you can lose everything you have invested;
Commit to a term that in many cases, is longer than the duration of the average marriage;
And do all of this with little understanding or clarity on just how much money it is possible for you to make.

When I spell it out like that, it actually sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it? Why would anyone want to buy a franchise?

And these are only the hurdles you must convince your candidate to surmount. You, as the franchisor, also have some major obstacles of your own ahead:

Competition from over 4,000 other franchise systems, many with a far more compelling business opportunity than yours and way more money to spend on lead generation
Validation (aka where the ‘bodies are buried’ in the case of many franchise systems)
Financing challenges
Low performers and disgruntled partners

To succeed in franchising, Franchise Sales is the # 1 system you need to master. It’s as simple as that. You can build all of the fancy systems you want, but if you don’t figure out how to sell, then those systems won’t mean much.

No sales, no franchise fees. No franchise fees, no royalties, money or momentum. When your franchises are selling well, you will sell more franchises.

The Franchise Start Up Manual

TAKE THE FIRST STEP TO BUILDING YOUR FRANCHISE EMPIRE

Dear (soon to be) Franchisor,

Welcome to the most important decision you could ever make about the future of your business! Whether you’re considering expanding your successful business or have already taken the leap, you’re embarking on a journey of learning. This guide was written to provide you with a detailed starting point to guide you in your decision and help kickstart your learning.

This is not boilerplate, generic information written by some consultant who has never built their own franchise system before – let’s get that straight, right away.

Once you have read through our manual, BOOK A CALL with us! We love franchising and we are here to help you” – John DeHart, Chief Strategist and Founder

The solution to this challenge? The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales

Our team has spent decades selling 100’s of franchises in multiple countries. We have distilled that collective experience to build the Hartify Method for Franchise Sales.

Want to sell more franchise locations? Here is a snapshot of how we will coach you to do it:

The Franchisor Business Model

How do you maximize profit for both the franchisor and franchisee? This is a fine line that we have honed for years to define the key components of the business model such as royalties, franchise fees, tech and marketing fees, territory sizes, etc. This makes a world of a difference between running a highly-profitable, expanding operation, or one that just gets by.

THE FIRST DISCIPLINE: Find a Friend in Every City

You need the right leads at the right price from the right prospect, and you can’t break the bank to do it because you don’t have a bank. The first step in the Hartify Method for Franchise Sales is lead generation.

The # 1 reason why emerging franchisors do not grow: We did the research, and we were surprised by the key reason why emerging franchisors weren’t growing. There are a lot of reasons why franchise brands under 10 units don’t expand:

The wrong model
The wrong focus
The lack of knowledge of franchising
The lack of knowledge how to sell franchises;
Their franchisees don’t make enough money
The franchisor is under capitalized

I could go on.

But the one thing we found that stood out loud and clear as the # 1 reason? Fear.

Not general fear, but ONE fear, above all else:

Fear of spending their finite budget for lead generation in the wrong places.

We developed Discipline # 1 of The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales to take away this fear so that emerging franchisors can get on with scaling their impact and not worry about wasting precious capital.

The Find a Friend in Every City Discipline includes:

Our Deep Dive Process to shine a light on the “gems” inside your brand. An effective lead generation program always begins with finding and focusing on key information that is going to differentiate you and sell to the right prospects. Our Deep Dive process uncovers the gems and valuable information from your company to craft our advertising strategy. This is why the ordinary ad firm can’t compete with us – they simply cannot achieve our level of understanding of the magic behind your brand and how to use it to recruit new franchise partners.
A full description of The Right Person to target. We then take this information and put it through our 5 -Step “Persona Building” program, where we identify the characteristics of your targeted franchise sales prospects. Why? Because if you don’t execute fully on this step of the lead generation process, you will waste a lot of money.
Now that we know WHO we are targeting to buy a franchise, it’s time to pick the Right Strategy. We will lay out possible lead generation strategies, and then select the right ones for you. (Hint: Our primary strategy will be digital marketing).
The Right Budget. At this size, almost everyone has similar budget restrictions (little money to spend). We will optimize your spend to deliver the highest output for the fewest dollars. We will also help you find the money to spend on lead generation. This will include the right plan as you grow for how to accelerate sales when you start to have a bit more capital to spend.
Write the Right Copy. At this stage, it’s ad copy time. We will work with our partner agencies to craft 3-4 ads that are geared for franchise sales. We know the copy, we know the messaging, we know what works to drive the highest quality leads at the lowest cost per lead. In other words, this step alone will save you a ton of money. As part of this process, we will also make website copy suggestions.
Our team will help execute your Franchise Lead Generation strategy. We Work in collaboration with our Digital Partner to manage your AdWords, Facebook and LinkedIn digital campaigns. This will include managing the ins and outs to ensure that we are optimizing:
- Monthly metrics scoreboard
- Monthly pipeline reviews
- Monthly strategy tweaks

THE SECOND DISCIPLINE: Authentic Automation

It’s amazing how many brands think they can sell a product for hundreds of thousands of dollars with just a couple of phone calls and emails, trying to close the deal as fast as they can. But franchise sales don’t work this way. Instead, they usually take months and months of conversations, learning, research and diligence. There are often a few bumps along the way (refer back to the introduction of this page for common examples).

The great franchise brands have built superb franchise sales and development systems to set them free and put them on the path to rapid growth.

We developed Discipline # 2 of The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales to pave the way for Emerging Franchisors to close more deals with the leads they generate, in the most efficient way possible. Plus, we never want you to have to rely on a franchise salesperson for your franchise sales knowledge again.

The Authentic Automation Discipline will hardwire a robust process so your prospects get the right information at the right time. We will:

Build a discovery process for each prospect that is built to convert a franchise buyer at every step;
Break up the timeline into bite-sized pieces so that your candidate is continuously learning at a pace that suits them and is constantly moving forward;
Develop a storytelling journey that works to “pull” your candidate through the process and over the hurdles they will inevitably face in the journey to buy a franchise;
Develop the right mix of content, materials, conversations and tools to deeply engage a franchise candidate in a rich learning and research process;
Script the process to overcome objections and the major sticking points within making a franchise sale;
Capture the essence of the Founder without having the Founder be the key driver of the sales process;
Automate every step of the way so you deliver the same franchise sales experience to candidate after candidate (because consistency works) and work through more leads at a faster rate.

The result will be a powerful franchise sales and development process that will enable you to achieve far higher conversion rates on your leads. This will allow you to spend less money on lead generation and salespeople.

Perhaps most of all, our coaching will allow you to be an expert in franchise sales conversions, and have a system within your organization that lives on past any one, individual salesperson.

THE THIRD DISCIPLINE: TELL A STELLAR STORY

If authentic automation was the science – now meet the art. Everybody hates being sold to, but everybody loves a good story.

In franchise sales, you are actually selling a story, not just a franchise – so start by uncovering your company’s stellar story. We go deep on your brand and founder narrative to isolate what makes your concept special. We then design a compelling story arc that provides the roadmap for the sales process – and captivates prospects. Understand that you are not just competing with brands within your vertical: you are competing with every franchise system out there.

We break this into two parts:

Your Brand Story

Let’s draw out the compelling storyline of your company’s existence to date.

The Stories Within Your Brand Story

There are so many stories “within” the story. We pinpoint, formulate and tell these stories to help you overcome objections, deal with challenges, show opportunities and inspire (we then use these throughout our authentic automation process.)

This is the creative part. We take our deep dive into the metrics of your business and all of the insights we have gleaned from our intense interview process to learn everything we can about your marketing, your operations, your technology and your franchise program. Then we fashion a story and determine positioning in your market space that will make you stand out.

What does this mean for our clients?

We drive more franchise sales at a lower cost

The right leads at the right price = maximize the efficacy of cost per lead
Higher lead to engaged lead conversions
Higher engaged lead to franchise sale numbers
Higher volume of leads at lower cost
Higher conversion rates

A scalable, plug & play franchise sales and development system

Minimizes disruptions in your franchise sales
Minimizes your overall franchise sales cost
Become less reliant on the knowledge set of an individual sales person (it’s the system, not the person!)

Bonus: World Class strategy on all parts of your business

Because we get to know your business so intimately, what inevitably comes from our process is a bit of strategy. It could be how you could reposition yourself in the market or how to unlock Franchisee Sales, but whatever we find, one thing you can be assured of is this: we love strategy, and we will be really good at helping you with yours.

Sounds good? Get on our franchise sales waitlist now.

Book a call with us. We have customers graduating every quarter, and we only take on 4 new Franchise Sales Coaching clients each quarter.

An Additional Special Service for a select few clients:

For a shortlisted few interested clients who fit our criteria, we offer our Back Pocket Chief Development Officer service, where we take over your entire Franchise Sales and development process and execute it from start to finish. Let us know if you are interested. We have a long waitlist but it’s worth it.

At Franchise GrowthLab, our clients are raving fans:

“Hartify have been an incredible team to work with as an emerging brand. We came to them with four franchise partners and a system that was not yet perfectly refined. Within months they assisted us in building out solutions to the gaps in our system and increasing our franchise lead flow. The team at Franchise GrowthLab genuinely care about their clients and you won’t find a Franchise Consulting group with more combined experience.” — Chris Stoness, CEO – Elite Window Cleaning

“The team at Franchise GrowthLab are among some of the most forward-thinking and dedicated franchising specialists that I’ve encountered. Their attention to modern technology to drive client success sets them apart. I highly recommend their partnership.” — Corey Nicholson, VP of Business Development – AXIS Integrated

JOIN OUR WAITLIST NOW

We get a lot of questions on our first call. Here are the answers to some of them.

How much does the Hartify Franchise Sales and Development System cost?

We have one price for all of our Franchise Sales clients and we have priced it so that most franchise systems in Canada can afford it. We are a bit crazy that way. Our mission is to help, so we needed to make our years of expertise, experience, and our brain power affordable so anyone can hire us for this service. Call us at 778-836-0469 to find out more.

How long does Hartify Franchise Sales and Development System take?

The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales takes 6 months, start to finish. At the end you will have:
-A complete system in place, with content, materials and scripts;
– A fully implemented lead generation program and strategy;
– The necessary training to be your own expert in Franchise Sales;
-Peace of mind that you are doing the right things when it comes to spending money and selling franchises.

When can I start lead generation in the Hartify Method for Franchise Sales?

We give you the option to select one of two tracks. The one we recommend is to begin lead generation at month 3, which will allow you to first put in place the required tools to maximize conversions of your leads. However, some of our clients need lead generation asap, so, we can get you going in two months if required (and fill in the gaps in month 3).

What team do I need?

Our Hartify Franchise Consulting team can work with the Founder and/or your team to build and get launched. Once we start marketing, you will get 50,70,100+ leads per month, based on your allocated budget. This is a large volume of leads to handle. At that point, you need to hire a franchise development person, or we can introduce you to our franchise development team, and they might be able to help you bridge the gap.

Who works on my business?

We have an expert team (Travis Tinning and Hersh Kalles) dedicated to The Hartify Method for Franchise Sales. They are pros and this is all they do. They have worked with and sold 100’s of franchises, and have implemented the Hartify Method for Franchise Sales at least 50 times. They execute our system on a daily basis, acting as the Back Pocket Chief Development Officer for a few, select clients. At last count, we were working with over 800 new leads every single month. That is a lot of experience working with leads!

On top of that, you will meet the entire Hartify crew at various stages, because we all have our own areas of expertise. When we build your financial model and sales tool, you will meet Patrick Wyness, our financial model grand master. When you get toLead Conversion strategies, you will meet Hersh Kalles, who might be the best new lead converter out there. When it comes to building strategy and storytelling, you will get to experience our legendary founder, John DeHart (trust us, you want John thinking about your business).

P.S. As a team, we talk about your business every single week – week in, week out.

What happens at the end of the 6-month period?

It’s simple. Franchise launched; project complete. We are all free to go at this point. Of course, we are always happy to continue helping. In fact, so far all of our clients have kept working with us after the launch period. We will make it super easy for you to do that. Our clients start to sell franchises, and now are faced with the monumental task of on-boarding and supporting their franchisees. Good news! We have a program fro that, called the Hartify Method for Franchise Coaching and Support. Most of our clients graduate straight into this program,

Will John keynote our franchise conference?

Ha! Every single client asks us this. The answer is no, he can’t. He would be doing speeches around the clock if he said yes. But we will help you structure and run a kick-ass event

What if we start and don’t like you?

First, we put a lot of time into vetting you as a prospective client. We only want to work with groups we like. So right away, that’s a pretty good start. Second, so far, that has never happened. So, it’s working out pretty well to date! Third, if something did go astray, then we would probably both feel it. We do this work because we love it so if we don’t love working with you or vice versa, then no problem. Finito!