Closing More Deals with Franchise Brokers

Brokers don’t sell franchises. Franchisors do. And, to build more deal flow from brokers, offering a commission is not enough. You need to build trust.

• Trust that your brand is the right fit for their candidate.
• Trust that you have a professional and experienced franchise development team.
• Trust that your brand is different and offers operating advantages.
• Trust that you have the long-term vision and team to help your franchisees succeed.
• Trust that you can professionally close deals.

Good franchise brokers invest significant capital, time, and efforts in attracting and qualifying franchisee candidates. They spend time educating, informing, and working with franchisee candidates and, as a franchisor, your goals must align. To create broker alignment and increase broker deal flow, we recommend these 4 steps:

STEP 1: Evaluate Your Commissions – Evaluate your broker commission structures to make sure that they are par with the commissions offered by your competition. Commissions alone won’t build your broker deal flow, but are a  necessary check the box requirement that must be covered.

STEP 2: Give Lift Your Brand Story and Brand Differentiators – Brokers need to see the value in your brand. You need to develop and tell a unique, compelling, and genuine brand story that brokers can share and explore with their candidates. It’s not just about your industry, the products you sell, or the services that you provide but, also, your culture and vision. It’s about what your brand looks like today, your vision for the future, and what franchisee success looks like.

Be prepared to answer questions like:

• Why is your brand the best franchise opportunity right now?
• Why is your franchise discovery, qualification, validation, and closing process better than your competition?
• What technology and system advantages do your franchisees benefit from?
• How do you help franchisees succeed?
• What does your Item 19 and franchisee validation say about your brand?
• Why you / Why now?

STEP 3: Build a Research Hub – Transparency is key. You know the questions that brokers and their candidates will have, so why not answer them before they are even asked? Better yet, why not build out on your website, broker one-sheet, and media a research hub that provides answers to the questions that you know will come up. Even the negative ones that you should be getting out in front of and answering with honesty.

STEP 4: Engage Brokers – Joining broker organizations and attending networking events is necessary, but never enough. Build better broker engagement that goes beyond conferences. Consider things like on-site broker discovery days, broker specific franchise sales websites, website based research hubs that provide brokers with all the information and tools they will need in presenting your brand, media (video) that advances and tells your brand story, values, and long-term franchisee success mission.

As humans, we are focused not only on who and what we are today but, also, the transformation and growth that we are building toward in the future. Let brokers know what life will be like for your franchisees in the future.