The best phone system for franchisors and network development teams
Recruiting a franchisee takes dozens of calls: automate everything except the conversation.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Enquiries piling up to be qualified by phone
Candidates still employed, reachable in the evening
Network support calls that never quite happen
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
What a franchise candidate says, and what you answer
A franchise candidate is not buying a product, they are changing their life. What they put to you on the phone is almost always about security, about money, or about how you compare with other brands. Answering by selling harder is the surest way to lose the serious candidates, who are also the most careful ones.
I cannot leave my job right now
That is rarely a refusal, it is an order of events. Say what can be done without resigning: a first conversation, a visit to a store, a study of the territory, an agreement in principle from a bank. Agreeing with the candidate what they need to have validated before they hand in their notice turns the objection into a timetable.
How much capital do I actually need?
The candidate wants a number and will get one eventually, from you or from someone else. Give the unencumbered capital the network asks for and explain where it comes from, which is what a bank wants to see before it lends the rest. A candidate who finds out the real figure three meetings later walks away, and the time is lost on both sides.
Why pay an initial fee and ongoing fees?
Answer with what the network supplies and what can be checked: the brand, the initial training, the buying terms, the systems, the support at opening, territorial exclusivity if the agreement grants one. No promise of results belongs here, and there is no statutory earnings disclosure in this country to fall back on, so any figure you give has to be one you can evidence.
I am looking at two other brands as well
Do not run the others down, help with the comparison instead. There is no statutory pre-contract disclosure document in the UK: what a candidate actually gets is the franchise agreement, whatever the network chooses to disclose, and, where the franchisor belongs to the British Franchise Association, the code of ethics membership requires. So point them at what does exist: ask how many franchisees have left the network in the last two years and why, and encourage them to call franchisees who are trading, including ones you have not named, and ones who have left. It costs less than a candidate who signs without being convinced.
On the network side: another call from head office
Support runs into the opposite objection, from the established franchisee who sees the call as a check-up. A fixed slot, an agenda sent beforehand and a written note afterwards change what the conversation is. The tools are the same as for recruitment, the conversations are not.
Recruiting candidates and supporting the network compete for the same hours. Separating them across the week, rather than running them back to back in one calling session, stops you treating a candidate like a franchisee and the other way round.
The script
The first call to a candidate, and the network support call
The candidate filled in a form or left their details at an exhibition. Most of the time they are still employed, reachable at lunchtime or in the evening, and talking to you without wanting their colleagues to hear. This first call is there to sort, not to convince.
The opener
“[First name], [name] here, I develop the [brand] network. You sent us an enquiry on [date]. Can you talk now, or shall I call you this evening?”
A candidate in a job does not talk about franchising from their desk. Asking straight away avoids a call cut short and a candidate who is uncomfortable.
Qualification, in order
“Three questions and I will let you go. How much capital do you have available today, which area do you see yourself in, and from when are you free given your notice period?”
Capital and territory rule people out fastest. Asking them first is not blunt, it is what saves three meetings that lead nowhere, on both sides.
If they will not give you a capital figure
“I am not asking about your finances, I am asking what a bank is going to look at. If the number is not there, I would rather tell you today than have you come to a discovery day.”
If they say they cannot leave their job right now
“That is normal, nobody resigns before they have seen anything. What we can do without you handing in your notice: a meeting, a visit to a store, a study of your area, an agreement in principle from a bank. We agree together what you need signed off before you move.”
The job objection is an order of events, not a refusal. Dealing with it amounts to writing a timetable with the candidate.
If they are looking at two other brands
“Look at them. And ask all three of us the same question: how many franchisees left the network in the last two years, and why. There is no legal disclosure document here, so what you learn is what you ask for. Then call franchisees who are trading, including the ones I have not given you.”
Pointing a candidate at the questions to ask carries further than commenting on other networks, and it is the honest answer where nothing is disclosed by law.
The support call to an established franchisee
“[First name], this is our [month] call. I have three subjects, I sent them over yesterday, and I will write it up for you afterwards. Which one do we start with?”
Fixed slot, agenda sent beforehand, written note afterwards: that is what separates support from a check-up in the franchisee's mind.
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Calling a candidate who is still employed during their working day, without warning.
Do this instead
Offer a booked phone appointment, lunchtime or evening, Saturday morning for people on shifts. A candidate answering in front of their colleagues will tell you nothing you can use.
The mistake
Running twenty minutes of brand presentation on the first call.
Do this instead
Keep the presentation for the meeting. The first call is there to ask the four sorting questions and to let the candidate ask theirs, which is enough to know whether there is a next step.
The mistake
Only calling an established franchisee when their numbers drop.
Do this instead
Hold a regular support slot with the whole network. When the only call from head office arrives after a bad season, the call becomes a warning sign and the franchisee closes up before they even answer.
Frequently asked questions, Franchising & network development
Other industries that prospect by phone
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Every pound of budget has to produce as many conversations as possible.
Construction
Your contracts managers spend more time on site than on the phone: Skipcall packs their chasing into a single 30 minute session.
Home improvement & renovation
A home improvement enquiry is won in the first five minutes: Skipcall calls, qualifies and books the survey before your competitors do.
See what it does on your own lists
A demo runs on your own contacts, not on a sample data set.
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