I’m sure we don’t need to tell you that successful business growth is about always staying ahead of the game and never resting on your laurels. That means constant reviewing of all your systems, products and services, and improving how your business performs on every level. Perfection is something that always needs to be strived for!

The Franchise Recruitment side of your business is no exceptional , but how you go about assessing how well your strategies and processes work will obviously be slightly different. So, what’s the best way to carry out a self-audit?

Here are the biggest questions we recommend you ask, depending on your current set-up:

For those with in-house recruitment

• Do you have sufficient staff on your in-house team not just for your current size, but for where you hope to grow to?
• Are you, or your staff, required to wear many different hats – recruiter, lead-qualifier, marketer, on-boarder, for example – and are they able to give all these roles the attention they need?
• What systems and tools do you make available to your team? Think CRMs, lead databases, advertising and marketing tools etc. Are they streamlined, efficient and delivering results, or could they be better?
• Are you making best use of advanced lead handling techniques such as emails, text messaging, AI & automation?
• Do you have a plan for handling enquiries more than 30 days old which have passed through your initial marketing? Are they still potential franchisees who could be further nurtured and recruited at a later date? If so, how do you do it?
• Are you attracting the right kind of leads, or do you need to adjust your message to reach a more suitable audience?
• What content are you putting in front of your leads? Is it regular, fresh content which is newsworthy and engaging? Does it highlight your franchise’s strengths and keep you top of mind?

For those who outsource recruitment

If you’re using an agency, consultancy, or even just an individual specialist, you may want to ask them the very same questions posed above, but here are some more specific to an outsourced recruitment strategy:

• What different roles and skills can they bring to your franchise recruitment, and are you making best use of them? Do they offer extra specialisms, such as content writing or design, which could help you?
• Are they advertising in the right places to get you the right kind of leads? Remember, it’s not always about getting more leads – it’s about getting the right ones.
• How do they quality control and pre-qualify leads before handing them over to you, if at all? How can you make sure their processes better align with your values and goals?
• Do they use your in-house software systems or their own? Which work better for you in terms of both integration and getting results?
• Do they participate in Discovery Days and/or leadership meetings with your leads? Can they contribute more to helping move your pipeline forward?
• Are you getting comprehensive weekly or monthly reports on your leads pipeline and how it is performing? What data are they gathering, and what extra insights could you get from it?

Perfecting your franchise recruitment strategy and recruiting more franchisees is a huge topic – one which we could talk on for days, and often do! – but we hope this will be helpful to you in understanding how to refine your practices in the future.

Of course, sometimes it can be helpful to bring in an independent 3rd party to help you identify possible sticking points or areas for improvement. There’s nothing like a new pair of eyes to bring some fresh perspective!

So, if you think some outside advice and guidance might be useful, we do also offer a free, initial audit of your franchise recruitment strategy – all under an NDA, and in total confidentiality, of course. We can take a look under the bonnet and offer some professional feedback, as well as some ways in which we, or one of our many partners and suppliers, could help. You will be under absolutely NO obligation to take things further after that, and the only cost to you is your time.

If that sounds interesting, click the button at the bottom of this email to schedule a call and we can talk about it in more detail.

In the meantime, good luck on your franchising journey!