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Franchise sales consultants What do you do when franchise sales consultants are lagging? How do you respond? Do you blame the economy for your low sales? Do you blame your sales people? Do you look for excuses beyond your sales process? There is not necessarily a one-word answer to these questions; however, I would like to walk through some suggestions and strategies to help out. 1. Lead Flow - The obvious and most important to ask when sales are low is, "What does my lead flow look like." If lead flow is down let's evaluate why. Is your current marketing avenues working? What portals are you on? Should you exhibit at trade shows? 2. Lead Qualification - This is an important avenue for your sales process. What are you doing to qualify your prospective franchisees? Are you sticking to your requirements and not lowering your standards? Have you been monitoring what your franchise sales people have been saying? It is important in the sales process to stick to your program; otherwise, you end up having discovery days and prospective franchise sales meetings with people that just waste your time. 3. Franchise Sales People - The next step is to evaluate the people you have in place running your sales department. If you are young franchise sales consultants, the best sales person is the founder of the company. No one can sell with the same passion and charisma that the creator has. If you have sales people in place re-evaluate if they are the right people. What are their closing percentages? If they are not performing, let them go and find someone else. 4. Franchise Brokers - Often times the idea of franchise sales brokers comes up when working with my clients as to whether or not they should use this as a resource. As a core value, my recommendation is to not use franchise sales brokers as they tend to take a large chunk of your franchise fee, which you need, and they have conflicting interests. 5. Review and Monitor Sales Pitches - One of the best ways to assist your sales team is to review and monitor their sales calls. Be sure to comply with any legal requirements prior to listening in to their calls or making recordings as there are many states that have specific rules. As we have discussed the franchise sales process is full of detail, hard work, and persistence. It is a rewarding and exhilarating experience that is full of high emotion for both you and your prospective franchisees. Remember that the key to franchise sales consultants is being able to say "No" to someone that doesn't fit in with your organization. If someone is a problem early in the sales process, they probably will be a problem as a franchisee.