Since franchise brokers assist both buyers and sellers in the process of purchasing an established business, you can probably already tell that people skills, business experience and sales acumen will give you a huge leg up when you want to become a franchise broker.
Franchise brokers can represent the buyer or seller, but typically they represent the interests of the seller. A franchise broker would ideally provide an accurate, yet attractive, appraisal of the business so that the business could be sold quickly and efficiently.
As a franchise broker, you’ll be expected to advertise the business — maybe even anonymously advertise it to protect the seller’s business itself and avoid any panic from customers or shareholders over an impending sale — and vet the buyers through an intensive yet personal interview process.
Business IQ Plus Emotional EQ: The Ideal Franchise Broker
Do you know what your EQ is? Do you know what EQ, as a concept, is and how it can help springboard your rise as a franchise broker? Well, EQ stands for emotional intelligence, and emotional intelligence is actually the ability to identify, understand and respond to your own and others’ emotions.
One huge component of emotional intelligence is the ability to read and respond to social cues in the environment (social awareness) and efficiently manage social interactions (relationship management). As it happens, these skills are as important for moving forward in the business world as they are for carving your own path as a franchise broker.
Social Awareness and Relationship Management
When you become a franchise broker, you’ll be expected to wear many different hats. One of those hats involves smoothly conducting interviews with prospective buyers, facilitating a fruitful discussion between those buyers and your seller … and perhaps maintaining discretion, anonymity and a positive attitude the whole time.
So, do you think that these skills have anything to do with the concepts we talked about above? Absolutely! Social awareness and relationship management — two key ingredients behind being incredibly socially savvy — help both the buyer and the seller in the franchise brokerage process.
Assuming that you’re primarily working on behalf of the franchise seller, you’ll need to discover that particular franchise owner’s preferences and expectations for the sale before the sale. The best way to find out that information is through applying your emotional intelligence as well as sales skills that you’ve probably accrued over the years.
How Sales Skills Can Supercharge a Franchise Brokerage
We mentioned a positive attitude earlier and, as it happens, that’s maybe the most important skill to bring to bear in sales.
Let’s face it: It’s impossible to execute every sale perfectly, or to pull off every sale period. For that reason, a positive attitude is essential to getting over inevitable rejection and turning win-lose situations into win-wins for buyers and sellers.
Being upbeat is also pretty infectious and can actually lead to better results as a franchise broker. We already know that positive workplace cultures are more productive since they bring open-mindedness and an enthusiastic approach to each new challenge. That same positivity really pays off as a franchise broker for a few reasons.
One reason is that positivity affects your ability to actually believe that you can make the sale, which directly impacts the amount of research that you’re willing to engage in beforehand, as well as the patience and perseverance that you bring to the negotiating process during the franchise sale itself.
So, while a sales background isn’t essential to thriving as a business broker, applying emotional intelligence and must-have sales skills (active listening, positivity and patience throughout the negotiating process) will go a long way toward defining your own personal limits.
Thank you have what it takes to become a franchise broker? Then visit our website today to fill out our franchising form to get started!