Sales skills are in high demand everywhere. As part of a broker network, franchise brokers work directly with franchisors to find the ideal franchise opportunity for potential franchise investors.
To get there, a franchise broker is given a portfolio of acceptable franchises from which to choose. The aim: Seek out eager investors who might be interested in franchise ownership opportunities and have the right professional and personal bona fides to make it happen.
As you’ve no doubt discerned, the more sales acumen franchise brokers bring to the table, the better able they are to connect investors with franchise environments in which they can thrive. It’s as much a science as an art.
The Art and Science of Turning Your Sales Skills into Opportunity
Personal ambition, resilience under trying circumstances, confidence, and an outgoing attitude are some of the most important personal characteristics that an all-star sales representative can possess.
These are the traits that can turn a sales lead into an opportunity when you become a franchise broker. You might already own a franchise and be looking for ways to grow and add to your professional franchising resume.
Familiarity Breeds Success
Fortunately, making the transition from owning a franchise to selling franchise ownership opportunities on behalf of franchisors is much easier than you’d think.
In fact, a familiarity with your franchising sub-industry could be a huge asset in conveying the merits of a particular franchise opportunity to the next generation of entrepreneurs eager to make a splash.
Franchise brokers, like sales representatives, should constantly be scanning the horizon for opportunities that are in everyone’s best interests.
This entails reading situations correctly, presenting franchise opportunities to investors in clear language, and reporting back to franchisors to ensure that you have a promising mix.
Screen Candidates for Key Qualities
If you’re a franchise owner looking to get into the franchise broker world, you likely already have a thorough understanding of (among other things) the financial factors that can make or break a franchise opportunity.
If you’re coming from a sales background or are familiar with online marketing, then you know about the concept of “buyer personas.” This refers to a semi-fictional representation of most likely investors and takes into account things like market research and demographic studies.
You want to be doing the same thing as a franchise broker: Create a buyer persona—an investor persona—for your ideal investor, including things like the personal and financial characteristics that would make a franchise candidate a shoo-in for a particular franchise opportunity.
Creating this kind of investor persona will structure your future efforts and even create new insights. Once you find an entrepreneur who meets your guidelines, you’ll want to run that candidate through a more extensive questionnaire or personal interview to check your initial instincts.
Putting Everyone on the Same Page
At some juncture, franchise brokers have to create an opportunity to connect entrepreneurs with franchisors.
As a franchise broker, you’ll be acting like a facilitator or matchmaker in this process by linking the most interested, qualified entrepreneurs with franchise opportunities that offer serious growth potential and personal fulfillment.
From perhaps 100 to 200 approved franchise opportunities, franchise brokers winnow down the field to one or two, present those to the entrepreneur, and set up a meeting that might change the entrepreneur’s life.
Contact us today to lean more about how you can become a franchise broker with Transworld Business Advisors.