‘Tis The Season (To Find a Franchisee)

Apologies for borrowing a Christmas season phrase, but I thought it would get you in the “seasonal spirit.”

In the past, we’ve written a couple different posts about the role of seasonality in franchise lead generation. If you want to check those articles out, you’ll find them here:

• January is Definitely “Open a Franchise” Month
• Is the franchising summer lull a real thing?

Part three of our series on seasonality brings us to the fall. For the purposes of this exploration, let’s consider the fall as the months of September, October, and November. (Or more relevantly, Labor Day through Thanksgiving.)

As you may recall from our entry on the summer lull, here’s how interest in franchising changed over the course of the past 12 months:

As you see, a trough in August leads itself to a major boost in interest in September followed by increased interest in both October and November. (This is of course before interest craters in December.)

But on top of the quite obvious reason that interest in franchising peaks in the fall, here are two other reasons that now’s the time to ramp up your franchisee search efforts.

• Establishing a successful strategy in the fall allows you to continue to reap benefits after the New Year – One of the refrains we hear over and over with regard to franchise recruitment is “wait until 2016.” It’s almost as if there is some sort of magic reset button that is pressed when the year changes that allows for strategic changes that were otherwise unavailable the previous months. But here’s what you’re missing…By waiting to ramp up your recruitment efforts until after the New Year shortens your runway before the summer lull kicks in. You only have 3-4 months of high interest instead of a September strategic change which allows for 7-8 months of non-summer sales.
• Leads generated during the fall have an excellent chance of closing before spring, while winter leads may compete against summer depending on the sales cycle – As you know, lead generation is only the tip of the iceberg of franchise sales. A “good lead” is only as valuable as its potential to turn into a franchisee. Although your franchise may be quicker, it’s possible that the franchise sales process can take 6-9 months to complete. By focusing on lead generation in the fall, you allow yourself the ability to close the sales while franchise interest is still high, during the winter. Leads generated during the winter may need to be closed during the summer, a much riskier proposition.

So what are you waiting for? Get your franchise development in gear today!

And if you’re interested in looking at how interest varies over the course of the day, week, or month, check out these posts here:

• Part I
• Part II