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Key Takeaways Even the most well-planned franchise growth strategies underperform for a variety of reasons — lack of structure, leadership misalignment and the failure to maintain discipline during the execution stage.
Franchisors should shift toward a more intentional, system-driven model to achieve desired results. Because standardized systems are capable of providing us with world-class clarity.
Build scalable growth by prioritizing candidate quality, consistency and long-term brand health. Treat franchise recruitment with the same analytical rigor as you apply to other areas of your business model.
For many top franchise development executives, continually fine-tuning their approach to recruiting quality candidates is a process that keeps them up at night. Not only does this exercise seem to go on forever, but it can also be difficult to determine if and when you’ve hit your mark.
Using a metaphorical example of fine-tuning, imagine you’re a seasoned mechanic and auto enthusiast who needs to set the timing on a powerful V-8 engine. There is actually a well-defined process to fix this issue. It involves manually turning the crankshaft until the compression stroke aligns the first cylinder at the highest point of its travel.
This is done to ensure proper ignition timing — commonly referred to as top dead center (TDC). Once the timing mark lines up perfectly with the TDC mark on the harmonic balancer, you know you’ve got it right. Listening to the now perfectly idling engine hum is empirical evidence of a job well done — that’s the kind of closure you’re looking for.
But if your franchise recruitment strategy isn’t going according to plan, despite your best-laid intentions, there is no closure. In the desperate struggle to meet your KPIs, there is only tooling and more re-tooling as you hope to get it right.
Does this scenario sound familiar to you? It should. Does it lead to mounting frustration? You had better believe it. Diagnosing the root problem of why your growth strategy is underperforming can often be a hapless exercise in futility. There are just so many variables to consider (and fine-tune) that franchise development teams can’t help but feel overwhelmed when attempting to get it right.
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