Interested prospects can kill you in the franchise sales business. That’s why the salesman always needs to maintain an active pipeline. It is normal for people thinking about buying a franchise go through several layers of interest. This chart shows the levels of progression:

4. Commitment
3. Active interest
2. Passive interest
1. Curiosity

This chart is inverted because it is a ladder that the prospect must climb. They start out as curious, and as long as the franchise salesman is willing to feed them information about this wonderful, lucrative, not-to-be-missed, world-class opportunity they will be willing to take up his time. It’s up to you to move them up the ladder—or move on yourself!

The danger is that unless you have enough prospects, if you are not aggressively generating new contacts, then their interest feels like validation and you will get stuck trying to work a prospect who is not really a buyer.

Move them from one level to another by asking questions. Do they understand how franchising works? Have they ever run their own business before? What interests them in this particular franchise? What do they want to achieve? Can they afford to develop and sustain themselves in a new business?

Franchising is not for everyone. You’re looking for entrepreneurs–self-motivated individuals who have the energy, commitment, and financial capability to make a success of the venture. When they stop climbing the ladder it’s time to stop wasting your time. Get back to work with new prospects. It is time—your time—that you’re selling. So sell it wisely and don’t give it away to people who are never going to buy.

How do you find these new prospects? Don’t wait for them to come to you. Put yourself out there! Advertise your franchise in newspapers and industry magazines. Use specialist websites which will pre-qualify leads for you to follow up. And make sure the leads are followed up. Nothing gets a prospect angrier than the feeling he’s being ignored. Leave him waiting for too long and he’s either changed his mind or gone to the competition. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince, but that’s the business of franchising.

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