Is it really possible to close a million dollar franchise deal with a $100 budget?? It’s not just possible, it happened. Alexander Hildenbrandt from Stonework Franchising just did it through a marketing test on Facebook. He sold a multi-unit territory for the brand Cinnaholic. I agree that it’s not very realistic that this will happen every time. However, it does prove that if you’re targeted with your marketing and have a well thought out process for your leads you can achieve great results.
So, how can you achieve results? That’s the big question, right? I’ll get into how Alex achieved his results but I first want to invite you to join us at this year’s conference in Orlando, FL Nov. 13th – 16th. We have set up a powerful mastermind session where we’ve assembled Alex and a host of others who are achieving great results using these techniques. Bring your questions! This will be an interactive session to give you the best foot forward in 2017. Even if you’re not a franchise consultant with FBA yet you’re still invited to come.

Generating Leads and Closing Franchise Deals in a Digital Market Place

To be regularly closing franchise deals you must master the art of generating leads. You have to be constantly talking to qualified people who are motivated to move forward with a franchise purchase. It’s the name of the game. It’s how people are looking for franchises that’s changing and you need to stay in front of it.
OK. So, how did Alex accomplish this amazing feat and how can you do something similar? First, you have to honestly answer this question…have you developed your niche? For Alexander, he’s made his niche his personal mission. Helping veterans is what Alexander does. It’s his core. You can read more about his path here. In his business, he spends a lot of his time creating content focused on serving his audience. This one avenue is the one where most people get confused and eventually fall off. It’s not easy to create content that doesn’t get lost with all the noise out there. You have to find your tilt. Or something that leans differently than everyone else.
Content Marketing master Joe Pulizzi says this about content tilt. “Tilt is to aim or thrust, or tilt a lance, as in joust. With the tilt, we look at the content niche in such a way that creates the opportunity for us to attack, and lead, and ultimately own the category.”
Alex does this by regularly delivering all kinds of meaningful content to his target audience that he knows they need to know. This originally started with his blog and through Linkedin, but has now developed into a franchise talk show. His goals are to provide his audience answers to the many questions they have when transitioning from life in the military. In his show, Alex interviews a highlighted franchisor to find out what is important to veterans. This makes Alex and his channels the go-to source for his niche. Also, it’s growing his name and giving him the necessary credibility to establish trust.

To know your franchise inventory, conduct your own research and be prepared

Now that Alex knows his audience he’s able to research and find concepts that fit them. The very nature of his content is research and qualification. Now he just needs to understand what types of candidates fits best for each of these concepts. What types of locations work best for this concept? Have you looked at the Ibis reports for the industry? How is it trending? Who are the leaders and competitors in the space? Have you been in touch with their franchise development reps to understand their process and what to expect ahead of time?
When speaking with Alex he tells me he’s always digging deep into each of the concepts. He’s gotten really good at knowing what to look for so that he can attract an ideal candidate. The amount of information about people’s interests and backgrounds on Social media is actually a bit scary. But to someone looking to advertise on the platform, it’s perfect. You now just need to create a sales process to attract and guide people through so that they are being educated and getting something out of it. You have to give something back and keep them engaged and moving through the process.
Alex created a sales funnel targeted in his local area. This automatically reduces his advertising spend and allows him to meet with his candidates in person. His funnel included ads that would take the candidate to a landing page with a concise CTA (Call to Action). It’s a process that he decided to test with $100 and ultimately led to his multi-unit deal.
The bottom line is that the best any of us can do is to understand who it is we’re looking for and craft a message and process that appeals to them and gives them what they’re looking for. You have to experiment and try something new in order to get a different result.
In whatever you do don’t be afraid. You never know where it could lead. Click here to learn more about Cinnaholic and how Alexander helped his client into a multi-unit deal with the brand.