I'm all for these emails.  Communication is two way.  Without a response the receiver is showing disrespect.  The sender here is clearly calling them out.  It may upset the receiver, though hopefully help them understand that other people's time is just as valuable as theirs.  hashtagmakeadecision  hashtagthisisbusinessnotkindergarten  hashtagrespectinareply  hashtagnocryinginbusiness

I get the point. He wants to clear his pipeline of a tyre kicker. It lacks a certain nurturing quality and takes no account of whether the other person has had some emergency. That said, did this Franchisor agree a clear, future next step? If not, you can't blame a prospect for doing something to you that you never said he could not do

Michael (Mike) Webster aha. In that case I take it back. He's using a good technique badly. The push away needs to be done nurturingly not with a sense of entitlement

Joe, I think this is  a great example of a  valid idea with horrible execution. Obviously this "VP of franchise sales" doesn't want to spend their time calling someone who is never going to respond. Let's face it, we would all rather get a no than an answering machine indefinitely. After my second or third attempt to contact people I often included in my voice mail that I understand that life sometimes gets busy  and they may want to put our process on hold, and I also encourage them to text message me if they are not wanting to follow up right away.Almost all the texts I get from prospects that I haven't already spoken to are "not interested", but it gets them out of my way and saves them the frustration of relentless followup. And this is why our job isn't easy, and not for everyone (or even most people). An almost identical idea expressed slightly differently can be the difference between a respectful offer and expression of empathy,  and a rude demand for attention. The very last thing you say in your comment is so key! You can't be in franchise development and be a keyboard warrior. Nobody owes you anything just because they clicked the link on your website! Good post and thanks for the invitation to comment!

An email or letter of this type is not a productive way to build your pipeline!  It is also a sure way to guarantee you will not get a referral from this person.  You never know what is going on in someone's life.  They may be very interested but a life incident got in the way of being responsive.  Don't burn bridges.  You never know, they may be a sale next year!

Very good graphic Joe--shows the uttter BS in some systems.

Valuable lessons: The way franchise sales are conducted tells prospects how the company respects their franchisees.

I couldn't agree more John, my thoughts exactly. If you do things right, you may not only gain 1 but potentially more franchisees by doing the right thing. As they say it's not what you know but who they know and this person may be the person may be the person doing the research for others in the same position and may just be busy during this period. (edited)

It's not clear to me that this individual has done anything to earn a response.  Certainly, this email does nothing to provoke interest or a response. Probably one of the very worst I've seen--and I've seen far too many.

When you're not willing to put in the effort to connect and build a relationship that lack of effort shows through clearly in a feeble attempt like this. End result is you never connect. That is a sorry attempt, hard to believe salespeople actually do that

Pete - how do you know that the sender of that email had not put forth a great deal of effort, prior to sending it?

Ron Silberstein CPA CFE easy answer. Because he hasn't put forth the effort to craft an effective email in the first place. Break down that email, first he says I've tried to reach you and want to send you more information- then send it so you drive his interest. 2nd he says I need to determine if you're a qualified candidate - why is it about the sender instead of trying to engage the candidate about why they inquired in the 1st place. 3rd is he applies an arbitrary deadline of tomorrow. I've had many candidates that were hard to reach because they were on vacation, a work trip, had a family emergency, etc . That ended up buying after a slow start. How does he know that his arbitrary, 1 day deadline fits for the candidate? Bottom line is that is a poorly executed attempt no matter how you look at it

At some point you have to conclude the conversation and move on.  It's always a difficult situation, but needs to be done.  We have issues in our industry where people will inquire about coverage changes and never respond after we provide the info.  Do they assume we placed the coverage for them?  I don't know.  The only way to be sure is to be sure, and to do that requires a note telling them that you are no longer working on their (insert opportunity) and closing your file.  Could it be worded more softly?  Sure, but the message needs to be firm and leave no confusion.  (edited)

How about, "Dear John, Thank you for expressing interest in being a franchisee with XYZ company. I have made a couple of attempts to follow with you but it would seem from your lack of response that this may be a bad time. I am open to meeting with you to discuss your goals for franchising at any time. Please feel free to contact me by phone or email should you decide you are ready to take the next step." In other words, the ball is in your court now. If I don't hear from you I will interpret that as lack of interest and move on. There is NEVER a need to be rude in written communication.

I've worked both in franchise lead generation marketing and franchise sales. Volume of leads by brand are determined by size of the franchise system sadly to include brand awareness and careful crafting of marketing:). It's all about ROI and the conversion rates of such leads. Who uses FranConnect in Canada 🇨🇦 ? I'm currently designing keep in touch workflows for a client to ensure we touch all leads /level of urgency with carefully crafted converting emails/messages to avoid this stuff! (edited)

Not the best tact.  There is a way to request the favor of communicating without threats.  That does nothing do develop rapport or make them comfortable.  

I think they need to hire a copywriter. I know of a very good one. We're on a same-name basis.

There is a sales technique taught by Sandler Sales Training that embraces the "destroy your file" threats. It wouldn't work for me.

Contact is someone who has accepted a connection and/or is engaging on social Lead is someone who is curious about your products or services Prospect has been qualified and is actively sharing their challenges and looking for a solution Opportunity is when we send a proposal Client - well - contract signed and check is in the mail!

Wow! I have received 2 emails like this within the past 2months. Not an appropriate way to contact professionals. I did however reach out letting them know I wasn't interested.

😂😂 this is.... wow....

Funny how you can look at this. I become very frustrated with "tyre kickers" who can waste a lot of your time and resources. Sometimes you need to call a spade a spade - not a short handled shovel (old saying). My guess is this about the 10th in a long line of emails trying to open the dialogue. Pity the other party did not have the common courtesy to just say "Thanks - but no thanks" much earlier.

I agree with your observation, however, a polite and cleverly written email could have conveyed a similar sentiment and left the door open to work together in the future.... and maybe even stirred a response update. The abruptness likely severs that potential. If I were a franchisee prospect, I would feel that franchisor is now crossed off my list. I don't excuse the lack of professional courtesy of a reply, however, one never knows what the other party is going through.

Hi Sarah,  I do agree with your comments. You do know however I am a big one on Business Etiquette (I think you may have printed a couple of articles along these lines for me). Anyway, irrespective of which side of the fence you are (franchisee , franchisor, consultant or otherwise in business in general), I agree it should not have to get to this. I recently had to get to the stage (after legal actions which we won) of forcing a former client with facing personal bankrupcy, purely because they were so arrogant and disrespectful in ever acknowledging any email, letters, phone calls, court orders etc. Normally I would have settled, but I took the attitude it was time to teach someone a lesson purely, because of a total lack of Business Etiquette.

There are 2 sides to the story, not saying that this is a good way to communicate but theoretically when we lock up a territory for a potential franchisee we need to close within a reasonable time period.   The better way would have been something like (making this up a I go along so no snarky comments please)  "We are reopening the territory,  if you would like to reconnect with us at any time, we would be happy to talk.  We wish you continued success in you endeavors.   With your permission we will keep in touch with you.  It was a pleasure meeting you........"

Joe, I have used an email like below with very good success. It allows the potential candidate to opt out by responding. This let's you continue to communicate with them. The other option closes the door on any future contacts and they don't have to do anything for that to happen. It was great meeting you at the Franchise Show! We have been trying to contact you. My name is Dave Gould Vice President of Franchise Development with xxxx and we assist xxxx with franchise development. Thank you for stopping by the xxxx booth at the Franchise Show. We hope you found it interesting and wanted to reach out to you directly as we mentioned at the show to provide a bit more information on the xxxx franchise opportunity. To date we have been unable to contact you. We don't want to be a pest, but we do want to provide you with all the information you need to make a qualified decision if this is a franchise model that can work for you. Please let us know if you do or don't want to learn more. xxxx is a very unique and low cost franchise with a total initial investment of between $xx,xx and $xx,xxx, which includes the Equipment , Franchise Fee, Working Capital and more. xxxx currently has xx+ operating xxxx franchise markets and we are excited about expanding the xxxx franchise in markets across the United States. I would like to invite you to learn more with a brief call to give you some of the who, what, where, why, when, how and how much's of the xxxx franchise. Please reply and let me know a good time and day I can reach out to you. I look forward to speaking with you in the next couple days. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the xxxx opportunity, I'd like to extend an invitation to visit our xxxx franchise opportunity page we've set up. On behalf of xxxx Franchising Group, David Gould Vice President of Development xxx-xxx-xxxx [email protected]

Frustration can get to any of us. I have found that if this email is the message I feel like sending to someone, it's time to take a walk, go for a bike ride, play with my dogs or go work out-essentially disengage, decompress, reset and re-engage.

I bet I know who wrote this message . . .

But when you have to pour through hundreds of cheap, bad leads every month, this is what your salespeople end up doing. It's quality over quantity when it comes to leads.

Hi Micah Carver, quality of leads is dependant on the quality of marketing, if you're getting hundreds of leads every month then the marketing is doing the job, you just need to tweak the advert and reassess the advertising medium the to help qualify the leads further to improve the quality. I've done this many times with our Franchisor clients in Australia, so hopefully my article and my below on reactive vs proactive marketing for franchise sales helps qualify the medium and maximise it, hope it helps. As you said good quality leads are essential a large quantum of bad leads just frustrates everyone. (edited)

It needs to be about building the relationship, always leave the door open. If it isn't the franchise they come back to it'll be the relationship you sell them on. People don't buy what you do, they buy what you believe (Simon Sinek). I never once sold a franchise in my years in the industry. I sold myself. (edited)

I like to call this sales prevention. Each and every process needs measurement within any company, no matter what. This includes sales and marketing. It can identify improvement areas like you point out and missed emails, calls, etc. You would be surprised by what we see in terms of missed sales opportunities because of unanswered inquiries of all kinds. Sales training should also be ongoing, especially in the social media world in which we all live! 

I have a question about this 10 step e-mail trail which people are talking about. At any stage has anyone talked to the person during these steps, or is it the situation that after the person has sent through an enquiry/ made a phone call, that the franchisee recruitment people haven't been able to contact them since then?

What screams from this message is possibly leaving the templates folder to the sales team only or mainly without much input or assistance from other departments, like Marketing to help wordsmith. Having the opportunity to craft messages that will enhance a candidates true desire and attempt to share information will alway go a long way. You really never know what's on the other side of the request. I sincerely believe most inquiries have a hope or dream and maybe not a pathway to truly being in a position to afford. When these templates were-written, many times 10+years ago when times were very different and words changed ever so slightly, that's what I see in a message like this. Back in the day, I think a lot of people were using emails or letters like this to invoke a response of "I am interested" and having some sort of back ended or handed way of getting engagement. I do agree, these do not work and probably cause the opposite response but again it shows possibly the lack of support within an organization to assist with well written templates to aid in calling, email campaigns and texts. There are many versions out there being used today by many. Unfortunate for sure, but true reality.

So many franchise sales people spend so much time chasing leads that will never ever buy a franchise; they just don't know any better. Nowadays it doesn't work to try to guilt someone into talking to you. ... poor franchise sales skills and lack of intense training to help improve those skills is why the folks at the IFA Foundation urged The Titus Center for Franchising to organize the Selling Franchises Bootcamp and offer 300 CFE credits. Whoever wrote the letter above would learn a great deal at this Bootcamp. Details at www.pba.edu/Franchisecamp.

I agree! When I was in this role I made sure our templates did not paint a picture of desperation, frustration or deliver any kind of negative message. Sometimes people are reaching out for more information without thinking it through. We need to present ourselves in a positive light showing the desire to add value and partner with potential candidates. Thank you for sharing.

Perhaps the old cliché, "don't burn your bridges too soon" applies here. The best "close your file" type emails I received are the ones that leave the door open for whatever may occur in the future. "...I'll check in with you again in three weeks, but feel free to reach out before that time..." for example. No response may not necessarily mean "NO". It could just be a matter of ill timing - they're not ready yet to do anything for whatever reason.

Wow. This is how you create real "dead" leads. The kind with low-to-no possibility of resurrection! Not only is such a strategy unprofessional, it also shows a lack of understanding of buyers behavior in general, not to mention specific reasons there may have been to cause a lack of response. Timing, circumstances or just being busy... And lesson learned for any who just have their CRM on auto without reviewing, revising & cases like this, removing the messaging. Such messaging tarnishes the sender and the franchisor.

Jack Wilson you are making great points here. Most people know (at some level) that a person is not sending them sales emails and that the messages are coming from automation in a CRM. Why would there be an expectation that leads or prospects are excited to reply to a computer program? 

The wording here is too harsh but Claudine Halpern's comment is closer to what I use. Nothing wrong in saying "I've not heard back". I wish them well and remain open to help in the future if the interest is there", etc. Also, I would hope more than just email is being used to communicate. Text has been very helpful with much higher response rates. Sometimes, I even send a text to say "Watch for an email from me and let me know when you get it".

Not my style of communique. I have learned that you have to build a relationship before a sale can take place. I have had prospects follow back up with me a year later and decided to get on board. Never burn a bridge in my opinion unless the individual has specifically asked you not to contact them anymore.

They need to learn how to nurture, nurture, nurture and use softening statements to get the prospect to agree with the premise they have not gotten back in touch with you. This upholds the dignity of the prospect and makes them want to connect.

The best franchise sales people sort leads. I quickly find out how fast someone is wanting to move and if they are qualified (skill set, finances, geography, etc..). Timing might not be right today but it could be 2 or 3 years from now. If you think your sales process can only be a fixed period of time you are mistaken.

Negative way to attempt to build what may have been a positive relationship. Never burn a bridge. Understanding that the time of BOTH individuals is valuable... this could have been such a kinder "exit" email. Hard to believe this person's title is VICE PRESIDENT. If your pipeline is substantial, when interest lessens, you just MOVE ON.

The "Last attempt" email does work, however.  There is a more pleasant way to craft such an email.  One that also opens up the opportunity to continually send out drip campaigns so as to never really lose touch.  

This actually looks like a template mass email that went out. I think he should've re-thought his message prior to sending. 🤦🏻‍♂️ hashtagDontPressSend

The first thing that comes to mind is that this sales person is in burnout mode and feeling sorry for themselves. Good gracious, how would that sender feel if they received that email? What if the candidate just had a family member in a car accident or was diagnosed with illness. We have no idea what is happening on the other side but it doesn't give anyone the license to make them feel guilty or on the spot. It's clearly not the right time if they haven't responded, so a positive exchange of.... I've missed connecting with you about XYZ franchise, I'll plan on reaching out occasionally to check in with you if you wouldn't mind. We look forward to exploring further when the time is right.

One of the issues that face this industry is the lack of well trained franchise sales people. Once major result of this is the data illustrating that 50% of our 3,800 franchisors 50 or fewer operating units. This is REALLY bad news for our beloved industry . Should we adopt a franchise sales certification program, that franchisors could adopt as a requirement when hiring a sales person?...before some wild-eyed politicians decide we need more regulation? Don't laugh.

Good question. I think the inevitable solution to this problem will be automation of tried-and-tested sales processes. Those who choose not to be human in their interactions will be replaced by AI powered interfaces. And those who dare to bring their full self to the table will be the human linchpins that continue to be irreplaceable.

Doesn't look to be a positive message. People lose site of what's important in sales. I have done sales for many years and I never looked at it like I'm selling people. I always just want to make friends and every time I make a friend, they buy.

Hi Joe, I wrote the following Article and published it on Friday after being inspired by this post. I thought you might find it helpful, it is literally a check list of what to do to choose the right advertising medium for gaining franchisee leads and optimizing the response. - https://www.business2community.com/marketing/proactive-vs-reactive-marketing-for-selling-a-franchise-02103382 I hope this helps everyone and that everyone find it helpful.

Wow! That's all I can say! I hope this wasn't real!

Hi Dr. John P. Hayes., This image below talks volumes about about sales people. To build trust a Franchise sales person needs to implement a series of sales steps which lets the potential franchisee know that it isn't a hard sale, but a trust building and vetting process, not a straight out sales process, this way you get the right franchisee and they are happy with what they purchase with full knowledge of the franchise business.

Very true and generally push people away rather than bring them closer. They also may lead to the loss of other potential franchisees if they see this type of e-mail.

OMG..Is that real?

These "close your file" emails are a waste of time & show desperation by the franchisor.

Michael will share sales and LinkedIn insights at the Selling Franchises Bootcamp Jan. 22-23 -- designed for those who need to sell franchises - or sell more franchises -- and avoid acts of desperation or tactics that taint the franchise community. Earn 300 CFE credits in sunny West Palm Beach. See www.pba.edu/Franchisecamp.

Good topic for either Capital Area Franchise Association or for the experts panel at Franchise-Info Sponsored

100% for ensuring there is absolutely no ambiguity on the message. However a softer worded email would have more cleverly left the door open to future possibilities. I have clients who reach out to me 6 months to 1 yr after initial discussions. Keep the door open, your lead has friends and family who may become clients. Every person is a door tom future opportunity. Peter, I will be happy to takeover your dead leads and even share the commission with you if I can close a deal with them.  

I've learned over the years franchise applicants come and go for a reason. I have had people I wrote off as tire kickers come back a year later and buy - others who disappear and resurface asking about advice on a different brand. It's understanding the reason. Buying a business is not about the actions the sales rep have done-it's what they haven't done, which is often the issue. 

Great share. It's critical to answer the WIIFM (What's In It For Me - from the perspective of the customer). If sales reps can't answer this along with "Why you, why now," they will continue to fail when they reach out to prospective clients. Provide solutions BEFORE you ask (in this case demand) for something back from the prospect. And treat people with respect. 

I hate to see an email like this, so many in our profession work so hard to put the best foot forward to help the candidate see if they're a match for the franchise, likewise is the franchise a match for them. All of us get frustrated when candidates don't immediately engage, however, this seem so oxymoronic to that effort.

Hi Mike, very true, it may be a matter of timing for people, they may not engage right now and are looking in the short term, but this e-mail may push them totally away from engaging at all.

If this is the 10th or so attempted contact since the initial inquiry, then I can understand where the sales guy is coming from. The person who made the initial inquiry is clearly not respecting the senders time at this point. I would have worded my email a bit differently, eliminating the hard deadline and keeping them in my pipeline for a tickle down the road. But I am certainly not putting my eggs in this basket either. Great dialogue here all in all.

Great idea, Joe!  Let's do it.  

Terrific debate going on here.  We will have to summarize these ideas.

Sounds like a very frustrated person!

Joe sure you got all the #?

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