March 2014 Archives

Crisis, Mistakes & Sharing 

This was one of those weeks in which we should just award a tie to all three stories, they were that close in readership.  

It was a week that people were reading about strategy: why it is hard to avoid a crisis, what critical mistakes you make on your website, and how to develop a content strategy.

Top Story 

1,670+ LinkedIn Readers

Richard Solomon's The Art of Crisis Avoidance was a neat introduction to why smart executives continue to make dumb mistakes when a crisis looms.  Richard has a gruff persona, which hides his deep appreciation for the foibles of humans and institutions.  On our phone call, Richard revealed which executives usually see the crisis coming but are handcuffed into inaction.  

 2nd Story

1,630+ LinkedIn Readers

Michael Webster's Are You Making this Terrible Mistake on Your Website? was one of the quickest articles I have ever written.  I was jolted into action reading an article by one Drayton Bird's associates, Gerald Woodgate.  His article was a blow to the belly.  I couldn't believe that Joe and I had made this terrible mistake on the Franchise-Info website, and luckily you don't have to!

3rd Story

1527+ LinkedIn Readers

Frances Leary's See How Easily You Can Share the Right Type of Content across the Social Media Platforms was a good reminder of how different the big 5 social platforms are.  Joe and I don't get out much, outside of LinkedIn, so Frances' article was a useful high level strategy.  Personally, I doubt that I will ever get Twitter -although Frances assures me that I am a Twit.

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Over the past three years it's become an annual event for the Capital Area Franchise Association - CAFA to have Stephen Caldeira, President of the International Franchise Association - IFA get the new year started with his franchising outlook.

Until this year when unfortunately Steve was unable to make for CAFA's January 2014 lunch & learn event. No worries however Steve made Scott Lehr Vice President U.S. & International Development at the IFA available to take his place. I have known Scott for as long as I have been in franchising and we were pleased to have him stand in for Steve. 

Well our unprecedented winter weather put the kibosh on CAFA's January meeting at the very last minute. We had to reschedule. And when we did I received an email that Steve could speak at our March event.

For those of you who haven't made it to a CAFA event attendees begin arriving around 11:30 AM or so to sign in, get their badges, talk with each other until the lunch service begins. Our featured speakers and panelists session begins at 1:00 PM, ends promptly at 2:00 PM and there's post meeting networking as well.

One of the real pleasures of being President of CAFA is every year I get to have Steve at my table for lunch every January and of course this year in March. Which is great and I look forward to it each year. 

Now something I learned about Steve 3 years ago was that when he speaks at a luncheon like CAFA as part of his game plan he forgoes lunch and pays all of his attention on his table mates. This year was no exception.

And one of the things he shared with me was how much he enjoys the CAFA meetings each year.

There's one additional benefit to sitting with Steve, the table gets an extra dessert to share.  Steve "donates" his dessert to the table.

Both Steve and I in our careers have worked for large QSR franchise systems and we compared notes on franchisee and franchisor relations and in particlular working with franchisees to resolve troubled situations.

Our experiences paralleled in that it was always more desirable to exhaust all efforts to work things out with franchise owners whenever possible.

Franchising and the IFA are fortunate to have a leader like Steve who has hands-on franchise experience and is so genuinely relatable and engaging.

In Steve's presentation it was reinforced how vital franchising is to the US economy and livelihoods of so many people.

1.  Growth in the Economy.

2. Franchises are creating more jobs.

3.  Sectors in which Franchising dominates as a business method.

For the full presentation from the IFA and Steve Caldeira, please sign up for the Capital Area Franchise Newsletter.

See you all next year!

The Art & Science of Choice = Practical Wisdom 

Top story was great bit of practical wisdom.  

How can sellers  defeat the buying objection - You cost Too Much!

Great mixture of theory, practice and art.

The second story also addressed a practical problem.

How to avoid the wrong franchise owner - one that interviews well but never takes your advice afterward.

Finally, another look at the procrastinating buyer - the one always shopping and never buying.

Top Story 

2,890+ LinkedIn Views 

Michael Webster's You Don't Have to Drop Your Price To People Who say "We Cannot Afford You"  provided a valuable technique for sellers who have to respond to the objection: Your price is Too High.

There were two great threads for this article in LinkedIn.  

The first thread in LinkedIn is here, and Fiona Middleton, MSM provided some interesting ideas.

The second thread in LinkedIn about this negotiation technique is here.  In this thread, Joe Gordillo does a great job explaining how you as a seller can meet the price objection using the his technique.  Buyers are said to be helpless.  Pay attention to Joe Gordillo's ideas - he really does know what he is talking about.

2nd Story (2nd Week)

2,725+ LinkedIn Views 

Fred Berni's  The Franchise Shell Game remains a great thread about franchise recruitment.

Fred does a great job of explaining why most franchisors end up with franchise owners who interview well, but then don't take any advice from the franchisor.

Very frustrating for the franchise sales department & real annoying for the operations department. 

But, this is what happens when you don't use science of choice and instead rely upon horscopes - also known as personality tests.

3rd Story

1740+ LinkedIn Views 

Joe Caruso's  How To Recruit Not Ready to Buy, Yet Franchise Prospects.

"The way franchise sellers address this today is by sending these not ready-to-buy leads emails which are pretty much different versions of the same tired message: Buy My Franchise, now."  

Some interesting ideas on how to treat the reluctant but qualified buyer on the LinkedIn thread.

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This Week In Review Endorsing, Leads and Hiring 

This week's top story has been a consistently interesting story. 

For me, it raises a unique problem.  Whom do you write for -humans or the bots?

The second story raises one my favourite ideas: Which Franchisor's methods of recruiting Franchise Owners also help Franchise Owners reduce turnover?

The third story revisited another theme: How do franchisors move beyond the web portals?  What alternatives are there for franchisors looking for leads?

Top Story (2nd Week)

3050+ LinkedIn Views 

Frances Leary's Whom Do You Endorse on Linkedin? Why?  continues to be very popular.  Frances raises an important question.  When we write and publish using social media, what is correct way to balance writing for human readers versus bots?

In LinkedIn, when we write up our profiles we hope that people read them.

But, as the controversial endorsement program reveals, we have to be mindful of the bots & feed them, too.  Some great threads about the endorsement debate, and also here.

2nd Story 

2925+ LinkedIn Views 

Fred Berni's  The Franchise Shell Game raises one of my favourite ideas.  If a franchisor uses a recruitment method to select his or her franchisors, can the same method be used by the franchise owner to recruit employees?

You would hope that franchisors would employ systems that scale this way.

Some terrific and different ideas discussed in The Franchisor's Group on this thread about recruiting franchise owners.

Another good thread on LinkedIn about recruiting franchise owners.

3rd Story

1160+ LinkedIn Views 

Dave Cypher's Get Rid of That Franchise Lead Generation Frustration Once and For All continues to beguile franchisors

How do franchisors deal with the new franchise prospect?

The one that is constantly travelling around the internet looking for information, yet never seeming to stop to buy?

Some interesting ideas about the not yet ready to buy franchise candidate.

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This Week In Review More Traps & Pitfalls in Social Media 

Again, this week's top story was about how treacherous Google can be for franchises.  Maybe be we should start listening?

And, the second story explained a controversial feature of LinkediIn.

The third story was a celebration of how to get all your great intelligent stories of franchising out there to people who could do business with you.

Top Story (2nd Week)

3750+ LinkedIn Views 

Trevor Sumner's How You Can "Partner" with Google  exposed the difficulty franchises have in getting a return on their adwords adverstising.  

Over the past couple of years, Google has made it harder and harder to quantify the value and successful tactics of SEO campaigns by hiding the keywords from organic searches in analytics.  

It is now harder to use SEO tactics to drive people to your franchise website because Google has hidden the organic keywords from the analytics.

For  more read this thread.

2nd Story 

2925+ LinkedIn Views 

Frances Leary's  Whom Do You Endorse on Linkedin? Why?  returned us to that great favorite question - why are we endorsing people on LinkedIn that we don't really know that well?

Do we blindly follow LinkedIn's suggestion?

Or is there some method to our collective madness?

3rd Story

1925+ LinkedIn Views 

Joe Caruso's 6 Easy Ways You Can Use LinkedIn Groups was one of the best articles on how to use LinkedIn groups I have read.

Of course, I am biased.  

But Joe and I have been igniting intelligent converstations about franchising for over a decade & the LinkedIn platform is the best we have used.  Because the are no anonymous guests - everyone has a professional reputation to guard and maintain.

So, read the entire thread here. 

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