Matt Alden, CFE, Matt Bogart, CFE, Kim Woods, CFE, and Tom Braley represented the Franchise.com team at this year’s 56th annual International Franchise Association (IFA) conference in San Antonio, TX – the largest franchising event of the year.
“It is always good to see old friends, make new ones and catch up on the latest trends in our industry,” says Franchise.com business developer, Matt Bogart. “This year’s conference did not disappoint. We did miss the Taste of Franchising but thoroughly enjoyed the replacement event and felt the IFA did a great job of providing an enthusiastic kick off to the conference,” Bogart added.
Here are a few topics featured at the conference from view the website
Matt Bogart:
A topic near to us and always covered in great detail was franchisee recruitment. While the holy grail of multiple unit candidates and how to find them dominated the sessions, most franchisors will build their systems one unit at time. Other conversations I found relevant to recruitment included:
- Building relationships and engaging with prospects at all conceivable levels
- Utilizing all methodologies to attract new candidates in a competitive environment
- Creating robust, unique, compelling and interactive websites to nurture candidates who mostly want to ‘learn on their own’ initially and gather as much information as they can before speaking to a “sales person”
- Texting leads for initial contact
- New website platforms are available as well as old, re-packaged ones
Millennials continue to be a hot topic not only from a customer perspective but from a new unit perspective. Franchisors need to continue to find ways to reach this new and powerful group of consumers and the next generation of franchisees. Facebook is no longer the only answer but still remains the most dominate social player by all accounts.
Thankfully, we operate in an industry that is resilient and adaptable to market changes and shows great potential for the year and years to come. Yes, there are formidable challenges to be faced with assaults on our fundamental business model and unsettling and unstable political and global forces. But, the minds and people in our industry will persevere, and franchising will be better because of the dedication and commitment our industry will bring to bear on remaining successful.
Franchise.com
Franchise.com has been offering Internet lead generation since 1995 and continues to help growing franchise systems meet
their development objectives by showcasing their opportunities to prospective franchise buyers. The industry’s most recognized portal, Franchise.com remains steadfast in its mission to deliver highly qualified prospects to its advertising clients.
