Month: January 2022

Why do people buy franchises? Even though everything has changed since Covid struck, the fundamental motivations for buying a franchise have not changed.

• First, people who buy franchises want to make money. They need to believe your franchise concept is able to provide them the return they need.
• Second, they want to do something they would enjoy. They would like to make money by doing something they enjoy doing, with a company they love. (Remember that sometimes and for some people, making money is more important.)
• Third, they want to lower the risk of owning a business. To convince them that owning your franchise carries a low chance of failure, show them that you have systems and processes that have been perfected.
• Fourth, they want to partner with other owners who will share their journey. When they become part of your franchise, they will be connected to a community of other owners. They don’t want to be lone wolves.

How Has Selling Franchises Changed During the Pandemic?

Everything has changed. People like to say that in six months, we have jumped ahead six years regarding the way people accept and use technology. And that is true. You need to sell to prospective buyers by offering virtual, not face-to face experiences.

Convincing People to Buy in Virtual Settings

Pre-pandemic, franchise sales meetings were expansive, especially in larger franchise organizations. Potential buyers arrived at a central location, sometimes flying in, and checked into hotels. On the evening when they arrived, they would attend a meet-and-greet where they would make personal connections with other prospective buyers, with current franchisees, and with your company representatives. The next day, people would attend a day-long session. Those days were long, intensive experiences.

Now, all that has changed. It just doesn’t work to have potential buyers spend an entire day in an online meeting, and you shouldn’t expect them to. But you can still ingage potential owners around their four fundamental motivations for buying by segmenting the sales experience into shorter virtual meetings.

What is a good way to schedule and organize these shorter sessions?

• First, replace the meet-and-greet pre-event meeting or dinner with shorter, virtual social time. People still need to connect with each other. Yet simply setting up a mass virtual meeting could be overwhelming. I would recommend having virtual social meetings that include only four or five prospects, moderated and facilitated by a few people from management. Prospects can introduce themselves and say a little about their background. But mostly, they simply socialize. Make them feel comfortable. This really helps them feel that even though they own their own franchise, they are part of something bigger.
• Second, organize your discovery day into micro virtual meetings where they learn about each part of your company. In these sessions, allow small groups of prospects to meet the key people in your organization. There is no need to schedule these sessions nonstop, one after another. Thanks to the power of virtual meetings, you can spread them out to allow more leisurely, effective learning. The first meeting can give an overview of your history, your products, and your organization, and can feature presentations or videos that feature testimonials given by successful franchisees. Follow-up meetings can explain your training, your marketing support, onboarding, franchise consultants, etc. This part of the process should help the franchisees determine whether they would enjoy running the business and if they can get a sufficient return.
• Third, allow prospects to take some of your training, so they can see how great it is. This allows them to see first-hand that your company’s training will be there to help them both master your systems and to train the employees they hire to run their locations. This powerfully demonstrates that your franchise is there to assure the success of every owner. It greatly helps with their need to feel that there is greater safety in operating a franchise than being on their own. Additionally, topics you would cover in meetings can be covered not there, but separately via training.

And One More Consideration . . .

If a prospective buyer tells you that he or she would prefer to learn about your opportunity on a phone call instead of in virtual meetings, that’s a negative indicator. It tells you that person is not “there yet” from a technological point of view. As you add new franchise owners in today’s world of doing business virtually, you want owners who are fluent with technology – completely up to speed.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is a 35-year franchising veteran as both a franchisor and franchisee. He is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company, and principal of Ingage Consulting. He hosts Training Unleashed, a podcast covering training for business, and author of Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generation. Evan is a registered C-Suite Network Advisor. To hire Evan as a speaker, visit evanspeaksfranchising.com. Follow @ehackel or call 781-820-7609.

Have you ever made a statement like “I’m not good at math” or “I have two left feet and would never make a good dancer”? These are examples of limiting beliefs that often falsely define you, and limit the options and possibilities in your life.

A limiting belief is a state of mind, conviction, or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. This limiting belief could be about you, your interactions with other people, or with the world and how it works.

Limiting beliefs can have a number of negative effects on you. They could keep you from making good choices, taking new opportunities, or reaching your potential. Ultimately, limiting beliefs can keep you stuck in a negative state of mind and hinder you from living the life you truly desire.

The good thing about limiting beliefs is that you have the power to change them at any time. This doesn’t mean that doing so will be an easy process, but commitment and a greater level of self-awareness can make it possible.

Make a list of every possible limitation you can think of that prevents you from achieving a truly abundant, happy, prosperous life. Include information about your own fears and doubts, as well as any perceived shortage of opportunities in your life. Then examine each one carefully and decide if it’s really true or not. You may be surprised at some of the things you’ve convinced yourself to believe!

It’s also important to keep challenging these false perceptions on a regular basis, because some of them may be embedded pretty solidly into your subconscious mind. Logically, you may know that there’s nothing holding you back, but then you still find yourself hesitating or procrastinating. If you keep challenging your limiting perceptions, and you take action despite them, they’ll begin to fade away and eventually disappear. You’ll have convinced yourself that they’re not true after all.

Now that you’re starting to transform your perceptions of limits, you’re in a much better position to begin taking focused action. The question is: What kind of action should you take? All of the richest and most successful people in the world have one thing in common: they found a way to contribute value to the world and are rewarded well for their efforts.

Think about that for a minute. The seeds of your wealth are tucked away in a surprising place: in your greatest interests and passions. Of course, simply following your passions isn’t enough. You also have to find a way to make your passions pay. That means finding a way to use your interests and talents to contribute value to the world. This can be done in any number of ways:

1. Find What You Love

In order to have an abundant life, you need to figure out what it is that you love doing. Many times, we try to do something that others do, simply because they are successful. The more you will align with what you love doing, the more abundance you will attract in your life.

2. Feel What You Want

It is not only important to identify what you want but it is more important to feel what you want. The more you will align with the feeling you want in your life, the more you will attract it in your life.

3. Appreciate What You Have

A simple step to abundance is to start recognizing how rich your life already is. Take the time to appreciate what you have in your life. Maybe it is health, people you love, your colleagues, skills, or the simple beauty of nature that surround you every day. You will find yourself realizing how abundant your life is and that what you need is right there in front of you.

4. Accept and Let Go

The opposite of an abundant life is scarcity. In order to move yourself from that space of “not enough” you need to accept that sometimes you don’t have what you want at that moment.  You need to let go of destructive thinking patterns and instead, focus your energy on what you want to create in your life. When you realize that you don’t have something, rephrase to state what you want to have.

In order to overcome limiting beliefs, you must train yourself to turn your attention away from anything that distracts you from focusing on your well-being.  You have to stop obsessing over the challenges and problems in your life. A good rule is: Do what you can to improve the current situation, then immediately move on to more positive pursuits.

Refuse to wallow in setbacks; avoid spending hours a day worrying about what you don’t have;  don’t talk yourself out of taking action because you might possibly fail. Be proactive and precise in your actions and keep focused on where you want to be, not where you don’t want to be.

Only you have the power to change limiting beliefs – and you can change them any time. The world can become full of options, opportunities and possibilities with a greater level of self-awareness – and a commitment to overcome your own limiting beliefs.

The best damn dress shirt. 

That’s what the online men’s clothing company Mizzen+Main claims.  

I love its audacity, but there’s more to it than a shirt. 

“That’s really kind of the ethos behind the brand is creating a better way for the customer, and we really solidified our ourselves in the market, where we think, we make the best damn dress shirt. That’s something that is just super comfortable gives them the great aesthetic the classic looked at they’re looking for,” Ryan Kent, President of Mizzen+Main, said during a recent interview on “All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett.”  

Customers are taking notice. The 9-year-old company is known for more than its shirts. They’ve also garnered attention for some of their viral content marketing. 

Mizzen and Main are the two masts on a sailing ship. Ryan says the company sees it as a metaphor for propelling the business forward, using technology and some traditional retail channels. 

If you’ve never heard of Mizzen+Main, you might recognize some of the big-name athletes and celebrities that endorse the brand. For example, golfer Phil Mickelson got plenty of attention a few years ago when he started wearing Mizzen’s dress shirts on the course, turning heads—even spawning a non-traditional TV ad that gathered close to one million views on YouTube. 

TikTok FTW 

Recently, Mizzen+Main launched a TikTok channel. While men’s clothing and a platform known for short dancing videos don’t seem like a natural match, Ryan says the company uses it to show their softer side. 

“Part of our brand is we use the terms lightness and levity frequently,” Ryan said. “Our customers are serious. They’re career-driven, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like to have fun, and it doesn’t mean they don’t like to laugh.” 

He added, “In between those moments of seriousness in their day, TikTok we thought, (was) a platform that we could test to see (if) we create some fun engaging videos just to get our customer to laugh a little bit learn a little bit about the company.” 

Mizzen+Main saw some early success at the beginning of 2021 and then ramped up their efforts during the summer with a series of videos featuring former NFL quarterback and current FOX football analyst Mark Sanchez as “the intern.” 

“As this opportunity with Mark Sanchez came about, we said, ‘Hey, this is a great way to combine both new and emerging platform in general, but definitely for Mizzen and a real and relevant athlete who people know'” Ryan said. “Mark is not playing football anymore. He’s on TV, doing all of his announcing and analysis, and our product is perfect, for what he where he is in his life.” 

While viral TikTok videos make for great publicity, they don’t necessarily translate to more sales. However, Ryan says that’s OK with Mizzen+Main’s leadership. 

“We don’t view that as a massive conversion channel. You know you get into the difficulties on the digital front with how do you measure success and really TikTok is not a way that we’re trying to communicate the core value proposition,” Ryan said. “Specifically, trying to figure out how many people exactly come directly from watching the Mark Sanchez TikTok to the website would be nice, but it’s a little bit of how do we engage and create a little bit of awareness, with the brand, with the customer watching those videos.” 

Ryan says Mizzen+Main is playing the long game and going for brand awareness and repetition. 

“Then (potential customers) ultimately (are) going to get to the website and get that first shirt,” Ryan said. “Whether they remember that and they’re conscious or subconscious, eventually we think that’s going to convert into a sale.” 

Something Old, Something New 

Another headwind Mizzen+Main found in its sails is effective podcast advertising. About four years ago, Mizzen began advertising on Conan O’Brien’s podcast. Even after not advertising on the show for years, customer surveys showed the podcast introduced many to the brand. So earlier this year, Mizzen began sponsoring Conan’s podcast again, with good results. 

Another way Mizzen is getting known is through traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Although Mizzen+Main has opened a handful of stores, Mizzen has also partnered with mom-and-pop menswear stores to offer its products. 

“Overall, we want the company to grow, we want the company to grow across all of our sales channels, primarily in the digital space, but some customers love shopping in the physical space,” Ryan said.  

Mizzen+Main is more than TikTok videos, stores, and celebrity endorsements. They’re also taking their content, as Ryan called it, offline tactics like direct mail. Ryan says Mizzen is in the “initial learning stages” with the offline strategy but is seeing success.  

“It’s really a growth mindset versus potentially a fixed mindset,” Ryan said. “We are a young brand. We want more people to know about Mizzen+Main. We want more people to love Mizzen+Main. There are a lot of customers out there that just don’t know about us.” 

“It’s really just getting the product out there, getting the brand out there, into more people’s hands to love the brand, is really the approach. By no means is it in contrast to a digital growth strategy. It actually helps raise brand awareness which raises all channels.” 

And sell the best damn dress shirt. 

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I recently spoke with a strong, experienced transportation safety expert who had just left his company. He is an alumnus of our High Performance Leadership Workshop™ and had been hoping to introduce the high-performance approach to his company’s new HR Director. Unfortunately, when we connected, I learned that, not only had he chosen to leave his current organization, but the new HR Director had also left weeks after starting.

His description of the company’s culture matches that of so many bright, talented people who are leaving their jobs – either for a new company or to do something on their own. It’s so widespread that this trend has now earned the name:  The Great Resignation.

A combination of things is driving this phenomenon that gained momentum with the advent of Covid19:

1. Generational changes and expectations in the workplace (and a leadership approach that hasn’t kept pace)
2. Rapidly changing technology and global competition
3. A more stated and visible desire for flexibility and work/life integration
4. More opportunities to CHOOSE a better organization in terms of culture and “fit”
5. Corporations’ handling of the new normal and future of work.

The first four are just facts that the fifth factor can highly influence. Therefore, I’m continually shocked and confused that the experienced and bright leaders of many of these corporations still have their heads up their A$$.

With recruiting and retention such critical factors for growth and profitability, it seems that so many successful – yes, successful — organizations are not addressing the causes of this deeply concerning situation. Senior leaders say they are very concerned, but many are simply delegating to HR/Recruiters and complaining about the results vs. getting involved. And success is its own challenge. It causes complacency. Add rapid change that causes uncertainty, and the result is the old adage:  If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Ronald Reagan once said: “If you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”

Isn’t this enough heat to cause companies to re-evaluate their culture and values so that recruiting is focused on supporting growth versus replacing experienced talent?