Development
FRANCHISE DEVELOPMENT DURING COVID-19, PART 1 The View from 50,000 Feet
In an age where our smartphones may as well be superglued to our hips, Google is a modern-day oracle showing us what folks care about and how those interests are trending. Whether a searcher is motivated by years of dedicated franchise oppor tunit y research, or they received their pink slip this morning, information about new career and business ownership opportunities is just a click away.
already trending, to be even more common in a post-Covid world); and buyer sentiment has remained strong. So what are the takeaways? TAKEAWAYS FOR DEVELOPMENT TEAMS 1. People are quarantined, have recently lost their job or been furloughed, and are at home spending more time online than ever before.
2. People who are recently out of work Looking at the most recent Google or fearing a job loss are turning to search trends (focused on the United Written By the Internet to research career States), and accounting for typical seaJUSTIN MINK options, including what for many sonal trends from years of accrued has been a longtime dream of busidata, interest in the most popular ness ownership and being their own terms used by in-market franchise n a time when each day feels like boss. candidates (like “buy a franchise” and a decade, planning for long-term 3. Franchise candidates are bullish growth is a luxury that few franchises “owning a business”) are holding steady. about the future and more excited After experiencing a sharp dip in early can afford. Franchise development than ever about the benefits of busileaders, however, live in the future. and mid-March, interest spiked again ness ownership. E x p a nsio n t a ke s p la n nin g , f o r- near the end of the month and has 4. Engaging and starting relationcontinued to rise in early April. ward-thinking strategies, and months ships with qualified candidates (sometimes years) of fine-tuning exeBroadly speaking, since remote work now could position your sales team cution and building relationships with became the norm and a record 10+ for a healthy sales pipeline (and a the right types of candidates. million Americans filed for unemploycompetitive advantage) when the ment over the past several weeks – a Given the urgency of today, versus the economic environment inevitably ongoing imperative to plan for tomorrow, mind-boggling 3000% increase comimproves. The CDO at one largepared with early March (though the development teams across franchising scale brand recently told us, “It are scratching their heads and thinking, U.S. had been experiencing record almost feels like fran dev 10 years “What now?” And, more importantly, low unemployment previously) – ago where you could actually talk online usage is way, way up. Facebook “ What do we do? ” Thankfully, the to people, but expected to do more reported that usage was up 50%, while answers lie in the data, which shows educating and nurturing.” the world’s largest Internet provider strong signs of a silver lining on the edge See that? Looks like a glimpse of (AT&T) said that overall Internet traffic of these dark storm clouds. Based on sunshine! Next week, we’ll take it an analysis of macro market conditions, increased by more than 30%. down from the 50,000-foot perspecbuyer sentiment, and proprietary data WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR FRAN tive to the very bottom of the funnel to from more than 50 digital franchise lead DEV? explore the immediate impact of Covidgeneration campaigns, it appears that On their own, these trends may just 19 on franchise sales lead generation the Covid-19 pandemic may very well raise an eyebrow. Let’s take a look at – along with providing some insights produce a strong tailwind for the future something more qualitative before we and tips on how your brand can leverof franchising. try to figure out what this all means. A age this data. Stay tuned! In this part one, we’ll take a look buyer sentiment survey (updated on Justin Mink is Senior Vice President of Sales at the larger market dynamics in an 3/26) from Franchise Insights shows at Scorpion. Contact him at 214-459-0274 or attempt to listen to the signal amid all that the majority of aspiring fran- justin.mink@scorpion.co. the noise. Part two will focus on before/ chisees believe that the next three after lead volume and cost-per-lead months will be a good time to start a data produced by Scorpion marketing franchise business, and that general campaigns on behalf of those 50-plus business conditions will be improved. franchise brands through the month of Only 19% of respondents said that the March, along with some insights that Covid-19 crisis will put their business could very well help your franchise start-up search on hold, while 27.9% chart a path toward a bright future. replied that it “boosts my interest in Let’s dive in. controlling my own destiny through business ownership.” Now this is getA LOOK AT THE DATA ting interesting! Search trends are There is no better resource for the latholding steady and climbing; online est market data than Google Trends. usage is way up (and expect telework,
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FRANCHISEUpdate
ISSUE 2, 2020
