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Home-Based Franchises
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Article 6: Be A Marketer
Some home-based franchisees refuse to do their marketing in their own communities because the franchisor provides marketing as part of the franchise royalty and advertising fee. Those franchisees will fail, says Scott Bailey, a franchisee for Sandler Sales Institute in Irvine, Calif.
“Sandler is not set up to do all the marketing for you,” he explains. “Their attitude is ‘this is a sales training organization. Go sell.’ If I couldn’t sell, people wouldn’t come to us.”
Bailey’s techniques are especially important for home-based franchisees that don’t have a storefront and big signs to attract the attention of passersby. Bailey is active in many local business groups and offers periodic free sales seminars to give prospective clients a taste of the Sandler method. He makes sure his events and the Sandler name make it into calendar listings in the local newspaper and event Web sites.
The franchisee is the best one to market the brand locally because the individual owner is the one who provides quality work and builds a track record with customers, says Chuck Heaps, who operates ServiceMaster of the Foothills from his Southern California home. He specializes in correcting water and fire damage to homes and commercial buildings. ServiceMaster franchisees have a proven track record for saving a home or business’ carpet or wood floors if they get on the job within 24 hours of a disaster. That statistical evidence is a strong marketing tool.
At the same time, Heaps can pool his marketing resources with 30 other ServiceMaster franchisees in his region to reach the regional offices of insurance companies.
“Insurance offices are centralized and our marketers kept running into each other,” he says. “The insurance guys said, ‘You’re good, but we don’t need to see three of you to tell us.’”
Marketing doesn’t stop once you have a customer, says Louise Heidenreich, a New Jersey franchisee for Jet-Black International, which seals and repairs asphalt driveways. Constant follow-ups are a must.
“We have to call, answer their questions, several times,” Heidenreich says. “Even after we schedule a job, I follow up with a phone call to make sure they know what we are doing.”
The franchisor helps by mailing out postcards to Heidenreich’s customer base in the first months of the year. Then Heidenreich must follow up with calls and price quotes in April and May. Then she follows up again on the most promising contacts. Seal coating lasts about three years, so Heidenreich follows up with past customers when its time to reseal.
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