Share Your Story To Get More Buy-In From Franchisees
Over the past few years the concept of ‘storytelling’, from a marketing and branding perspective, has gained tremendous momentum. To someone like me, I see that as a good thing—for both consumers and organizations, alike. You see, as Chief Executive Storyteller of a marketing firm, I have long believed that one of the keys to success for any service-based brand lies in its ability to make an emotional connection with its audience. And stories are one of the most powerful and effective ways of connecting with someone, at an emotional level.
To clarify, your ‘story’ isn’t so much your history, though it’s certainly part of the narrative; it’s a combination of your brand’s evolution, what sets it apart, what it stands for, and what you can rely on it for. It’s the part of your business that gives people a reason to want to do business with you AND to work alongside you.
Though many brands have now started sharing their stories, most of them tend to do so only with their customers and potential customers—and not their internal audiences: supply partners, investors, staff and, of course, franchisees. Given the fact that it’s the customer that makes the purchase and, thus, has a direct and immediate impact on revenue, it’s understandable why so many brands focus so heavily on their external audiences. What’s interesting to note, though, is that the iconic, customer-centric brands that we tend to reference time and time again—like Starbucks, Nordstrom’s, Whole Foods and even, closer to home, WestJet—make the effort to connect on an emotional level with both their external AND internal audiences.
So what’s the benefit of connecting with your internal audience? Well, let me ask you this: when was the last time you went into one of the brands mentioned above and came across an employee that seemed if they didn’t really want to be there? Probably never. Instead, these highly engaged employees have, most likely at one time or another, done something to make your experience a memorable one. This passionate commitment is a direct result of an organization whose internal audience thoroughly buys into their corporate vision.
Unlike the brands referenced above, as a franchisor, your organization is not comprised, solely, of corporately owned stores/locations. But the principles of engagement still apply—and maybe more so for a franchised company. After spending time with the leaders and key decision makers at some of the top franchise companies in the country–during the most recent CFA conference in Niagara Falls—it became clear that the two biggest issues franchisors currently face are:
1) franchisee buy-in, and 2) franchisee compliance.
So what can you do about it? Just as people buy for both emotional and rational reasons, your franchisees will feel more engaged with your brand when you make both an emotional connection with them, and learn how to empower them in a rational way. This can be done in two, relatively simple steps.
Step 1: Share Your Story With Your Franchisees—in a way that relates to them
This means, regardless of who your audience is, it’s up to you to share your brand story in a human-to-human, mi casa es su casa, kind-of-way. Because your audience (whether it’s your franchisees, supply partners, investors, staff members, or customers) wants to know who you are, what you stand for, and why doing business with you is “okay” with them on a subconscious level. Your audience wants to be able to relate to you; they want to know that your value system is aligned with theirs. For a franchisee, this can’t be emphasized enough.
At this stage I realize that you may be thinking to yourself, ‘But, I already DO communicate with my internal audiences’. And yes, that may be the truth… after all, as a franchisor, you have procedure manuals, brand standards, and compliance documentation, along with other process-oriented materials. And although these elements are essential for ensuring that your rules are adhered to, we need to keep in mind that they’re all rational pieces of communication, not emotional ones. As such, they do little to engage and inspire your internal audiences—namely your franchisees.
So when you share your story with your franchisees, stay true to it, because unless your organization has two distinct business models with two distinct sets of corporate values, there should only be one storyline. That said, when it’s told, it can (and very well should) be done with some slight variations in style and tone to make it more relevant to the particular audience you’re addressing.
But sharing your story and having your franchisees understand what your brand is really all about, is just the beginning. The next step in the journey for improved franchisee buy-in is to leverage this engagement—by having them desire to work within your compliance parameters. In other words, have them do what you want them to do (and be happy doing so).
However, this next step requires more effort from you, the franchisor, than it does from the franchisee. Why? Because you’ll have to let go of the reins, so-to-speak…at least just a little bit.
Step 2: Stop Telling Your Franchisees WHAT To Do And HOW To Do It
This may seem counter-intuitive. After all, isn’t your job to set out procedures & guidelines, and ensure that your franchisees adhere to your protocols—so that so that the brand message and experience remain consistent throughout?
Yes and no. You see, in order for your franchisees to fully buy-in to the procedures that you set-out, they need to feel like they’re a part of the process. Because they’re people too. So don’t tell them what to do, and don’t tell them how to do it, either. But let me define what I mean by that:
a) Telling your franchisees what to do
is when an organization puts together its strategies, campaigns or promotions with little to no consultation or input from outside of the corporate office. Then, they simply present their ideas to the franchisees—usually at the annual convention or AGM. This approach is what I refer to as ‘Talking Down’. And it’s extremely demoralizing.
So, instead of ‘Talking Down’ you need to ‘Listen-Up’. This means building-in opportunities for franchisee feedback and/or input throughout the process. Instead of having your presentation of an idea 100% scripted and packaged, it might be worthwhile to leave some deliberate holes—so that your franchisees can help fill the gaps. By giving them enough information so that they can see where you’re going, and why you’re going there, and then opening up the lines of communication, you just might elicit people to suggest their own ideas, which generates buy-in (and some pretty good ideas, too). And even if someone chooses to become more of a spectator throughout the process, they would get to see their peers participating, so the overall feeling is that they, as a group, have a voice. The bottom line is that no major strategy or project should ever be presented as completed without the input from your franchisees.
b) Telling your franchisees how to do it
is when you provide a rigid set of rules, regulations, and protocols that are non-negotiable. In essence, it’s the ‘my way or the highway’ approach.
Franchisee non-compliance is a common complaint for franchisors, but maybe the problem doesn’t lie with the franchisee, but rather, with the ‘top-down’ systems themselves. Instead of giving the franchisees the goal along with the eight steps they need to follow in order to comply, we should instead focus on the goal on its own, and leave it at that.
Of course, it’s essential for you to set targets and parameters to keep your brand on-strategy BUT if a franchisee meets a goal in a way that is perhaps a little different from what you had laid out in the manual, is there really any harm in that? I call this planned spontaneity: providing the guidelines, expectations, and criteria, but allowing someone to find their own way to get there. And it works because the more your franchisees are empowered to infuse their personality into the business, the more it becomes theirs and the more energy they want to give to it to make it a success.
Allowing this kind of freedom requires trust and faith in your franchisees. But, by giving them a voice and an outlet for self-expression, you’ll find that they feel more engaged and are more likely to comply with the parameters you set for your organization as a whole.
In my opinion, when it comes to identifying a ‘magic bullet’ for increasing franchisee buy-in, it’s really not magical at all…though there are some insightful bullets, namely:
- connect with them emotionally, then
- empower them rationally
After all, when you share your story, ‘paint the picture’ and make an emotional connection with your franchisees, you’ll find that they’ll be far more likely to buy-in to your vision AND want to be part of its future. Then, by also giving them a voice (listening-up) along with the freedom to express themselves within the parameters you set for your brand (planned spontaneity), you’ll find they’re more inclined to feel empowered and engaged.