Franchise Sales !Transformation!

The year 2022 has been characterized by lower lead counts, longer durations to sign franchise agreements, and lower conversion from lead to franchise agreement.

Keith Gerson, President of Franchise Operations, invited three franchisors who grew even in this challenging environment, by intelligently managing how they source and follow up on leads. All three of them also use Lumin.ai, so he invited me as well.

The three franchisors generously shared information about their lead programs. All three invest significantly in social-media marketing, which is great for volume but also notorious for low conversion.

At Kumon North America, in the after-school tutoring space, Tom Kuczek reported that although lead count dropped 20% from 2021 to 2022, conversion rates increased commensurately. Consequently they experienced no drop in the number new franchisees signing deals and entering training. For a company with a $1.7M/year lead-generation budget, that’s a substantial result.

Tom cited, among other factors, the increased lead-to-appointment conversion rate associated with rapid response due to automated texting via Lumin.ai.

At WellBiz Brands, whose five brands all focus on health and wellness, Lauren Wanamaker described a lead-generation strategy heavily weighted toward Facebook and Instagram. She reported a 5% lead-count reduction in 2022, but strong conversion results leading to a 2023 sales quota that is 40% higher than 2022 actuals. She described Lumin.ai as a “game changer” because of its ability to raise their conversion rate and make best possible use of their team’s time.

She also mentioned a special situation at WellBiz in which their lead qualifier, who worked on behalf of all five brands at WellBiz, needed to go on extended medical leave. She was grateful for the ability of the Lumin.ai system to redirect traffic to their team members without skipping a beat.

At Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, with two brands in the fast casual restaurant space (Capriotti’s and Wing Zone), Julia Ledford described a lead strategy also focused heavily on Facebook and Instagram—a natural fit for the ability of food to capture attention in social media. Two franchise developers handle more than 400 leads per month each and appreciate the ability of Lumin.ai to help find the hand raisers. 

We reviewed the Lumin.ai statistics at Capriotti’s, which reflect a 14% no-show rate. That’s excellent, considering the 40% no-show rate that’s typical across the franchise-development industry, and the well-known propensity of social leads to miss a first call.