Learn how outbound telemarketing can help you expand your franchise.

Outbound telemarketing has been used by businesses to help with their sales efforts for decades, from direct phone sales to appointment setting for their outside sales teams, toll-free inbound numbers, product and customer satisfaction surveys, and many other methods. Today, I’d like to discuss how a specific type of business organization, franchise organizations that sell products or services to other businesses (B2B), can benefit from an outbound telemarketing program.

What challenges does a franchisor have that other businesses do not?

It all comes down to order. If a typical company has a hundred offices spread throughout the world, each of those offices is somehow directly controlled by the company, and the people who work there are employees. If a franchisor has a hundred franchises selling its goods or services worldwide, it has a hundred independent companies operating their day-to-day operations. Keeping them all on the same page can be challenging at times.  

How does an outbound telemarketing program help a franchise business?  

Consider some of the objectives of a traditional franchise company. 

1. Boost the bottom line.

2. Increase the number of franchisees.

3. Create new markets to make it easier to sell additional franchises.

4. Ensure that the marketing message is consistent across the company.

5. Inbound assistance should be centralized for the good of the whole company.

Over the years, I’ve partnered with a variety of franchise companies. Businesses use outbound telemarketing for various reasons, including that it is not part of their core competency or does not help employees.

Whether their service is third-party IT support, accounting services, or coupon marketing, they all rely on an outbound telemarketing agency to design and execute a program that will achieve their objectives at a reasonable cost.

Outbound telemarketing is universal

Telemarketing promotions, designed to be used and exchanged by several people, use the same script; the same promotional message or intent is used consistently regardless of where the calls are placed or for what reason.  

First, the business body, the franchisor, uses it to increase revenue in the markets and regions it manages. Most of the time, it has permanent sales staff in those areas or a team working on setting the space up for future sales as a franchise. The call center handles prospecting. It qualifies the company, schedules appointments, and sends the appointment information to the local salesperson. The more prosperous the territory, the more opportunities it has. As a result, the organization’s bottom line improves.

The franchisors then offer franchisees the same program. Sometimes, franchisees fail to establish their telemarketing operations or use an outbound telemarketing partner who has not been thoroughly vetted and does not adequately represent the local franchisee or the parent franchisor.

Individual franchisees may benefit financially from the telemarketing service if it is made available to them. It also enables the franchisor to monitor better the marketing message distributed across their network.  

The franchisor may provide a certain amount of telemarketing time in the franchise agreements it offers to individuals. Others would subsidize the cost of outbound telemarketing or encourage franchisees to buy into the network, recognizing that they cannot afford to set up an entire call center program independently.

However, the franchisor profits as franchisees expand their businesses through outbound telemarketing activities, making their businesses and the overall company more vital in the process. A healthy franchise business means increased demand for the brand, which results in a higher franchise revenue price, increased sales, and better profit and loss statements. The franchisee and the franchisor both win.

Inbound telemarketing support

There are advantages on the inbound side as well. Of course, websites will point people in the direction of the nearest office/dealer/etc. However, in a COVID environment, many local office workers are being reduced, possibly due to a lack of experience as an inbound call center agent. If a franchisee’s office cannot answer the phone, calls can be routed to voice mail.  

Using a centralized inbound call center eliminates the possibility of missed opportunities due to insufficient preparation or unanswered calls. Trained call center agents take the calls and treat them so that the franchisor approves, frequently resulting in more revenue, upsells, and fewer missed opportunities. Of course, depending on the jurisdiction, these are passed on to the franchisee or franchisor, but the net result is a more vital, more profitable franchise organization.  

Any inquiry received on the company’s website can be converted into a “trigger lead.” As soon as a query is received, a member of the call center team contacts the individual to decide their level of interest and then forwards that information to the local franchisee.

To summarize, a well-planned outsourced telemarketing campaign, both inbound and outbound, would increase the growth of any B2B franchise company by:

1. By offering to sell to new franchise owners, you will increase the value of your regions.

2. Increasing the number of territories under the franchisor’s control.

3. Allowing the franchisor to manage better the promotional message distributed within the company, thus increasing the power and value of each franchisee.

4. Providing a centralized, unified inbound support network.

Callhounds Global team expertly designs an outbound telemarketing platform for our clients based on their unique requirements.