Franchising

The Vice President of franchise sales oversees a commissioned sales force and assists the president in all aspects of franchise marketing and the awarding of franchise rights. His primary responsibility is to convert leads into sales, but he will also consult with the franchise marketing manager on franchise lead generation to maintain quality control of the lead generation/sales process.

The vice president of sales should have experience selling intangibles as a salesperson or sales manager. High Level management and sales experience would also be helpful. The sales force that is hired should have comparable qualifications. These positions will all be phased out as markets become saturated.

Specific responsibilities would include:

o Updating all sales strategy and training materials.

o Recruiting, training, and supervising the sales force.

o Answering inquiries from franchise prospects.

o Mailing sales materials to prospects.

o Reporting on all franchise sales activities to the designated franchise compliance officer.

o Conducting face-to-face meetings with franchise prospects.

o Qualifying prospective franchisees.

o Providing franchise prospects with franchise disclosure materials.

o Following up with prospects and arranging for the closing of the sale.

o Conducting franchise closing meetings, including rechecking all franchise legal compliance issues.

o Conducting seminars, trade shows, and open houses.

o Coordinating with existing franchises to involve them in the sales process.

The level of staffing for a franchise organization will vary with both speed of anticipated sales growth and the strategy employed (an area development strategy, for example, would require fewer salesmen). Overall, it can be anticipated that a typical franchise salesperson might close 12 to 24 sales per year.

The Vice President of Sales is given the responsibility and management over the sales team, ultimately the growth and success of the franchise marketing program will land on the effectiveness of the VP to do his or her job in recruiting new franchisees. Franchising organizations typically are extremely lean companies, they do not require the same levels of management and staffing that company owned chains need to have in place to have consistency and high standards of quality. Franchise systems benefit from the independent owner operators having a greater will to succeed and without needing the hand holding a manager or employee would typically require.