I want to tell you an all too familiar story in Franchising. You are working with a lead, they filled out the Franchise Application, they have attended Meet the team or Discovery Day or Confirmation Day or whatever it is you call the event.
They are in the final stages of making a decision to move forward and poof……they are gone like a puff of smoke in the wind.
They were set to talk with you today at 1pm and when you called it went right to voicemail. Your text shows as delivered but no response and the email you sent receives no reply.
Welcome to the world of “Ghosting”. Ghosting doesn’t only happen in October for Halloween…it is an all to common scenario that happens when a lead is moving through your process and everything seems to be headed in the right direction & then all of a sudden they are gone with no reply, no response & no reason.
There are many reasons that leads will Ghost you. Bad or Not Good Validation is one of those reasons.
Bad validation is bad validation. But have you ever thought that your validation was “Not good”. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean…lol. “Not good” can kill a deal, mediocre or vanilla validation can kill a deal too, especially if a lead is looking for reasons to not buy.
I am not saying that Validation is the ONLY reason that leads will Ghost you, but it is certainly one of the reasons they may Ghost you.
After leads talk with existing Franchise owners they should be excited right? If your existing Franchise owners are excited and say all the right things the right way then the lead will most likely continue to the next step.
So the question is, How do I know if my Franchise owners are saying the right things? How do I know they are saying them the right way? Or better yet, What exactly are my Franchise owners saying?
Some leads look for reasons to buy a Franchise, other leads look for reasons to not buy. Both can find what they need during Validation calls with your Existing Franchisees.
You could have “Good” validation but the potential buyer still may not hear what they need to hear to move forward. It might not have been what they expected or too vanilla/plain.
I do believe that many leads that Ghost you are embarrassed or ashamed or upset or whatever it is that makes them feel weird. My opinion is that they feel this way partially because what you told them during the sales process wasn’t what they heard during validation. I assure you, you or your Franchise Developer are waaaaaaaay more excited & passionate than your existing Franchise owners.
There are other reasons for sure, but I do believe that is one of the reasons. And it is also one of the things we can help guide and partially control.
So ask yourself the question: Do I ACTUALLY know what my existing Franchise owners are saying during validation or do I THINK I know what they are saying during validation?
I love talking about Franchising, if you ever want to chat about How to reduce Ghosting, feel free to reach out to me via phone, text or email.
Talk soon!
John Henning
267-417-4980
john@mysteryvalidation.com
Learn more about Mystery Validation™