Most franchise testimonials look like a hostage video

⏳ Read time: ~5 minutes

This week: what 100 new franchisees watched before training, why content won't shorten your sales cycle, and why your leads ghost you after the first call.

I said this on The Experts Blueprint with Tim Beanland recently, and I stand by it. Tim and I have known each other for six or seven years.

A 60- or 90-second video.

The best franchisee in the network.

All the real bits cut out.

The prospect knows you only put your best franchisee there.

There's no substance. It's built to get the lead.

Then the brand wonders why the prospect ghosts them.

Nothing sits behind the video except written emails and someone who doesn't work in the brand calling to sell a franchise.

Every training intake at Jim's has around 100 people. Sometimes 120.

I ask the room what they watched before coming.

Everyone has watched some form of video. One out of 100 might not put their hand up.

Look at it from the franchisee's side. They're about to invest their money and leave their job.

They want to find out everything possible before they decide.

Video builds the trust.

Franchisee stories build the trust.

When someone says they've watched "all the podcasts", here's what it means:

460+: episodes on the Jim's podcast

100+: episodes on the Jim's Mowing podcast

It adds up to hundreds of hours of franchising interviews before they enquire.

Our franchisors now get calls like this: "I know how lead fees work.

I know how everything works. Just book me into training."

The content has done the pre-selling.

Prospects get the idea from somewhere. A Facebook ad. A vehicle on the road.

They don't enquire. T

hey search "Jim's franchise" first, and then they research:

They spend a lot of time there. Then they enquire.

So what do you have in those places?

A lot of people think content shortens the sales cycle.

It doesn't.

Sometimes people take longer, because they know the videos are there.

Some prospects spend a year or two working through the podcast and YouTube channel after enquiring.

What you get at the end is a better qualified franchisee.

They've gone through the process, the problems and everything in between without you knowing about it.

When they come out the other side, they're ready to go.

The people running franchise businesses want direct ROI.

Spend 10 grand on content, get a sale.

Content doesn't work this way.

You build trust over a long time and stay consistent. It's very hard to point to the one video behind a signing.

Rand Fishkin from SparkToro calls this zero click marketing. Around 60% of searches now end without a click.

So stop aiming for clicks.

Aim for influence.

Put video where prospects are looking, and be okay with not tracking all of it.

Invest in video consistently for 12 months and you will get results. I guarantee it.

The prospect gets off the call.

They have the information pack.

Then they Google your name.

They type your brand into Reddit and ask if buying one is a good idea, and your brand gets smashed.

Or they ask ChatGPT and get a negative answer based on things they didn't know about.

They never contact you again.

Are you influencing the places they look after the call?

Most franchisors tell me they want high quality leads.

But they won't do personal branding.

They won't do video interviews.

They pay third parties to generate leads instead.

Look them up and there's no active YouTube channel, no Facebook page promoting content, no Instagram, no TikTok.

Then they get 200 leads and the leads ghost them.

Lead quality is often a content problem.

A content engine turns a low quality lead into a high quality one, because the lead finds something worth consuming after they get the idea.

Nearly 9,000: franchises sold since 2019

Around 1,200: franchises sold a year

Double: annual franchise sales compared to before 2019

Double to nearly triple: franchise enquiries

Our franchisors don't spend money to get this.

A buyer in Northern Queensland follows our YouTube channel for a year, then enquires about a cleaning franchise in their region.

Most of this started by accident. I didn't ask franchisors for feedback on what prospects wanted. I looked at what people were saying online and built from there.

If a prospect searched your brand at 11pm after their first call, what would they find?

Tim and I cover the franchise trust engine, why nobody joins for the information pack, sales versus marketing qualified leads, and the numbers behind Jim's growth.

Joel

PS. Tim asked if I regret not negotiating a commission on every franchise sold. If I had, I'd be retired.

I helped grow Jim's Group from 3,709 to 5,800+ franchisees with content. Not agencies.

One hour on the right problem changes your franchise growth. Leads going cold, building a video library, getting franchisees on camera. You pick.

$400 AUD for 60 minutes.

I run workshops and talks for franchisor teams, marketing teams and franchisee events. Reply with what you need.