Franchisees find in B2B marketing: metrics for consistent performance in lead generation
Finding potential franchisees with online marketing is a very niche endeavor. The biggest hurdle is above all the production of a stable monthly mileage. Expanding franchise networks, such as those widespread in management consultancies, the real estate industry or gastronomy, often encounter one and the same problem: the acquisition of leads in franchisee acquisition works, but not as consistently and predictably as desired.
"Only three factors - perfectly tested - have to be reconciled: Ads campaigns, standardized conversion landing pages and strong sales that absorb the incoming leads well."
Three steps to find franchisees
A certain number of leads come in each month – be it through Google Ads, social media ads, organically, or above all through franchise portals – but overall the flow remains bumpy. In some months there are numerous applicants, in others none at all. As a result, there is no constant systematization. Accordingly, there can be no question of an automated onboarding system for successful applicants, and the decision-makers always have to “jump” when someone new enters the application pipe.
In order to be able to hand over the entire process to your own sales structures as a decision-maker, such a process would first have to be proven in terms of its consistency and long-term functionality. This is only possible with a test run and a routine, always equal procedure with new applicants. In the overall evaluation of such a process, it would be desirable to record monthly quotas for assessing the effectiveness, so that the decision-makers can even recognize which adjustment screw is (could) be lacking.
Three factors must be reconciled – perfectly tested: Ads campaigns, standardized conversion landing pages and strong sales that absorb the incoming leads well.
Improve every level
If the values deviate significantly on one of the three monthly comparison stages, or if there are major capers, then we have an unstable mileage here. If the performance on the tiers is stable, but one of the values falls or rises month-on-month, we can draw conclusions about the other tiers at a glance.
The aim should be to achieve constant mileage on these three levels, both in terms of the number of leads and the quotas. The second step is to start improving one point at a time through A/B testing. Most importantly, however, is the mere achievement of a profitable key between the advertising budget and the closed deal. In the overall calculation, we then see something like: It costs us €1,500 in advertising budget to bring a new, fully-fledged franchisee on board – from ads, to landing pages, to qualification, to consultation, to signing the contract. Believe me – that’s difficult enough, but also correspondingly effective operationally, since we can use this to get a business lever as a fully functional machine.
"In the segment of B2B offers with a value of €15,000 - €30,000 per year, €1,000 to €1,500 per deal is already a very good value across all industries."
Reference values for realistic assessments
At this point it is fundamentally important to focus on one topic: reference values. If we state that we have an end-to-end advertising budget of €1,500 for a contract from an ads campaign, for example, then it really means that this is a definitive deal: A fully onboarded franchisee . So if 15 franchisees are already active in a company and the acquisition of new partners is only bumpy, we would have an onboarding with an advertising budget of €1,500 per month, to which the decision-makers or the sales department can routinely prepare. The process can also be automated in this way.
In the segment of B2B offers, which have a value of €15,000 – €30,000 per year, €1,000 to €1,500 per deal is already a very good value across all industries. Background: The majority of providers in online marketing would not even calculate such a quota for the company, which is why the company would be groping in the dark here. And if I then calculate such a quota from the campaigns of their service providers for companies, the picture quickly emerges: Leads are won for a good price per lead, but only isolated deals result from it – with a key of well over €10,000 per deal.
Ergo: The above-mentioned €1,000 to €1,500 as a reliable and stable, scalable key for concluding a contract is already a very good key and a strong target across all sectors. This is not a high, but even a cheap cost point per deal.
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