For most owning a franchise offers numerous advantages over an independent business. Things like brand awareness, proven business model, initial training, ongoing support, etc. When researching a franchise these are all things you need to consider but of them all there’s one that needs to be at the top of your list… A serious marketing machine!

The truth is most of us can be taught to do just about anything. Whether it’s cooking delicious food, cleaning an office or restoring someone’s home from water damage a franchisor can teach just about anyone with average intelligence how to do it. The truth is with most business owners the biggest challenge is not providing the products and service, it’s acquiring the customers. Yes, like most other skills we can learn to market but lack of marketing or incorrect marketing is sure to lead any business to failure. Trial and error marketing can be costly and ultimately do more harm than good and marketing in one industry may be different than marketing in another. The point is that unless you are a serious marketing guru you need to make sure that the franchise you invest in offers a top notch marketing machine.

When you research a franchise you need to ask specific questions of both the franchisor and several of their current franchisees about their marketing machine. Don’t buy smoke and blue sky! Buy into a system with proven results. Here are some specific questions you need to ask your potential franchisor.

1. What will the franchisor do to help me build my brand?
Brand awareness is a very powerful competitive advantage and one of the most compelling reasons for choosing a franchise. What is your potential franchise doing to build its brand? Only a small percent of franchises are household names like Subway or McDonalds but you want to be a leading brand in your industry.

2. How does the franchise help me acquire customers?
Without customers a business can’t exist so obviously this is critical. What does the franchise do on the franchisor level to help you acquire customers? What sort of system do they provide? How do they teach you to acquire customers on a local level? Do they have personnel who will come to town and help you gain momentum acquiring customers?

3. Does the franchise help me acquire the right customers?
Acquiring customers is important, but acquiring the right customers is paramount. I have actually seen franchises with a so-called marketing machine that acquired $50 customers at a cost of $100 per customer. While the franchise felt they were growing their marketing machine was actually putting them out of business. A real marketing machine acquires the right customers at a cost that makes a profit.

4. How does the franchise help me retain customers?
Depending on your industry it can cost a business up to 6 times as much to gain a new customer as it does to retain one. Not to mention depending on why you lose a customer could be damaging your reputation thus making it even harder to acquire new customers. Ask your prospective franchisor about their methods of retaining customers, creating repeat business and up-sells to increase your revenues.

In summary, when it comes to franchising, and most businesses in general strong sales and marketing are an element that all success stories have in common. A world class marketing machine can and should be one of your greatest assets in the franchise you choose. Ask very specific questions of your franchisor about their marketing machine then speak with their franchisees to see just how well they really do stand by their promises. A world class marketing machine can send your franchise to the top – lack of it will most likely lead to failure.

With over 2,000 franchise opportunities to choose from researching for the best opportunity can be a confusing and overwhelming task. Before deciding which franchise is the best fit for you, it’s important to determine which franchises are best for anyone and truly provide a proven successful business model. While there are many factors used in determining this, one key element I look at is a concept I like to call “Top Down Vs Bottom Up” franchises. While there are always exceptions to the rule I’d like to share with you this theory on top down vs bottom up and explain why “bottom up” franchises are generally a much safer investment and offer that critical element of a proven successful business model.

Top Down vs Bottom Up

When you look at the history of most successful franchises, they almost always are the evolution of a very successful independent business that chose to grow through franchising rather than through opening and remotely managing corporate owned locations around the country or globe. This is what we refer to as a bottom up franchise. A bottom up franchise is in fact a proven business model, even to the very first franchisee that enters the system. As a young franchisor they may still have things to learn about selling and supporting franchisees, national vendor contracts, national marketing efforts, etc. but they have been striving to perfect the core business model for years before offering it as an investment to a new franchisee. Look at McDonalds, KFC, Subway and the countless other brands that are among today’s largest franchise systems… They all started as small independent businesses that operated and thrived long before moving into franchising and offering their brand and business model to other investors.

On the other hand we have what I call “top down” franchises that grow their business in an almost opposite fashion. Top down franchises are usually franchise opportunities started by franchising experts who identify hot markets or trends in franchising and jump in the race with their own invented brand, despite having little or no actual experience owning and operating the actual business which they are franchising. They know the industry is hot, they know how to sell and support franchisees, but for lack of a better word they are using their new franchisees as guinea pigs or beta testers to learn how to own, operate and succeed with the core business model. While there have been cases of top down franchises becoming very successful for both franchisor and franchisee, more times than not these are recipes for failure. After all, when you buy a franchise you are supposed to be buying a proven business model from an organization that can lead you from inception to success. If a franchisor has no actual experience building and operating the core business then where is the proof of a successful business model? Who is going to teach you to be successful if they themselves have never actually been successful with this business?

When looking at a particular franchise opportunity one key factor I look at right away is when the business was founded vs when the business was franchised. I like to see the business founded no less than 3 years before it was franchised which means it had at least 3 years to focus on the core business model before offering the opportunity to other investors. Some experts believe this period should be no less than 5 years. When researching a franchise you always want to know the history of the business before it was a franchise. Obviously the longer a franchise has been in offering it’s opportunity, provided its franchisees are successful the less this may matter, but so many of today’s hottest franchises are less than 10 years old and are not the mega brand opportunities most think of when they think franchising. One should never discount a franchise because they are young or don’t have hundreds of franchisees, after all, at some point the giants like McDonalds and Subway also were young and had only a handful of franchisees, but when exploring a young franchise take careful consideration of whether or not it’s a top down or a bottom up franchise system. This alone could be a big determining factor of your chances of success or failure with your next franchise!