Franchisors: Where to find franchisees for your franchises

One of the best sources for prospective franchise buyers is relatives or family of long standing customers of your outlets. Long-standing customers really do know the kind of sales volume you bring in your outlets as they can figure it out pretty quickly. Even the non-educated person can figure out that your outlets are making a hell-of-a-lot more than they are. Many of these customers will admire your franchising company for the great idea and your strong brand name.
They will admire their local franchise who they patronize for their hard work ethic. They may also realize that they themselves do not have the energy level to run such a business but they probably know someone who would be interested. It's usually a son-in-law, nephew, son or person from their church. This person nine times out of ten will fit your franchisee profile mold. This person they are thinking of usually reminds them of your local franchisee; energetic, athletic, out going, upbeat, positive and successful.
New customers of your franchisees also make good franchisees themselves. Many times a new customer is in such awe over this new type of service, product or business model, that they will stand there in the parking lot out front of the store for twenty minutes and think about it. They will start asking lots of questions of your franchisee about the business.
You should explain to your franchisees that these are valuable leads and ask them to pass them onto you, because the more franchisees and synergy the stronger the brand name and the more people will patronize all the franchises including theirs. So it is important to take their name down so they can pass those names onto your for your sales staff at franchisor head quarters so they can call them later. The franchise sales staff should explain how hard the work is to the prospective new franchisee. When calling or talking to this person, you should ask them where they live and how long they have lived there. The longer the better; because this means they will have close community ties and be interested in running your franchised outlet like a community based business. Some franchisors like ten-years in the community, others are not as savvy and do not care. In some suburban areas the city was hardly there ten years ago. A new franchisee with a long time in the community will have the home field advantage and it will save the franchisor hundreds of hours of marketing and consulting time.
Franchisors often fail to realize that their best new franchise team members are the ones who held the door open for the family of four and let them go first in line, while standing back and observing the business model from the customers perspective. Think about it; friends and family of customers and new customers of your franchised outlets do make the best franchisees.