The Franchise Fastlane Process Explained

Lance Hood (FranPro) 0:02

Hi everyone . Today I would like you to meet Keri Gilley , the CEO and co-founder of Franchise Fastlane . Carey , welcome .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 0:10

Thank you , Lance . It's so good to be here .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 0:13

So , before we get started , because I want to get some of your insights , maybe some action items for people , but for people who aren't familiar with Franchise Fastlane , can you take a couple of minutes and share what you do ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 0:24

Sure , absolutely so .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 0:26

Fastlane is what the industry is coined in FSO , a franchise sales organization , and , simply put , we solve the most significant problem for emerging and micro-emerging brands in that we drive their growth so they can focus on their business , while we take their development on soup to nuts , from the generating the leads to registering the leads , to walking those leads through a discovery process where they really get educated on the brands , bringing them in for a confirmation day and then even managing the signature of the franchise agreement , the FDD cooling period , the whole thing .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 1:00

And this is definitely the number one problem for brands . The IFA states that there's about 4,000 brands in the US . 300 emerge every year , 300 fail every year . It's not an easy game and what they say is the benchmark is you need to hit about 100 , open about 100 before you usually see royalty profitability . But sadly , less than 5% hit that goal and those that do , it takes 10 years , takes 10 years , so it's such a slow crawl to profitability . So we really work to help our brands achieve that in under two and just take on their full development so they can focus on their business .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 1:36

Yeah , and that is important . And there's a reason why I think some brands get stuck or never really take off . And I want to highlight some of those because you guys have it dialed in . If I talk with , like a new or young brand or say maybe the founder of the original company is trying to do their franchise development for them , when I introduce people to those companies , they'll literally talk to my clients and just say here's our elevator pitch . Do you have any questions ? And I'll send you out the FDD . And they just don't understand what a true sales process is and how they're educating people , handling objections , building up a vision . Can you explain the steps in your process and why you have those steps ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 2:24

Absolutely , and you're right , exactly what you said . That's point on . In fact , last year I talked to 191 brands and we brought on eight . So that's how highly selective we are . But I will tell you that when I ask a brand to explain a brand founder , what do you do ? I can almost walk away from the phone . They know what they do , whether it's fitness or haircuts or rental space or food , they know what they do . But then when you take them to that next question of how do you plan to grow your brand , how are you going to find the right person to carry the flag of your brand into a territory nationwide ? It's crickets . They don't know what's next , and so I'll say well , what are you doing today , and I mean every time what you just said . Well , I don't know . They call me , I spend 10 minutes with them on the phone , I send them the FDD and then I see if they want to come see the brand and you're going . This person is thinking about rolling over their retirement or taking out an SBA loan . This is life changing for them . They need a full discovery process and so , you're right , we walk them through a full process . It's six to eight weeks of just educating them on the brand .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 3:30

It starts with videos before our very first call and then you're into an intro . After that intro , we're going to continue to send you materials . The second call is what we call unit economics . So we're going to dive into the financials as exactly as they are disclosed in the franchise disclosure document . So , exactly item seven what does it cost to invest in this business and be a business owner here ? Exactly item 19, . How are the franchisees in this system performing from a financial perspective ? So we will look at all that and we will send you all the workbooks and all the materials .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 4:03

Then we enter you into validation . And that's actually when franchisees have an opportunity to dial in and talk to somebody who's already living a day in life . Right , that's important . You're thinking about doing this . That's the beauty of franchising is this is already a model , it's already proven . People ahead of you are already doing it . So you can read the manual , which is that franchise disclosure document , and you can talk to people who are already there .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 4:25

So we leave them in that validation stage for a few weeks and make sure they've validated maybe with a new owner , maybe with a veteran owner and then we take them into a full FDD review .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 4:35

And that's important because while we live inside the FDD and I can tell you what the items mean and tell you how to read an FDD , this is a foreign document to somebody who's looking at life change through franchising .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 4:46

And so we walk them through that FDD and we host leadership calls so that they can get to know the leaders of the brand and ultimately , if they've checked all these boxes , they've validated and you know they've reviewed the FDD , we know they've done their homework , then we invite them to what we call confirmation day and the brands host these about once a month .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 5:04

Some of our fast moving brands are doing two a month and that's when candidates who are highly qualified they've been qualified by franchise fast lane , they've already met with franchisees , with founders are invited in for an experience and they get to see experience the brand , eat the food , do the workout , whatever it is , be on a job if it's a service brand and really get to meet the founder and understand what their future could look like with this brand . And that's not just about them choosing the brand , that's about the brand approving them to . They have to be approved as a franchisee and while we're highly selective about our brands . Our brands are highly selective about their franchisees , and so it's really a , it's a back and forth experience and then , if they are approved , that's when we move into finalizing their mapping and their franchise agreement and , and just then at that point , the logistics of making them a franchisee . It's very exciting .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 5:56

Right and this whole process of what you do . It not only gives them the information they need to know , it not only addresses in advance any corner fears or objections they might have , but it's building a vision , a more accurate picture of what they're about to have in their life if they get approved and take this on . And most people just don't understand that this is too long of a sales cycle , too big of an investment to just have a brief conversation . You got to get it figured out and organized .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 6:32

You absolutely do . You keep saying vision , and I'm so glad you do . That's my favorite definition . So my career background was startup and then I sold my first company in the mid 20s and in my mid 20s and I landed in corporate America . So I experienced those two extremes startup and then corporate America . So then when I found franchising later , about 15 years ago , I was just absolutely enthralled , and I think it's because it delivers vision .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 7:01

If you look at the definition of vision , it's a clear and compelling picture of a preferable future , and so most people get one or the other . They either get that clear and compelling picture . That's corporate America , right , where I know what I'm going to do every day , I know how much PTO I get , I know I get a 3% raise my holidays , I've got it all . I get it . It's clear . But then I don't get the preferable future , which is business ownership and entrepreneurship and the opportunity to be my own boss . You usually have to choose . When I found franchising , I went , wow , this is both , and I'd already lived the two extremes . This is both , but that's really on that franchise , or to deliver that you have to be able to deliver not only their opportunity to be a business owner , but also all the processes and the infrastructure and the training and the preferred partners to build a model they can follow .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 7:52

Right , and none of this happens without the clear , good communication . Right , and what I have seen with brands that struggle is first , they don't have a clear process that they have ironed out and defined that's designed to move people to the next step or find out they're not right . It's a smart process , not a lazy process that says only the tough people will choose to move forward on their own . No , you're actually assisting them and helping them . But that communication not only with the franchisee , franchisee or but with the brokers if you're working with brokers that support you because as a team they're trying to help , but you guys do a great job of communicating Can you talk about the importance to that and how you kind of structure your communication ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 8:40

Communication is so key and you're right that you bring up the consultants we have . Absolutely I can't overstate the importance of consultants in what we do our partnerships with Fran Choice , with IPG , with FCC , with Fran Net , with the U network and I know I'm missing something . I don't want to , because they're all such a valued partnerships , but that communication is absolutely key . They call it frickin' frack . That's what the consultants call it . They call it frickin' frack and what they mean by that is we are both helping this candidate find the right brand for them . We're doing that together .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 9:16

It's not us in the absence of the consultant , it's not the consultants in the absence of us , and so we have to make sure that we are calling them after every call we have or collaborating around where that candidate at . Is that ? If they're a really good fit , what were the objections or the fears ? That we need to help them understand and answer questions . So we're constantly doing that . We're so committed to it that we've built our own proprietary technology that we call frickin' fast lane , and we built it via an open API to our CRM so a consultant can literally log in and they can see all the notes the director put in . So the director meets with Lance and they talk about mosquito shield and you have some key questions and they're taking notes the whole time and then they log those notes and those notes are auto-email to the consultant of record and also displayed in frickin' fast lane . So communication is absolutely key , not only with the candidate , with the brand partner , but also with the consultant . There are many stakeholders and it's an important decision in someone's life .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 10:12

Right , and the thing I think you guys do too is there's clarity and purpose behind what you do Clarity I've looked at so many companies to where they have a logo that I don't know what they do from the logo , and then they don't really have a tagline , they just go into sales materials and so I'm like you know , we're the best , we're the fastest , we're this , but I'm like but what do you do ? Your very first sentence should be here's what we do . In one sentence it's very clear , and then everything supports that . What advice can you give to companies on how to figure out , how to take the time to condense that one single sentence or two so that people are clear on what you do ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 10:51

You know , as an organization , we're reading a book called Building a Story Brand and if you're a new fast laner it's going to arrive at your door . We send it to you because of what you just said

Optimizing Franchise Systems for Success

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 11:02

. There is just such an example of all this website nonsense , right , and it really doesn't drive to what the company does . They go back to Apple Computer and when they launched their first version of an ad in the New York Times , it was 12 pages long and they sold them a miserable I think 8,000 or something . And then they came back and they came out you know to think smart and it was about that person , it was about your customer and what you could deliver for them , and it was so direct . And , of course , you know the success of Apple today .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 11:34

Another example that's in the book is the hitchhiker . And if there's a hitchhiker alongside the road and you pull over , what does that hitchhiker want to know ? Where are you going ? That's what they want to know when are you headed . Because they want to know if that fits for them . It's about them . If you pull up and tell them what you're playing on the radio , or when the car was made , or what model it is or how many , nobody cares . So you do . You have to dial it in . Your message needs to be about the perspective franchisee , they are the hero . Your brand is not the hero , they are the hero . How are you going to help them change their lives through your brand ? And so that is a process in dialing that in , and it's usually one of the very first things we have to do when a brand comes in , because the franchising side is usually a miss , the FDD is a miss , the materials are a miss , and so we really recreate all of that with great brand partners .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 12:24

Yeah , and your collateral is organized . I get too many people that they create random marketing pieces because they think that's what they need to do or they've seen somebody do it , but they don't think about if they had a really defined process that worked , which is this is about conversion , not just making something happen . The brand pieces are designed to move to another step . They're designed to handle an objection in the shortest , the shortest , most concise way possible , because length creates confusion . Can you talk about how you guys organize things to do that ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 12:58

It's so true . Again , we all know time kills all deals . People want to guide . That's what your role is . Your role is to be a guide , and inundating them with 120 different marketing pieces and they don't even know where to start , instead of answering the question they need .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 13:11

After intro , what's the next step I need ? I need to figure out how to validate and how to meet franchisees in the system . Okay , so then , after unit economics , what's the next question I need ? I need you to help me understand what an item 19 and what an item seven and why item six . What's this fee structure and how does it work ? They have direct questions . After each call , you can send them 20 pieces of collateral and overwhelm them , or you can direct them to exactly what they need for that point in the process and their journey . So you're right , we have created the journey to be very direct . Now , of course , we can always give them more , but we look at what is the call they just had and now what homework do they need to do post-call ? What is the call that they just had and what homework do they need to do post-call ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 13:53

Franchising is all about following a system , and the other benefit of your process being so clearly defined is , you will see whether or not they're good at following a system . If they want to bounce all around and they want to change things up , they're probably not going to be a good franchisee because they haven't learned to follow a system . I think it was FranConnect that reported that the average sales cycle now is 210 days . So think about these brand founders . If you're only closing half of 1% which is also what FranConnect reported you have to talk to 200 people to find one that's the right one , and then you have to spend 210 days without one . It's overwhelming for these brand founders who need to be focused on their business . But if you create a process , you figure out how to follow , how to create the right qualified leads , and then you take them on a guided journey to answer the right questions at the right time and then bring them into the brand at the height of their experience . That's when you'll see conversion .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 14:51

Right , simple , clear , direct to the point . Next step so much easier . I see people that haven't fully developed that . What do you say ? The unique selling proposition , that differentiation , what they do to try to grow is they're focused on marketing versus improving the system and differentiating . That's a huge amount of an investment in marketing to overcome this . And while you're doing that , you're still going to overcome friction because it's not optimized yet . No one wants to hear that they haven't optimized their system because they're ready to sell it . But can you talk about the things that you see that people really need to figure out and optimize to make it the system just take off on its own ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 15:41

You're absolutely

Common Mistakes in Franchise Branding

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 15:42

right . We have some brands in our inventory . We have 26 brands today that are differentiated just in what they do . We have a brand called Shrunk 3D Shrunk 3D and literally they pull up to events and you walk in and they have 120 , it's a rig 120 3D cameras and they take your picture and then they literally send you a statue of a special moment in your life with your graduate or maybe at a sporting event , or that is just differentiated because you're not going to find a bunch of those types of companies . But we also have house painting and pest control and those types of , I would say , industries that are more popular . There is more noise in the space , but what I would say is you still have to find a way to differentiate what you do . Spraynet is our house painting brand . Their method and what they do through the coding services and their proprietary technology is unique and second to none , so you still have to find a way to make your brand stand out .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 16:39

I think it's really important , as an emerging brand , to make sure you're not under capitalized . Franchising is very expensive , very expensive , so you either need to have corporate territories that are going to help you fund your growth or you need to raise capital and find investors so that you're ready for that . You need to make sure that you only in the early stages . I see brands all the time kind of in their desperate state to bring in unqualified franchises . They learn later oops , that was a miss , and they give away the farm . They give away a full state and a first right of refusal to another state .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 17:13

So I think I see that a lot too Too large of territories . You need to be careful about the size of your territories . If your territories are too large , a franchisee can't spend enough in marketing to even optimize the opportunity within that territory . So you need to help them optimize what they can do with their marketing dollars 200,000 population or 100,000 households or whatever . The fee structure also is another one where we have to spend a lot of time with the brands . Oftentimes the FDD does no minimums so the brand is not protected or the fee structure doesn't make sense for the franchisee , and so we look at all of those things . But those are some of the common mistakes I see oftentimes with an emerging brand .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 17:52

What about having a ? I see where emerging brands will look at . Whoever the current leader is right , that's already huge and established and they will try to model their franchise fee after that mega company . But they're not in the same spot . They have a greater cost of startup and they really need to have the resources to best support their franchisees . And what I have seen is that they don't . They just they undercut themselves and now they're in trouble . And from clients I've never seen a client balk at a franchise fee . I mean , it happens rarely . Usually they look at the overall investment price . That's what they look at . So what's your suggestion when it comes to deciding on your franchise fee ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 18:38

You know , franchise fee in England is not . I think as a brand you have to realize that typically you're not going to build your brand on the franchise fee . That is not . You're right . It's the item seven that has to be clearly defined and if you need a little more for training , build that into your item seven . A franchise fee structure should look pretty similar across all the brands .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 18:57

But I do see brands make the mistake that you just said less on franchise fees and more on royalty . They're an emerging brand . They only have three or four franchisees and they come into the fast line and they want to charge 12% royalty and then you've got a brand fund of 3% on top of that and a technology fee and all the other fees on top of that . We'll say , look at this , you know , standard in the industry is 6% royalty , 2% brand fund , and you know so we'll work that out with them and I think what you can see is , as a brand grows then and establishes themselves , you can always go in and your next FDD , you can adjust what is the fee structure for your status as a company at that time and your proven reputation around the country . But I don't often see many mistakes around franchise fees . I oftentimes see mistakes around that item five the ongoing fees .

Franchising and Broker Strategies for Success

Lance Hood (FranPro) 19:45

What about ? Is there a certain net profit that a company should be self aware that they need to really have if they're going to get into franchising that makes their business franchiseeable . Because they still have to think about the franchisee who's investing all this money and time , that they have to have an appropriate amount left over to make it worthwhile for them .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 20:07

Yes , so many of the franchise candidates that we're looking at are displaced business executives . So we're always thinking about and they are always thinking about how do I one day leave my nine to five job and move into this role ? It's about replacing a lifestyle that there are , an income that creates a lifestyle that they're enjoying today . So for us it's important to see a business that brings you know , something between 10 and 20% to net profits and six digit income opportunity . That way , if they're used to 300,000 a year , you can buy a three pack and over time you can build your business up and eventually maintain your lifestyle through franchising and what are the ?

Lance Hood (FranPro) 20:49

is there a certain mindset that you've seen with owners that generally are more successful than other owners ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 20:56

Oh , for sure . We've worked with some extraordinary brands , but the owner was a mess . And then some brands that I would say you went . What's unique about this ? It's just another brand , but it was the owner who made it , who made it exceptional .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 21:10

So , again , in our own business , we've spent a lot of time on our DNA and who we are and that mission of driving extraordinary growth , our vision of setting industry standards and then our own core values , and I think grit is what's key .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 21:22

I was reading a recent story on great because we have a core value of be gritty , be hungry , bring it .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 21:28

Our others real , quick , dry , fast results , no surprises , have each other's back so important for the team and for our partners and inspire life change is what we do . But that be gritty , be hungry , bring it that is so key for a partner as well . Again , I was reading a recent story on grit because we were talking about it in one of our larger team meetings and it was by Angela Duckworth , who's a renowned psychologist , and she said it was actually . Her report says that grit is a better predictor of success than talent or intelligence . It's the driving force that propels us forward despite the obstacles we face . So I really do think . When we meet a founder we can tell pretty quick now what kind of founder is this year looking for . Somebody who knows how to have he serves his own team or she serves her own team . So she has a servant's attitude , but also just that grit and hard work to make it through those early years of a franchise system .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 22:19

Right . Last kind of topic here brokers . I've spoke with a lot of franchise ores . Some are very excited to work with brokers , Some don't get it . What's the benefit of adding that to your growth strategy of working with the broker ? What's the benefits or non-benefits of trade-offs ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 22:43

When a brand comes to me and they ask how do I get started in my early stages , I always answer you need to focus on your business , outsource everything else . Outsource literally everything else . Find somebody to assist with site selection , with construction , with marketing your call center . They're best at what they do , you're best at what you do , and so I think that's very important and for us brokers have been . I would always recommend the broker networks .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 23:09

Now , going into a broker network and investing , it's not cheap , it's a sizable investment to enter the broker networks . Entering the broker networks without a partner to help you stand out in their inventory , that's challenging . If you enter a franchise which I think is one of the franchise I have PG , two of the absolute best broker networks I have PG is literally hundreds and hundreds of brands . I think franchise today is up to about 200 brands . How do you stand out ? You're just another brand . So that's what we work really hard in bringing our brands into franchise and differentiating them from all the other brands .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 23:44

Because what you and I both know is there isn't a consultant out there that pitches 200 brands on the regular , right ? Nobody does that . They have a short list of 10 to 12 brands . So every time we're launching a brand into the networks or attending a conference , our goal is to get on the short list of those top performing consultants . Why is it good ? Because when a consultant sends us a lead , I know that that is not a warm lead . That's a hot lead . They spent time , they qualified them financially , they got to know them , they understood their passion and their experience and after doing all that , they said well , I really think you should go look at tippy toes , which is Dan's lessons , or I think you should go look at M14 hoops , which is basketball . So they find their passion and they send them over to us and at that point they're asking can I look at this brand ? It is a hot lead and we're going to close that lead , of course , and convert that lead at such a greater rate than we would something from a portal .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 24:44

Yeah , absolutely I agree with you . Wow , it's a great call . I just want to thank you for everything . My last question is , before we go is sometimes people , companies , brokers , whoever they're working with clients and those clients they're good clients , but they go dark and that can be because of a life event and you just don't know what are . What do you do to measure engagement or to reengage with a good client and we don't want to chase people who aren't interested in worth our time but if you have a really good client , what are some engagement strategies to get back in front of people again ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 25:21

We call them laggards . So in our CRM we track the progress of people throughout the process and again , like I said , if somebody's not willing to follow a process right away , you know this is this is probably somebody that's not a fit . And we have literally had a candidate because we have 26 brands where , when we look across the processes and we compare notes , oh , they've been in four of our different pipelines and they just were a tire kicker every single

Franchise Fastlane

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 25:46

time . So you know , so that happens , we call them laggards and what that means is they're sitting in one stage for longer than 15 days , so they're not doing their homework , they're not advancing to the next stage , there are no show on that call .

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 25:59

So in , in all truth , if they don't want to move forward to be a franchisee , the brand doesn't want them , and that is the absolute truth . So we will continue to call . We have a full support team . So when somebody hits in an active stage or they're in a laggard , we do start texting . We text three times and then we call three times . We have a process to get them reengaged in our process . But the truth is we're working to help our brands find the right franchisees and if it's somebody you have to pursue . It's probably not a right fit for the brand .

Lance Hood (FranPro) 26:30

I love that answer . Thank you , kerry , for everything . So if you guys would like to work with franchise Fastlane obviously they know what they're doing you can click here https://Franpro . vip/GoFastlane and reach out to them , give them a call , and she's absolutely right when you go in , if you're going to work with a broker network , just being part of it , you don't stand out , you're invisible . It doesn't matter . People have to know that you're a good , know that you have a process that's going to work and you also learn that working with different people at these franchise companies , they're either effective or ineffective and you pick up that credibility overnight when you work with the right company to help you . Thank you , kerry . Do you have anything else to add ?

Carey Gille (Franchise Fastlane) 27:14

No , I appreciate it . Thank you so much for having me .