Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:01

Hi everyone. Today I'd like you to meet Lana Mazin, the VP of relationship marketing with Rain Tree franchise development. Lana welcome.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 0:11

Thanks, lance, thanks for having me.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:13

Well, Lana, I'm very familiar with you guys, but for anybody who isn't, you guys are really one of the top franchise development organizations, and franchise sales organizations and I would just like people to understand what you guys do and and who really qualifies to work with you.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 0:33

Yeah, absolutely so. As you mentioned, we're an FSO, a franchise sales organization, so we partner with franchise ores and help to grow their system. So basically, bring them new franchisees. And the way we do it is really focused on ethical franchise growth. So making sure that we're placing the right people in the right brands that you know there's, there's a good culture, fit, demographic, psychographics All of that is there In terms of, you know, brands that we're looking for.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 1:03

We are always looking to add to our portfolio. Really, what we're looking for is a key differentiator, something that makes a brand unique in the space. Some really solid numbers, so solid item 19 or maybe you're newer and you're trending towards that solid item 19 a strong support team, or the ability to grow the support team as your system grows, and then great franchise owner satisfaction and Validation, if that's you know, if you already have owners in the system. So those are really the key metrics that we look for when partnering with new brands. But, yeah, always exciting to add more to the system and to you know, talk to more and learn about other businesses.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 1:47

Absolutely, and we'll have a chance for people. There would be a link here below the video where, if you'd like to speak with Rain Tree, they'd love to speak with you and you can click on that link and have a conversation with them. Lonnie, you mentioned something that I ask people a lot and I can't always get people to give me a great answer and that is differentiators, because I mean, it's a big deal like what do you guys look for as a differentiator? How would someone define that what they think is a differentiator is actually an effective, real differentiator?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 2:20

It's a good question because it's a tough one, right? You know, everybody thinks that they're different. What we're really looking for is Innovation like are you bringing something unique to the space? That's never been done before? And we work in Tons of different industries at this point, but we're looking at even industries like flooring. We have a brand that's just doing it completely differently, unlike anyone else. We have a dog training brand and they're bringing a very unique method of dog training. So I think it's really just comes down to how are you innovating the segment, how are you making the segment better and how are you Just contributing to the industry overall in a different way and not just copying? You know what you've seen other brands be successful with.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 3:08

Hmm, what do you think would be Probably that one of the most valuable things that we could talk about today, that would, they would make the greatest difference for Franchise brands are listening in, where they could really learn something, take notes and implement it.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 3:25

That's a broad question. What a good question. You know, I think the biggest thing that we could probably talk about is just support. And you know, and in what we do, basically, our role at Rain Tree is to free up the corporate team and you know the founders of the brand to focus on their franchisees and, you know, focus on how do you drive their profitability higher. You know, how do you get them what they need, how do you make sure that you maintain strong validation? And that's what we're here for, because we're taking this entire chunk of marketing and finding people and doing all the things that needs to be Done off of the plate so that, you know, the franchisees can focus on that. I think that would be a good topic to cover.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 4:12

Let's do it. What do you want to start on that?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 4:16

Yeah, I mean, I think for us the biggest thing and there's a couple things that we can't sell Past right. There's a lot of things that we understand the art of franchising, we understand who we're looking for, but there's two roadblocks where, where there's just no sales, you know can can really help and that's the strong numbers, so strong item 19, what the current franchisees are doing, and the numbers that they're putting up, and then validation. Those are two really key things that if it's just if it's not there, we can get people to that point absolutely. But if those two things are not there, nobody's gonna sign up for the franchise. So just really putting an emphasis on what can you do as you know, a corporate team to to drive those numbers and to just focus on your franchisee Satisfaction, and then you know we're kind of over here doing everything else that you need behind the scenes.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 5:12

Yeah, because I've seen people. I talk about it a lot, but I see people focus on marketing versus focus on trying to make the system run smoother, operate, be more different and that innovation there, because at a certain point I think people get tired of, they're like we're good enough, like we're good, but it's a moving target. Everybody is constantly leveling up and the status quo is falling behind. And what should you focus on to kind of like stand out now? I mean there's your differentiators. There's also your training, there's the ongoing support, there's the financial numbers making it easier every day replicating. What are the big things that, if somebody's like, what we need to kind of focus on to level up, and everybody's going to be a little different because they're all organically developed their company, however it is, but we're the kind of the big things I know you talked about their franchisees being happy, validating and your item 19. What are some things that stand out that would help people increase those?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 6:28

Yeah, it's a great question and it is the great point that some franchisors that we work with they come to us and they say, hey, we've been throwing, we threw $100,000 at this and we're not adding new franchisees to the system, Like, what do you think is wrong? And then we dive into going through P&Ls or we get on the phone with their current franchisees and people are unsatisfied or they're not making the kind of money that they said. It's like there's your problem right there. You can spend all this money on marketing, but if you can't get people past these steps in the process, you're never going to get somebody to join your system. So I do think that's a valid point, Just in terms of what can they do to help.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 7:14

I mean, I think it really does come down to expectations and aligning expectations during the process. So, while they're still in the pipeline, our team reiterating the expectations of the brand when you get on the phone with them at president's call or executive call, reiterating what you expect out of the brand, what the culture is at your brand, what you intend to keep as it is, and same at Discovery Day what are the expectations going to be in the first few months, in the first year and working towards that together. I think that that really is going to help clear up a lot, and then you're bringing people into the system that are not expecting they're going to make X when they're really going to make Y in that first year, and that's going to lead you to better validation and satisfaction.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 8:04

Right, and so with this, what do you think are some of the things we've talked about like things that people need to do and things that people are struggling, but I try not to look at the opposite. Are there any things that you see as commonalities on the people, that you kind of have to turn away? That, you know, is it really just? You know, the item 19 is low, they don't have good validation, or some. There's some other things that you, when you look at a brand, you're like we just have to turn your way at this time. If you fix these things, maybe we could talk again in the future.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 8:35

Yeah, for us, I mean honestly, the biggest thing is culture fit is we're really looking for long-term relationships, long-term partnerships. We don't want to bring a brand on and, you know, sell 300 franchises and overwhelm them and then everything we just talked about kind of falls apart. We're really looking for flow, steady, ethical growth. So brands that just don't really fit our culture, you know, brands that have unrealistic expectations of growth, is definitely something that we're not looking for. We're really looking for those people who have dialed in on who they want. They know who they want, they know who's successful in their system, and then they kind of give us that information, we learn more and then we go out and we actually actively look for people that match you know what they know to be successful.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 9:27

Do you guys use any of those personality profiles to understand their top franchisees or?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 9:32

We do. We have basically all of our brands at this point with Zoracle, so a personality assessment that helps us. Again, the entire system will take that test and then it will give us sort of rankings of, you know, the top performers and the personality traits that they have and the lower performers and the personality traits that they have. And that's really useful for us in our marketing because we know exactly who we're looking for, their background, their psychographics, demographics of the ideal candidate. And that's also something that makes us a little bit more unique in the space is that we are doing organically generation for our brands. We're not just waiting for consultants to bring us leads and then having to try to figure out if that's going to be a good match or not. We can actively go out and really hunt for these specific people.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 10:26

Right and so when you do that, so you get the proper lead for a company. But in those interactions you're going to determine if it's worth continuing to engage with somebody or determining that you should really just let them go or maybe actively disengage. Like, what are you looking for those factors in a potential candidate that you want to engage with? And then what are the factors that you really look for that cause you to disengage with a potential candidate?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 10:59

Yeah, I mean, of course, everything that we do has to be a mutual fit, so it's not just hey, I have the checkbook here I am.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 11:09

Is this person going to be a good fit for the system? I mean, it's a long typically 10 years that they're going to be part of that brand. Is it going to be a good fit or is it going to just be problematic for the brand and for the individual? So you know we're looking for just general interest and wanting to progress and wanting to move forward and doing the homework that we ask and you know, reviewing the FDD and being on time and showing up to calls. You know we always talk about if a candidate can't follow the process of just learning about the franchise, the odds of them following the process once they become a franchisee and you know they're in that system is pretty low. So we're really just looking for people who you know are willing to follow our sales process and willing to show up and be engaged and be excited and have good questions and just demonstrate a strong interest throughout the entire process.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 12:10

What are some things that you guys have learned about? Like increasing engagement, because just how you communicate with these people, it seems like you have to convey your value up front and really engage, because people are busy and even a good candidate might lose interest or get you know. They might have other people you know telling them that you know I don't know if I have that risk tolerance. You probably shouldn't either. Like how do you really engage with good quality clients and keep them in the process?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 12:46

Yeah, so we actually build out it's about 82 pieces of franchise specific material to each brand. So right now we have 10 brands. You can imagine it's a lot going on here, but it's basically to help with just that. So we're building out drip campaigns, automation emails, text messages so that even when they're not on the phone with one of our sales reps, they're still getting valuable content throughout the whole process.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 13:16

We're still sending them videos, we're still sending PR articles. We're still reminding them of you know, hey, remember this, you really liked this about this brand. You know, here's another article that highlights a similar topic. We're doing a lot of that through automation, and you know what I said about looking for brands that have differentiators and are innovating. We're trying to do the same thing in this FSL space. So by incorporating automations, having a bunch of touch points, all of these designed emails and beautiful websites, and just to keep that interaction going, because, you're right, in this day and age, our attention spans are short and you know they could easily see something else and be on to the next, so our goal is to really keep them engaged and interested throughout the entire process.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 14:09

Well, and I found from in the past, when I would split test a lot of things, that shorter was usually better and having a singular outcome, although the funny thing is I'll ask people two questions at once, which doesn't make sense, but I know that shorter is better and a single call to action. What are you guys finding with you know, kind of your tests, as kind of experts in the space is, when you're crafting your messaging or crafting your follow up sequences?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 14:44

Just that. I think I read something recently that our attention span is less than a goldfish at this point. So if we can just be direct to the point, shorter is always better. Our biggest thing is driving value. So we're not just sending an email just to send an email. We're not just sending a text just to send the text, just to get them to the next stage in the process. It's how can we deliver value, how can we give you the information that you need right now so that you can do your own research before getting on the phone with one of our development reps? So that's been really key. One call to action, you know, keep everybody going in the same direction, down the same path. But absolutely, it's all about short, to the point, but also being valuable to the person that's reading it.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 15:34

Yeah, I've seen people who are kind of new. They just say something to say something that they don't understand the purpose behind it or the purpose behind that message. They're just talking so that maybe the person will pay attention to them, but then you become. It's kind of like offering people more just to make it valuable. But more isn't valuable nowadays. Just what you want and need is more valuable than more.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 15:59

Absolutely, and that's why our approach to figuring out this dream buyer avatar, who is the ideal owner for this brand, and then we can target all of our messaging to their pain points and what issues are they experiencing and why are they looking at a franchise versus a different job? Do they want work-life balance? Do they want to make more money? They want to be more involved in the community, and for all of our brands it's something completely different. So really, by understanding who is the person that's interested in this brand, who is the person that's been proven to be successful with this brand, and really basing all of our messaging off of how do we solve that person's problem, also helps us to sort of eliminate people that maybe are not a great fit for that specific brand.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 16:47

Right. Do you get where a lot of the owners think that their ideal avatar is just a carbon copy of themselves and come to find out that their ideal avatar might actually be a different person when they look at their high performers or people who are performing high in that industry?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 17:04

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, typically it's not going to be the founder, because the founder was this true entrepreneur that went out and created something that never existed before, and now we're just looking for people who want to replicate that sort of success. So, yeah, we tend to find that it's not always who they think it was. Brands come to us and say this is who we think is going to be successful in our system, like brands that we've worked with that have had no franchise owners and they said we really want this and then come to find out it's actually something completely different. But the nice thing about having company like Rain Tree is we can pivot and change our marketing and still have the whole team focused on the franchise owners, but change everything up, update it to be more towards who the actual fit would be.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 18:00

Right. What are you guys seeing nowadays is the major objections that people are having, that they want to franchise, but then that fear or whatever gets involved. What are you guys seeing as the big objections nowadays?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 18:15

The economy is always an objection. I think that that's just how it's always going to be. It's always something that someone can pull to for fear in the economy or the way it's trending. It was the same thing during COVID. There are brands that you can find that are successful in any type of environment. If you are risk adverse to that, there are some brands that are probably not a good fit, but there's always going to be an option that could work. That's really the biggest one for us right now. It's uncertainty, but again, I think that's always there.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 18:55

Yeah, the thing about the uncertainty is you're not looking for an entrepreneur necessarily, because they'll just bite the bullet and go through the chaos and try to develop something on their own. So you're looking for someone who has entrepreneurial spirit but likes the security more like an executive, who they don't own the company but they're near the top that does that. Are there any personality traits that you guys notice If you look at the mindset of people who are very successful with franchises versus what is that kind of thought process that you've noticed when you're communicating with them or you talk with them?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 19:41

Yeah, I would say it's really different across our brands. It's really hard to come up with just a couple. If I had to pick the top ones, it's always going to be someone who's personable, who can get along with people. Customer service it really doesn't matter. Even if you do the semi-absentee and you put a manager in place, you always will be somewhat the face of your business and of your brand, so you need to have that ability to interact with customers. Sales skills will always go a long way, Even if you're selling smoothies versus you're selling flooring. It's always going to be important.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 20:28

So those are the main ones, Just a business background and understanding of general business. But then across our 10 brands it is so different. Which I think is really cool and unique about franchising is that you can find something that stoop to you and it might not be what you thought it was going to be. You might think you're dead set on one industry or one brand and then come to find out that's not at all what you wanted to do, but there's something you never thought of and it actually fits your skill sets perfectly. I think that that's pretty cool and just something that if you're not in franchising, you don't get this wide array of businesses and different people to work with.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 21:15

And one of the biggest things I've seen is the ability to put forth, like we said, the simple, condensed concepts. So many people need to condense things much smaller so that it's easier for people to get and then be willing to repeat that constantly A business that can convey what it does and how it's unique in one to two sentences. If you have to convey what you are and you're getting ready to take a big breath of air so that you can put the time into it and then finish it with you, do you get it? You're not ready yet. You got to condense and that takes some time, but people need to do that.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 21:59

The other thing I've noticed is being able to offer metrics and numbers. People are, I think, are afraid of numbers because they don't want to be held accountable to them. But if you really have things dialed in, you're always keeping track of numbers and improving your numbers. So numbers, you should lean on them because they're one of your greatest gifts, and if they're not ready yet, then you have to realize you're not ready yet. What are some of the great numbers? You just talked about your footprint floors. You talked about the dog brand. I can tell you this Sometimes I have a hard time finding territory for those because you guys are killing it. What are some good numbers that you can explain on those guys to give people an answer of? These are some things you're looking for to be able to convey things like this, like growth numbers, conversion numbers, customer satisfaction numbers so important.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 22:56

Yeah, yeah. So I would say that's probably the biggest reason that we I wouldn't say turned down brands. We just yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pause on brands is that they'll come to us. They have a great concept, they may be they, they have one or two franchise owners in the system, but the numbers just aren't there yet. And really, if, if, if your numbers are not there yet, you should pause and focus on your numbers. You shouldn't be looking for an FSO partner. You shouldn't be putting a ton of money into marketing. You should really see what you can do to help drive up profitability and really get those numbers to to a point where you know they're sellable. That that's that's interesting to someone. You know. Of course, people get into franchising for all sorts of reasons, but typically it's to make money. This is going to be their, their livelihood, and so you need to be able to really demonstrate that. In terms of item 19 numbers, we really look for a two to three year ROI and or 20% net margins to the bottom line. So we come through P&L's and that's really what we're looking for. You know, again, we want to work with brands that are focused on the franchisees. We want to sleep well at night. We want to know, when we make placements with brands, that that person has all the tools that they need to be successful. Other people have been successful following that process and so we can feel comfortable with that. So that's what we look for in terms of item 19 numbers.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 24:30

In terms of growth numbers I mean our growth numbers are are really all over the place.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 24:35

We we, we only work with brands that are registered franchises, so typically our brands come to us with a couple Franchisees. We've had some brands that come to us you know, bigger brands with maybe 50, but we've had a brand like toastique that came to us with zero, 12 and then in two years that has over 70 locations awarded across the country. So really, growth-wise, we're just looking for something that aligns with what we think we can be successful with. I tell our brands that typically in In year one will do 10 to 12 new franchise owners as we're learning about the brand and figuring out that dream buyer avatar and figuring out who's the good fit, and then we typically 2x that year to 3x that year, 3. It really tends to be, you know, this explosive growth once we get it dialed in. But, but mostly we're looking for, in terms of partners, those item 19 numbers and and making sure that they're strong and and just making sure brand has an item 19. That's definitely a requirement for us.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 25:43

You can see that with toastique, because it has a good differentiator, it's unique and it and it it's not just unique, it is Puts out a quality product and an inequality vibe that's consistent with now you know. So I could see why you guys kind of went around what your normal is, which is You're already set up, and instead took on somebody who had no, no units and help them, because it is a very unique brand, definitely.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 26:13

Yeah, and that's the other nice thing too about what we do is you know we have these sort of KPIs and these rules in place. But you know if a brand comes along and we just know like that brand is going to be successful, that brand just has everything. But maybe they don't have the item 19 yet or they don't have franchise owners yet. We're always happy to entertain those conversations. Our brand, voodoo Brewing, kind of came along and it didn't really fit in any of the boxes just yet, but we just knew it was gonna be something special and so sort of took a leap of faith on that one and it's our fastest growing brand this year. So I say all this and then I backtrack that it's all flexible and the biggest thing is that differentiator and something that's just really special and really unique, and then the rest kind of come after that.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 27:12

Right and willing to spend money in the correct way, not just spend money and blow it.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 27:16

You know like I remember when you guys mailed me out those cans of beer from Voodoo and it was cool like holding those cans in the hand because they're different, they are different from anything else and they just made it more real.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 27:33

So I think that spending money correctly because if a brand gets started, they try to do it themselves and they just kinda they're just doing something to do it they can blow through all of their profits in capital because they're not doing it in a way that's gonna get them results. And, like you said, is if people are, if it's not dialed in, if they don't treat their current franchisee like the customer, if they treat the next franchisee as the customer, they're gonna then run into more friction and resistance, which is gonna cause a much greater investment of marketing dollars, which still doesn't improve, produce happier franchisees, which makes validation hard and you're probably having hard validation because your item 19 is too low, let alone your processes and training. So, getting it dialed in and I think people don't wanna hear that you probably need to keep polishing and keep improving, but I think that's something that they should do forever like never let up on, you know, if they want to go to the top.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 28:34

Yeah, I would say our most successful brands are constantly adding new partnerships, adding new revenue streams, adding new trainings, new options and keeping it fresh and just keep giving options, because that's, ultimately, you know, what these people are looking for. They're like we discussed earlier. You know they're not true entrepreneurs. They're not going out there and starting something on their own. They're more this executive level who wants something proven, wants a proven process, but is excited to go out and do it in their market. But they have to keep things fresh and exciting and new, otherwise you do you just sort of fall behind the times and then a newer, sparklier version of something in your industry comes along, and that's where the intention will go.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 29:27

Yeah, I think we've all seen restaurants that were killing it in their day and they never reinvested back into the building and they eventually die because the place is so beat up. They just haven't continued to reinvest and improve, and you can't do that as a franchise brand either. You have to continue to reinvest and improve. Well, lana, I appreciate everything you've shared with us today. That was awesome. Thank you for that, and I'll just tell anybody who, if you wanna work with Rain Tree, it's a great company. There's a link right here by the video. You can go, click on it and check out Rain Tree. They would love to have a conversation with you and they'll let you know if you're, you know, a good candidate for now or a good candidate for later if a few things get tweaked. So it's worth a conversation just to find out. So Anything else you'd like to add, lana?

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 30:23

No, no, I think that's just it, as I always tell brands, if we have to pass today, we're gonna stalk you, we're gonna follow you on LinkedIn, we're gonna reach out next year for that FDD. We're gonna stay in touch and always happy to be here as a referral source to other FSOs or you know other vendors that might be useful to you. So, yeah, always happy to just get on the phone and see where brands are at and learn about new industries. So, yeah, absolutely take advantage.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 30:54

Thank you, Lana.

Lana Mazin (Raintree): 30:56

Thanks, Lance.