A franchise development company finds buyers for franchise brands and guides them to opening day. Here is how to run sales advisers, onboarding teams and brand liaison staff through long, relationship-heavy deal cycles.
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Share your requirementsA franchise development company helps brands sell franchises and helps investors choose and open them. Its staff include lead generation and tele-sales teams, franchise sales advisers who meet prospects, market and site research analysts, legal-coordination and documentation staff, onboarding and opening managers, brand relationship managers and a small management team. Sales cycles run for months: a prospect asks, compares brands, visits outlets, negotiates, arranges funds and finally signs. Income is often commission on closed deals, so staff go through long dry periods followed by large payments. Advisers carry significant responsibility, since a prospect may invest life savings on their advice. Trust, honest representation and clear records matter more than in most sales jobs. Poaching of advisers who take their prospect lists is common. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in franchise development companies. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Advisers go months without a closed deal, then receive a large payout, and stress and attrition follow the dry spells.
An adviser under pressure may paint a brand's returns too brightly, and the company faces complaints and reputation harm.
Lead generation teams are measured on volume, advisers say the leads are weak, and both blame each other.
An adviser who leaves takes contacts to a competitor, and the company has no clear record of ownership or terms.
After signing, a prospect is passed to the opening team with missing notes, and the person who built trust disappears.
Brands push for faster closings and different incentives, and advisers are caught between brand demands and honest advice.
Managers lack leading measures such as meetings, site visits and proposals, and judge people only on closings.
Opening managers handle several launches at once, with delays in sites, approvals and hiring beyond their control.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Performance Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a franchise development companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A steady base, a commission on closings and recognition for pipeline activity, reviewed with compensation benchmarking.
A steady base, a commission on closings and recognition for pipeline activity, reviewed with compensation benchmarking.
What advisers may say about returns, how risks are explained and how claims are checked before they are shared with prospects.
What advisers may say about returns, how risks are explained and how claims are checked before they are shared with prospects.
Agreed criteria for a qualified lead, with a weekly review between lead generation and advisers.
Agreed criteria for a qualified lead, with a weekly review between lead generation and advisers.
A clear rule on who owns prospect information and what happens when an adviser leaves, documented in employment terms.
A clear rule on who owns prospect information and what happens when an adviser leaves, documented in employment terms. HR documentation helps.
A one-page note with the prospect's goals, concerns, promises made and agreed next steps, with the adviser present at the first onboarding call.
A one-page note with the prospect's goals, concerns, promises made and agreed next steps, with the adviser present at the first onboarding call.
Meetings, visits, proposals and follow-ups reported weekly, so managers can coach before a deal is lost, using the performance management process.
Meetings, visits, proposals and follow-ups reported weekly, so managers can coach before a deal is lost, using the performance management process.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A view of fixed pay and commission for advisers and support staff.
Reviews that count activity and honest representation, not only closings.
Clear terms on prospect information, conduct and exits.
Finding and testing advisers who are patient, honest and persistent.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
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A practical design for an IT services appraisal cycle: when to run it, how to rate fairly across projects, and how to explain hikes so they hold.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
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Combine a steady base with commission and recognise pipeline activity. Predictable income keeps good advisers through dry spells.
Write a representation code, check claims before sharing and review proposals. Reward trust, not only closings.
Set out ownership and exit terms in writing from the start, and keep records in the company system. Confirm with a qualified professional what is enforceable.
Agree criteria jointly and review weekly. Shared definitions turn blame into improvement.
Use a one-page note and have the adviser join the first call. Prospects should not feel dropped after signing.
We would look at how advisers are paid, how proposals describe returns and how handovers work. A sensible first piece of work is a pay structure review and a representation code. Scope follows in writing, so you can accept or trim it.
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