If you own a franchise you should be in contact with your nearest franchisees and share information as if you were the manager of a corporate store. You should set up meetings once or twice per month and have their phone numbers logged into your speed dial for easy reference.

You should learn from the experiences of your fellow franchisees. For example, let?s say you found out your next-door franchisee neighbor as a certain type of customer and you are starting to see a few of these types of customers come into your store. You decide you would like to see more of them as their average ticket prices are better than your current average customers. You, of course, will want to learn all you can from your neighboring franchisee and what they have done to target this market segment. It?s really nice to know you can pick up the phone and call a friend who has answers to these types of questions you might have on a regular basis. They can help you by:

Allowing you to work with them in their store for a half of day

Introducing you to certain types of customers to help you understand their needs

Explain idiosyncrasies in serving different market segments

Dealing with these different customers and their fears

Learning how to best service these new customers and understanding their buying behaviors.

This works well. Your regional director can also help you but he/she may be learning as they go just like you. As a franchisee you have a team to plug into, it is a system, the system is dynamic and you can learn from it to help you become more efficient and profitable. You should call your Regional Directors as well as your local franchisees, because two minds are better than one. We know you can figure it out, but it sure helps to have the extra support. Maximize the team synergies of your franchise system, stay plugged into the strength of numbers and economies of scale. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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