Franchisees go through 4 distinct developmental phases: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and seniority. When franchisees first join your system they are like infants requiring a lot of support and training. During this early stage, they need to learn the rules of the game; and in franchising, these boundaries are the franchisor policies and procedures. They also learn the consequences to their choices. For example, if they don’t follow the system, they most likely won’t get the financial rewards they seek from their businesses; they may not get the customers they need or may lose the ones they got.

This is a difficult stage for franchisees because they are totally out of their comfort zone. They not only require knowledge and information; they need franchisors to understand and address their emotional states of mind and how these interfere with their learning and ability to implement. One of the most important elements that forms during this stage is TRUST. During this stage franchisees need consistency of message, they have a hard time dealing with paradoxes and concepts must be broken down into small pieces. During the early days, franchisees are usually more open to learn and appear to be more grateful and appreciative of what the franchisor offers.

After the first year, and in some cases just a few months, franchisees enter the adolescence stage. They get some of the basics of the business down, and begin to believe they know better than the franchisor. They thus start challenging the system in a behavior similar to that of teenagers. In my opinion this is the most difficult and most critical stage franchisees have to go through. They have mastered some parts of the business and fool themselves into thinking they know it all; they cheat themselves from learning all the intricacies of the franchise methodology. This is dangerous because it is at this point when franchisees start deviating from the proven system of the franchisor; deviation that often results in failure. Many franchisors focus most of their training and support effort during the infancy stage relaxing their standards after a few months. However, I believe that it is at the adolescence stage when coaching and training need to intensify. Franchisees must be helped to see that they really do not know everything; but yet, they must also be recognized for what they have mastered. It is a tricky balance. Open and honest communications is the only way to continue to build trust.

As franchisees carry on learning the business after a couple of years they reach their adulthood stage. Now they know how to communicate with the franchisor and how to be part of the team. They also have learned the business basics and have comprehended all the layers of understanding needed for the business to produce results. They also know the value the franchisor contributes to their success. During this stage franchisees seek recognition and inclusion. Franchisors who don’t attend to these needs fail to engage these franchisees and miss out on the contributions they can make to the franchise system. Moreover, if these needs are not met, franchisees may start to disengage from the team.

As time goes on, franchisees become senior members of the team ready and willing to contribute at all times. During this phase franchisees are not only important “validators” of the franchise opportunity, they have valuable experience to offer to the team. Yet, franchisees only get to be contributing and engaged senior members when the franchisor has in place the right communication and support systems to address the needs of franchisees at each of their developmental stages.

The success of the franchise relation is not all about the business concept and the information transferred to the franchisee. Instead, it calls for understanding and addressing the needs of franchisees at each of the different developmental stages.

Related posts:

1. Are Your Franchisees Able to Absorb the Information They Need?
2. What Are the Challenges Faced by Start-up Franchisors?
3. When are franchisees ready to produce results?

“A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

We are so eager to teach our franchisees all we believe they need to know to successfully run the franchise business that we rarely consider that their minds may be like the cup in the previous story: already filled. So, we keep pouring information into the franchisee’s mind not realizing that nothing we are sharing with them is going in.

It is critical we help franchisees adopt a Beginner’s Mind as they start their training on your franchise opportunity (to borrow another Zen concept). It’s only from this mental position that true learning can take place. A Beginner’s Mind is an empty mind, one that allows new concepts to come in.

For example, if we have never seen or heard about a bicycle and are being trained to ride one, our minds would be empty of pre-conceptions and we would be able to truly listen to any instructions given to us. Our minds would be teeming with questions and requests such as: “What is this? What do I do with it? How do I do it? Show me. Help me.” However, if we are familiar with the concept of bicycles, even if we haven’t ridden one in years, most likely we would attempt to get on the bike right away and try it on our own. The questions of the Beginner’s Mind would leave us replaced with statements such as: “I hope I don’t fall; this bike is not as good as the one I used to ride; and so on.” In other words, fear and judgment take the place of curiosity.

The facts are simple:

• We cannot learn anything if we think we already know it.
• Our preconceived ideas and judgments influence our understanding of the new, preventing us from true learning.
• If we are always thinking about how we can do it better, we can’t possibly learn the way it is being taught; which is the new way and could be much better.

Because new franchisees go through massive change when they first join a franchise system, they feel vulnerable and their tendency is to seek safety in what they already know. This natural response to the emotional upheaval they experience challenges true learning.

It’s important you help your franchisees deal with these emotional states; help them empty their cup before trying to pour in more information; help them embrace a Beginner’s Mind. Ask yourself: “Are my franchisees ready and able to absorb the information they need to learn?” and “How can I help them create the mindset that will allow learning to take place?”

If you want to learn more about what makes franchisees successful, keep reading this blog, you’ll be able to find similar posts under the Franchisees tab. Also, consider reading my book Franchise Succcess: The New Formula.

Related posts:

1. Do the beliefs of franchisees affect their success?
2. Is Your Training Program Geared to Create "Franchisees of the Year"?
3. When are franchisees ready to produce results?

In my quest to shift the thinking of clients to more global issues, I came up with an interesting exercise. I ask clients to imagine they are getting ready for the first “Franchisee of the Year” award and they need to come up with criteria to use to choose the franchisee to honor.

What criteria are you using or would you use to award this honor? Does or would it include any of the following? For example:

• the highest sales, revenue or percentage increase?
• the highest customer satisfaction?
• the best validation of the franchise?
• the best attitude?
• the highest commitment to the brand?
• the stongest team spirit?
• the most positive and visible community involvement?
• the way the system is followed and implemented?
• the support they provide to other franchisees?

How can you measure these standards? What other awards would you give? What criteria and measurement would you use for those? Write your answers down.

It is up to you and your company what you want the criteria to be and how you are going to measure franchisees against these standards. There is no right or wrong way to do this; there may be better ways, but this is always the case. The objective is to capture those behaviors, actions and results that are really important to you and your company and find ways to measure them.

Now, the big question is:

Is your training program geared to teach all franchisees how to become the best franchisee? In other words, are you teaching your franchisees how to excel in each of these criteria?

If you are not, then it is time to rethink your training programs.

Related posts:

1. 3 Simple Ways to Create Strong Relationships with your Franchisees
2. 10 Tips to create great Franchisee-Franchisor Relations
3. Are Your Franchisees Able to Absorb the Information They Need?