Franchise Growth
We turned down three acquisition offers. Here is why
Every offer looked like validation. Taking one would have broken the thing that made the offers come in the first place.
Aaron Blake6 min read
The discovery call is still where deals are won
We automated everything around the discovery call so the call itself could be completely human. That order matters.
My team cut candidate response time from days to minutes this year. People assume that means we replaced the human part of franchise development. It is the opposite. We automated everything around the discovery call precisely so that the call itself could be entirely human.
Speed buys you the right to a real conversation
A candidate who hears back in two minutes shows up to the call warm. A candidate who waited three days shows up skeptical, if they show up at all. The automation does not close anyone. It just makes sure the human conversation actually happens while the interest is still alive.
Protect the call, automate the rest
Scheduling, reminders, document collection, follow up. All of it runs without my team touching it. What my team does is sit across from a person deciding whether to bet their savings on our brand, and give that decision the attention it deserves.
Dee Okafor
VP Franchise Development, Summit Fitness Collective
Dee leads franchise development at Summit Fitness Collective. Her column is a candid look at recruiting and qualifying franchisees in a funnel that now runs on fast, AI-assisted response.
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