Franchisee Coaching: How to Increase Profitability

Question: As an established franchise system, how do you increase profitability? Answer: You invest in franchisee coaching. 

Hear me out… the more profitable and happy your franchisees are, the better ambassadors they will be for your brand and the more profitable your system will become. This is not the only answer for increasing profitability, but it’s one that we have seen work over and over again!

In this post, we’re sharing step-by-step instructions for how to implement or improve your franchisee coaching as an established franchise system, and we have the perfect member of the AC team here to share the action steps!

Franchise Growth Advisor, Jen Brannon has two favorite topics. One of these topics is her boujie holidays (if you ever need resort recommendations, Jen is your go-to) and the other is supporting franchisees for success!

Jen was a successful franchisee for Tutor Doctor for many years (she even ended up doing franchisee coaching among her peers) so she really understands the value of coaching and support. 

There are many ways to support your franchisees – you could have a resource library, training programs, skill development opportunities, hotline support, tutorials, and the list goes on. But coaching is a big piece.

Your franchisee support team (sometimes called field coaches or franchise business coaches) are the ones coaching your franchisees for success and how you implement the coaching structure is a big predictor of success.

Okay, enough of me, let’s dive into Jen’s advice!

Consulting VS Strategic Growth Coaching

Let’s start by defining the difference between consulting and strategic growth coaching. Most established franchise systems we see are using a consulting method for coaching their franchisees.

Consulting is when your franchisee support team approaches franchisees with the mindset of “What’s the problem? Here’s how you fix it.” This method often includes assigning franchisees goals for them and giving specific instructions on how to achieve them.

Strategic growth coaching is a very different approach (that works a lot better) because it focuses more on getting buy-in and engagement from your franchisees in the coaching process.

Strategic growth coaching is all about discovering your franchisee’s “why” and their own personal goals around business ownership. Do they want to sell their business one day? Do they want to scale to a certain level? 

When you know your franchisee’s vision for success and their own goals, you can help them break that down into 10-year goals, 3-year goals, etc., and map out the action steps that will help them get there.

This method for coaching works well because it empowers your franchisees, increases their engagement and accountability, and turns your system’s goals INTO their goals.

Assess Your Current Franchisee Coaching

Your first step in improving or implementing strategic growth coaching for your franchisees is to assess what your system currently has in place for a coaching structure.

This may seem like an easy task, but it can take some digging to really understand what franchisee coaching system you have set up. 

You’ll want to talk to your existing franchisee support team and understand their mindset on franchisee coaching. Analyze what systems are in place. 

Are there regular calls scheduled with your franchisees? What do those calls look like? What kind of goal setting do your franchisees do? What kind of accountability is in place?

You’ll also want to understand your other team member’s understanding of franchisee coaching. What does your franchise development team think happens in the coaching sessions? What do they think franchisee support looks like? What about your marketing team?

Once you know what is currently in place, you can start to shift and align everyone’s mindset and introduce strategic growth coaching.

Change Your System’s Mindset

Strategic growth coaching gives your franchisees the skills to run a successful business. Most franchisees don’t know how to hire and haven’t seen a profit and loss statement before. Beyond goal setting and accountability, they also need skill development in these key areas.

This is why it’s so important to have strategic growth coaching for franchisees in your system! Without this approach, you risk having unprofitable and disengaged owners. No franchisor wants that!

Your entire team needs to understand the importance of strategic growth coaching, what it is, and how it differs from a consulting approach. Yes – not just your franchisee support team – your entire corporate team. 

Franchise development, marketing, the executive team… the more your team is aligned on these concepts the better your system will succeed with implementation.

Bring in an Expert

To change your system’s mindset on franchisee coaching, we recommend bringing in an expert. You could of course do it yourself, booking calls, creating training plans, explaining the difference between consulting and strategic growth coaching, and aligning your team over time….

But it makes more sense from a budget, time, and effectiveness perspective to bring in an expert to get mindset, training, systems, and a strategy in place for your franchisee coaching.

AC Inc works with franchise systems to implement effective strategic growth coaching systems and training. We bring more than 100+ years of expertise in franchisee success, development, and coaching to your system – and our signature training structure for field coaches.

Book a free initial call with us to learn more about how we help franchise systems implement strategic growth coaching and increase system profitability!

Have more questions about franchisee coaching? We discuss this and more in our free virtual AC Roundtables where franchisors gather on zoom to collaborate and problem-solve together.

The AC Roundtables are a free resource we offer franchisors who are seeking collaboration and peer-to-peer learning. We’ve been running these virtual roundtables since 2020 and we always love to have new franchisors join us!

Try one of our free AC Roundtables