Joel Libava
(Image courtesy of BitStrips)
They are. Big time. Seriously.
The things I’ve been feeling have been going on for a while. I just haven’t wanted to share them with you.
Until now.
That’s because I can’t take it anymore!
My Competitors In Franchising Are Driving Me Cray-Cray
The reasons why they’re driving me crazy probably aren’t what you think.
- The reasons they’re driving me crazy have nothing to do with how talented my competitors are. (Or aren’t)
- The reasons they’re driving me crazy have nothing to do with their breathtaking websites.
- The reasons they’re driving me crazy have nothing to do with their huge client lists.
- The reasons they’re driving me crazy have nothing to do with their powerful connections.
- The reasons they’re driving me crazy don’t even have anything to do with how some of them copy me.
Nope. None of those are the reasons for my craziness.
Do you want to know why my franchising competitors are driving me cray-cray?
Yes, Joel. That’s why we’ve read this far.
Ok.
The Reason My Competitors Are Driving Me Crazy
Here’s the reason, people:
My competitors in franchising won’t stop calling me!
Over and over again.
Day in and day out.
They keep calling and calling…
Isn’t that crazy?
Why won’t they stop?
Don’t they know they’re driving me crazy?
Don’t they care?
Here’s Why They’re Calling Me
I’ll bet you want to know why they’re calling me…what their reasons are.
Right?
I’m going to lay some recent examples on you. Let’s start with this one…
I had a call three weeks ago from a competitor in the franchise/business opportunity website space.
The gentleman owns a pretty well-trafficked website that caters to people who are looking for opportunities to go into business. He called to ask about my franchise directory. He wanted to know how things were going with The Franchise Biz Directory-mostly because of the way I set it up. I don’t mean just how it’s visually set up, although it is quite different then most websites in the franchise opportunity space. What he really wanted to know was how I was monetizing it. That’s because…
The Franchise Biz Directory is really, really, different.
Instead of selling individual leads” to franchisors and suppliers to the franchise industry, I sell listings. I sell search engine visibility. The real difference between my franchise directory and the other websites in the franchise opportunity website space is this: I send my visitors directly to my advertisers’ websites. That’s unheard of in the franchise opportunity space. In addition, I do social media marketing for my advertisers. My advertisers deserve their share of sales.
Now, this may not sound very earth-shattering to you…I completely understand that, but no one in the space does this. Instead, they provide “Request More Information” forms for their web visitors to fill out, and then send these forms to their advertisers. The good thing about doing it that way is that it’s easy for their advertisers to track their leads. Of course they’re paying for each lead…each form that’s filled out. The not so-good thing about that is it can get very, very expensive. Advertisers pay $10-$40 for each filled out lead form. So, if a franchisor receives 50-75 “leads” per month from a typical franchise opportunity website, they can end up spending $750-$3000 per month. And, most franchisors are advertising on more than one website!
Some Franchise Lead Portals Are Good
I’ve worked with Franchise Direct for several year. Franchise Direct.com is the only franchise opportunity portal I work with. I like the team there. I trust them. They do good work, including the outstanding franchise reports they produce every year. Their advertisers like working with them too. How do I know? The advertisers I’ve talked to have told me as much.
I encourage all of my advertisers on The Franchise Biz Directory to use good franchise opportunity portals as long as they’re getting results. I want them to diversify. No advertiser should put all of their
Back to the call.
He wanted information. I gave him some. Maybe more than I should of. Nah…scratch that: I’m very transparent. I usually share my techniques with people I know. And, I know this guy fairly well.
Two days later he launched his own version of my franchise opportunity website. He too, is now sending his web visitors directly to his advertisers’ websites instead of collecting their information on lead forms and just sending the collected personal information to them. They’re getting the web traffic. That’s good! That’s how it should be. After all, who better to demonstrate the benefits of their franchise or business opportunity then the advertiser?
Seeing him copy my idea made me crazy…but only for a few minutes, though. That’s because I knew eventually someone would copy what I was doing.
Whateva.
Update: A very well-known franchise portal just started offering to do what I do-send their web traffic right to their advertisers websites. My idea is spreading.
A Call From A Different Kind Of Franchising Competitor
(That’s me giving a keynote address to members of The Franchise Broker’s Association and about 50 franchisors, at their National Conference)
I recently got a call from a franchise broker. He had just completed franchise broker training, and wanted to pay me for a couple of hours of my time…for some tips and advice.
Now, you know that I used to be a franchise broker, right? And, you know that I’m not anymore. Right?
Let’s make sure. Here’s what I do:
Instead of matching people to franchises that may be a fit-and getting a commission for doing so, I offer unbiased advice and coaching. My advice is unbiased when I work one-on-one with people because I’m not matching them to franchises in order to get a $15,000 minimum commission. I’m paid for my time, of course, but my goal is to make sure my clients are on the right track and that they’ve left no stone unturned before they make a yes or no decision on the franchise they’re interested in purchasing.
Back to the call I received from this new franchise broker. And, yes: Franchise brokers are direct competitors of mine.
This Franchise Broker Was Smart
He obviously did a pretty thorough Google search of me before he called. He was very prepared.
He wanted some marketing tips and ideas. He wanted me to tell him what my beginnings were like as a franchise broker. He wanted to know what to expect. I shared my story with him, and then told him what he needed to do in today’s highly-competitive market. We spent a couple of hours together. I looked over his website and offered several useful suggestions on how to make it even better than it already was. I offered some marketing ideas…ones that will work for him. But why? Why would I want to help him? (Besides the fact that he offered to pay me for my expertise.)
I helped him because, to me, it doesn’t matter how many franchise brokers there are. I’m so different from a franchise broker. So. Different.
People interested in buying a franchise find me. Easily. The smart ones contact me because they want straightforward, unbiased advice. They want to be protected. They don’t want to make a mistake. They don’t want to lose their money.
And, by the way, I get 2-3 calls each and every month from people who are “thinking” about becoming franchise brokers. I give them the straight scoop on what they can expect if they choose to become a broker. I don’t charge for those calls. I don’t mind spending 5-10 minutes of my time to help them out. I only charge if they want in-depth advice, including how to do research on the 10 or so franchise brokerages. (Franchise brokerages charge around $20,000 for franchise broker training.) Or, if they want some of my marketing ideas that can give their businesses a nice jump-start.
Just Two Examples
I wanted to give a couple examples of some of the calls I receive these days. I get lots of other calls. Some of them are rather unusual.
For example, I get calls from people wanting to buy Starbucks franchises. For some reason, they think that I sell franchises for Starbucks®. Those calls do drive me cray-cray.
I also get calls from people who want to buy Subway® franchises. Again, these fine folks think I sell franchises for Subway. (Because I write articles about Subway?) Must be.
People call me for all kinds of goofy stuff. But, it’s okay. It means that I’m being found online.
Don’t even get me started with the emails I get.
One more thing: My competitors in franchising aren’t really driving me crazy.
I just thought “My Competitors In Franchising Are Driving Me Cray-Cray” would be a good headline.
Did it work?
Was it?
*Don’t be shy. Call me.
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