Are These Franchises Less Risky?

(Courtesy of ☺Lee J Haywood, on Flickr)

I’m not sure how far along you are in your search for a franchise business opportunity, but there’s a term that I want you to become familiar with.

The term I’m about to turn you on to is used aggressively by most franchise broker and franchise consultant groups. Here it it is;

Pre-Screened Franchises

As Used In A Sentence

“We work with over 200 pre-screened franchise opportunities.”

How do I know that it’s used?

That’s one reason. Here’s another;

I used to use that term when I was a franchise consultant.

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The Psychology Of Pre-Screened Opportunities

I loved using the term, “pre-screened” as part of my spiel. All brokers and consultant do. Trust me.

When potential franchise owners contacted me, one question that they asked was this one;

“Why should I work with a franchise broker-and why you?”

I would give them several reasons, including the fact that the franchise brokerage franchise that I was with, “worked with 200 pre-screened franchises.”

Most of my potential candidates never questioned the term, “pre-screened.”  But if they did, here was my response;

“We have a group of brokers that personally vet the franchisors we work with. They call some of the franchisees themselves, and then all of the brokers on the committee get together on a conference call and share what they’ve learned. Then they have a vote. If the majority of the brokers on the vetting committee vote to accept the franchisor-they’re added to our ‘inventory’ of franchise opportunities.”

Then,  I would follow-up with this sentence;

“A lot of franchisors get turned down.”

A good percentage of my prospective candidates would agree to an appointment with me after learning about our selection process.

Are These Franchises Less Risky? Some Facts

Some of these pre-screened franchises turned out to be less than stellar. In other words, some of them flopped. Which made some of us…the brokers, pretty angry…. embarrassed, even. We started to question the vetting techniques a bit, and some parts of the process did end up getting changed. But, still…

I was starting to get troubled. Here I was, presenting, “pre-screened franchise opportunities” to my candidates…and believe me, I was still using the terminology as part of my spiel…but I wasn’t feeling all that confident about some of the franchises that we were representing. But, I had a solution;

I threw out the brochures of the franchise concepts that I didn’t feel comfortable with.

This Is Not A Slam

The concept of vetting franchisors..of pre-screening franchisors, is actually a good one. I always though that it was a great idea. If I was still a franchise broker, I’d love to have a thoroughly vetted stable of franchise concepts to present to my franchise ownership candidates. But, it’s just not a good way of doing business. Here’s why;

There’s no guarantee. 

What do the words, “pre-screened” mean? Or..asked in a different way, what do the words, “pre-screened” suggest?

The Answer; less risky.

So, if I’m a franchise broker, and I’m presenting 2-3, “pre-screened franchise opportunities” to potential franchise owner candidates of mine, but I have nothing to back these opportunities up with, what good is having something that’s “pre-screened” to begin with?

I’ll stop beating around the bush now.

Unless the franchise brokerage groups that are offering these “pre-screened” franchises are willing to guarantee that the franchises they’re representing are “good” franchises-because they’re pre-screened, what good is it to offer them to their franchise ownership candidates in the first place?

Unless of course, one of these franchise brokerage groups steps up to guarantee their franchise offerings.

Do you think it can happen? Would it be a game-changer if it was to happen?

What if a franchise broker was able to guarantee you’d be successful?