CruiseOne: Integrating Technology into the Sales Process

We asked Tim Courtney, vice president of franchise development at CruiseOne, "What are you doing to integrate technologies for both your overall development strategies and into how you create a profile of your best prospects?" Here's what he had to say.

It's really incredible how much technology continues to evolve! There are so many tools available to assist franchisors with their development plans today, and at CruiseOne integrating technology is an essential part of our development strategy.

• Invest in technological enhancements.
  Get creative with your development budget and ensure there is room for technological enhancements. We continually invest in our existing technology tools and new platforms. This allows us to continue creating innovative programs, giving us access to the latest and greatest franchise development tools. This investment has not only provided us with a positive return on investment in obtaining new franchisees, but also in maintaining satisfied franchise owners with a 94 percent retention rate.
• Develop technology for efficiencies.
  Our standalone recruitment website is separate from the consumer website and has proven to be the most beneficial tool in our development strategy. Having a responsive website is the best, most efficient way to increase website conversions because you are providing a user-friendly experience for prospects. It also gives you a platform to build your credibility through highlighting milestones and accomplishments such as industry recognitions. Plus, with an average 90-day sales process, we ensure our development team is equipped with a robust CRM system and presentation tools that track the progress being made with the prospect throughout the entire process. This is an extremely important part of our development strategy because we want our team focused on determining whether or not our franchise model is mutually beneficial for us and the franchisee.
• Identify the best prospects.
  Unless you are tracking how your marketing and advertising dollars are spent and which lead sources are yielding the best return on investment, you are likely not attracting the best possible prospects for your franchise system. With a robust CRM, you can maximize your opportunities by pulling reports and data mining your franchisee database to track franchisee performance back to the lead source, demographics, etc. At CruiseOne, we have several ways we recruit new prospects. Whether it's attending trade shows or placing print and franchise portal advertisements, we ensure that our marketing dollars and results are continuously monitored with regard to cost per lead, cost per acquisition, conversion rate, etc. It is also important to see how these compare not only with other lead sources but also year over year.