Forming a Franchise Advisory Council

Once you have sold a few franchises, say five or more, it can be beneficial to form a Franchisee Advisory Council. You might call it an Advisory Council, a Key Franchisee Group, Franchise Leadership Council, or something similar.

You can form it just by asking some of your most successful (and most loyal) franchisees to be part of it. The number would vary depending on the total number of franchises you have sold, but would probably not be less than three or more than twelve.

The purpose of the Franchisee Advisory Council is to:
• Obtain “feet on the street” feedback from some of your best franchisees.
• Provide a forum where you can discuss new ideas and programs.
• Evaluate the success of things you have implemented in the past.
• Create an organized group of franchisees who support the franchisor.

You should form the group by invitation, rather than by election. You may want to ask them to accept assignments for special research projects and test marketing programs.

They should not have any legal authority in the organization, and the decisions and recommendations that they make would not be binding on you.

You will not be able to do everything that they suggest. Nevertheless, they will probably present some good ideas and you will benefit from receiving their feedback. If you never act on their suggestions they may feel that there is no benefit to being part of the council, but if you are able to implement some of the ideas they present they will feel that their input is useful to you.

They will need to receive some recognition, perhaps listing their names on periodic company communications, and recognizing them at company meetings.

You should be careful that all feedback from other franchisees is not suddenly funneled through the Advisory Council. They should not organizationally “represent” or “speak for” the other franchisees. You do not want to lose contact with individual franchisees.

You will want to hold periodic meetings with the Council, perhaps quarterly. We suggest that you conduct the meetings by agenda and allow them to suggest topics for discussion in advance.

If you are in the same geographic area you may want to take them to dinner a couple of times a year and hold a discussion meeting afterward. If members of the Advisory Council are at some distance from each other, you could hold a special annual meeting in conjunction with your annual convention.

A good franchisee council can help the franchisor strengthen the franchise program for the benefit of all.

More information can be found at:  www.biltmorefranchise.com