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“Well I don’t have any sales experience, but I’ll just have to learn. My franchisor will give me the training and coaching I need, so it’ll work out.”

By law, franchisors have to spend a certain amount of time training you to be a franchise owner. This training generally covers basic topics related to running a business, plus any specialized skills related to the franchise’s specific operations. If the business requires you to cold call and sell, you will be given sales training. If the business requires you to use specialized equipment, you’ll be introduced to that. If you will need to hire and train staff, you will be shown how to get those tasks done as well. You’ll also be given an operations manual that outlines most of what you need to know to run the business.

While training is a good thing for any profession, you do have to approach it with realistic expectations.Don’t assume that you can pick up a new skill and be a pro after two weeks of instruction — particularly if certain aspects of your personality conflict with the skill you are trying to learn. For example, you won’t become a rock star sales person if you are shy. And you won’t become a good manager if you hate people. You might learn these skills with diligent practice over time, but it’s just not going to happen overnight — despite what your franchisor may tell you. That’s why failing to address the role your own personality characteristics play in your future business possibly sets you up for a very hard fall.

Overnight salesperson

Franchises that require direct, B2B selling are notoriously tougher to operate than you might think. No matter how amazing your product or service is, many of your prospective customers will simply be lukewarm to your presentation. And that’s if you’re fortunate enough to get a meeting scheduled. Think about it; your prospects have probably already heard every pitch in the book. They’ve bought into bad promises and they’ve gambled on the next big thing. And they’ve been disappointed. So they’re skeptical and reserved. They don’t trust you. An experienced, confident sales person understands that this is the nature of sales. It’s like batting averages; the really good ones only close three of every ten customers they pitch.

The lesser experienced salesperson — say, the newly minted, inexperienced franchise owner who’s just completed sales training — might get discouraged and frustrated with the difficulty of his mission. Discouragement can quickly become incompetence and, ultimately, failure. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen. And it’s not pretty.

Instant manager

The same dynamic applies to management skills. Effectively leading your employees to buy into the mission of your business is not a skill you learn overnight. But it’s a skill that directly influences the success of your business. You just can’t expect your employees to have the same drive and determination as you. Sad as it sounds, you have to inspire them not to steal from you, show up late or not at all, leave equipment turned on at night, work slowly on purpose, or yell at your customers. Just like the inexperienced salesperson, the inexperienced manager can get caught off guard by difficulty of the task at hand.

Self assessment

So you have to take a good, hard look at yourself to decide if you have the skills needed to run the franchise effectively. Don’t expect your prospective franchisor to tell you that you’re not a good fit for the business; that’s just not likely to happen.

If you are lacking in certain skills, you have two choices: find another, more suitable franchise business to buy, or find a way to get the experience and training you need. Don’t assume that your franchisor’s training program will be enough. Most of the time, it won’t.

If you have questions about this episode, feel free to email them to us at questions@businessmorgue.com. We’ll publish your questions on the site and address them in the next episode of the podcast.