Buy 1 franchise, get 4 free!

I just called a franchise company (I’ll keep the name for me) to ask them if they wanted to be listed in the upcoming edition of our top seller publication, the Bond’s Franchise Guide.

I knew I was gonna be a hard sale. I met the franchisor at the International Franchise Expo in DC a couple weeks ago and he’s one of these guys who wants the world for free.

I hadn’t had the time to tell him about the price that he went “listen, I have a great deal for you. You give me a free listing in your Guide and I’ll give you a free franchise!”.

I then remembered seeing on his booth a “marketing message” saying “Buy 1 franchise, get 4 Free”. Basically, you buy the rights for a territory and they give you 4 other territories for free.

I kindly declined the offer, trying to be as polite as I could to not offend this man. I knew I was wasting my time with him but I kept going anyways. For 5 solid minutes he tried as hard as he could to have me open a franchise in San Diego for free.

I didn’t want to confront him (after all, he’s still a potential client) but I was saying to myself “what kind of franchise is that if you give it away to anyone and everyone?”

This franchisor has only one thing in mind: opening as many franchise locations as possible. But he forgot one of the very basics of franchising: you have to have qualified franchisees… Duh! This means that because someone has the money doesn’t automatically means he’s going to be a good franchisee. Most franchisors are well aware of that. They’d rather see a very well qualified potential franchise buyer with little money than a totally unqualified potential franchisee with a lot of cash on hand.

Those types of franchises usually don’t last long. Why? Simply because the system starts collapsing from the inside: franchisees are not adequate for the system thus, they don’t operate their store correctly. The brand image starts getting worse. The franchisor can’t support its franchisees because he’s too busy opening other franchises. Next thing you know, you’re reading an article in the newspaper about how this franchise filed for bankruptcy.

What do you guys think? If I come to you and say “if you buy a franchise, I’ll give you 4 more for free”. What would you think?