This month's article is contributed by long time reader Bryon Stephens, V.P. Franchise Development for Big Boy Restaurants International Llc. I can always count on Bryon to give me the "straight goods" on franchisee selection from the franchisor's perspective. Take it away Bryon ---

It seems that in every franchise organization there are some franchisees that are the model everyone wants more of and there are some that are the model everyone wants to get out of the system and make sure that no more like them get into the system. This statement is what franchise recruitment and selection is all about.

Early in my career, I had the President of the organization I was working for say to me, "Find me more franchisees like the "So & So's". One of the "Mr. So & So's" happened to be a franchisee in this particular organization for many years and had an impressive 100 franchised locations in his own company. The others were of just slightly smaller size and experience, so I decided, "a-ha, I must go out and recruit multi-unit franchisees of other concepts to get them to invest in our brand, because they are just like the So & So's".

Alas, this is easier said than done, and I needed a better program for recruiting than following multi-unit operators around the globe.

A stroke of simplistic genius hit me in the back of the head one day. Actually, it was my boss hitting me in the back of the head, because I had not brought in enough "Mr. So & So's" to meet our recruiting budget and worse, one of the franchisees I had signed up was not running his first store up to our standards and the Operations and Marketing personnel felt that he was "bad" for our system. How could this be? He had impressed everyone at the Discovery Day interview, he had a lot of money, he had experience and he even had a goal of being a "So & So".

With everything crumbling around me I decided to sit down with the So & So's and interview them to dig deep into who they were, with an emphasis on finding out who they were 20 years ago when they started with their very first store, not who they had become. From these interviews I was able to finally figure out a great deal about the factors that would lead to having more good So & So's and what would eliminate the possibility of our bringing in another "bad for our system franchisee".

I have boiled these factors down to my "Top Five" list:

#5 - FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE
I place this as Number Five because it is the least important of the qualities in my in my mind, (much to the bankers and MBA's dismay), however, I found out that the So & So's had only a base line knowledge of finance and accounting when they began in business. What they knew about business finance was, "I have to make more than I spend" and "I have to treat my capital as a precious resource".

Don't get me wrong, at some point in their development and growth of some 100 locations they had to, at a minimum, be able to converse with bankers and MBA's, but this was a skill they developed through the years. Ensure your candidate understands the basics and that they value their capital.

#4 - PASSION
Is Number 4 on the list. I have found that a candidate must possess a sense of passion for the type of work they are about to get into. As Confucious said, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

#3 - ENTREPRENEURSHIP
There is a lot of discussion around how much of this quality is enough and how much is too much. While it goes without saying that too much may cause a franchisee to be a "maverick", but I have found those who lack this quality are not picking up a phone and making even a single phone call to anyone about getting into business for themselves. Additionally, Franchisors need to examine their own system to identify just how well they support a new franchise in opening their new business. Many Franchisors need a full blown take charge entrepreneur to get a new business open and then the Operations, Legal and Marketing groups want a puppet who does what they are told.

You cannot have it both ways. If your systems and programs when followed produce results, most franchisees will not try to reinvent the wheel.

#2 - COMMITMENT
Is Number 2 on the list. It is a factor that we must ensure every candidate has. Not everything goes as planned in new business and the dogged determination of a "committed" franchisee is necessary to get over the bumps. It is clear that without commitment a franchisee will never become a "So and So".

#1 - INTER-PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP SKILLS
The number one thing a franchise needs is superb inter-personal relationship skills and this is the one quality that every multi-unit superstar franchisee I have interviewed possessed. It starts with how these people meet with your Departments at a Discovery Day and will carry them through their lease negotiations, banking relationships, vendor relationships, employee issues, customer service and oh yes "conflict resolution" when there is a disagreement as I am certain there will be. The bottom line is, if your candidate possesses truly genuine inter-personal relationship skills, they will always be a great person to work with and even in tough times, they will have people rally around them with good ideas and good programs due to the loyalty they will invoke.

So, as we continue our quest for the "So & So's" let us remember to choose the right person, we can always teach them the details of business.

Happy Hunting!