The Launch Phase includes:

1. Internal Operations Assessment – what does the infrastructure of your organization look like? Is it ready for growth or are there pieces and people that need to be added? Often times, with a concept that is preparing to launch the sale of franchises, we will find that the company is currently too small and is not able to handle the projected unit growth. And this refers back to what we discussed earlier with Unit Economics. You can never grow at a faster rate where your Operations Support people will be overwhelmed and unable to properly handle new unit growth.
   
   If your franchisees lose confidence early on with the franchisor, it does not make for a healthy, long term relationship. Even worse, lack of corporate support has been known to be the main reason for litigation from new franchisees. We’ll help you determine the proper ratio of support personnel to new zees and existing zees (because existing zees still have challanges too).
   
   
2. Franchise Development Sales System reviewed and restructured – In addition to the overall Internal Operations Assessment, the Sales Department will be reviewed to qualify it for the launch or re-launch of your concept. We’ll tell you how many managers you need, where you need managers, how many sales people will be needed, what to look for when hiring new sales people, what you should be paying your sales people, even establish quotas for your sales people to meet.
   
   Most companies when at the launch stage will realize after our assessment, that they are undermanned and sometimes not as streamlined as they should be when preparing for a franchise sales campaign. At that point, the company will decide to restructure their sales system according to our recommended specifications.
   
   Or they will determine that it would be easier and more cost effective in the long term for them to have an experienced Franchise sales team (like FranchiseThis!) to handle their franchise sales for them. We refer to this as the outsourcing of sales and that will be discussed in detail a bit later in this section.
   
   
3. Unit Sales Campaign – This campaign targets the sale of single stores or units. Here the marketing could take place on the local or national levels or both depending on the size of the sales campaign.
   
   
4. Area Development Campaign – This campaign targets the sale of territories in which the franchise will be sold.  Here, the territory is sold to an individual (known as Area Developer or AD) who is responsible for selling all of the units that have been made available within that DMA (Demographic Marketing Area).  Further, the AD is required to provide operational support and training for new zees and existing zees in that area.

   The initial fee for an Area Development territory is generally much greater than a traditional franchise fee from the purchase of a single unit.  However, the rewards can be greater with an Area Developer as he will receive royalty payments from profits of existing units in his territory as well as commissions on franchise fees from the sale of new units.  For more information on Area Development, refer to The Skinny on Area Development.

   
   
5. Internal Franchise Sales – If a company has decided to handle their franchise sales internally, then this is the last checkpoint before the launch of the franchise sales campaign. Some questions will need to be answered before proceeding any further. Has the restructuring of the sales system been finalized?
   
   Again, it is of extreme importance that your sales staff is ready to go full speed ahead when the launch takes place. And the structure provides the foundation from which everything else will be derived from. Therefore, the checklist goes like this: structure is in place, necessary staff is in place, policies and procedures are in place. All systems go for the launch campaign.
   
   
6. Outsource of Sales is referred to in detail in the Franchise Development Outsource Section