In today’s business world, the role of the Franchise Area Manager can be a complicated one as they are often expected to wear many hats. They must think on their feet, placate internal and external stakeholders and implement innovative solutions in a timely manner. The expectations placed on them can be many and a successful candidate for this role must display a thirst for success, with franchise business experience and knowledge a crucial necessity.
Clarity on your own expectations as a leader of the business on the best possible person for this role is essential as the reality may mean that some requirements could be morphed into other support roles.
The Area Manager role looks like this:
- Successfully delivers sales growth
- A competent strategist providing solutions to increase growth and profitability
- Proactively improves customer experience
- Has excellent judgment and stakeholder relationship management
- Motivates and develops franchisees
- Excellent influencing, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills
- Has generalist business skills such as marketing
- Drives operational consistency
- Delivers ongoing training to his/her team
- Completes scheduled store visits and business meetings with franchisees to drive growth
- Contributes to state meetings and annual conferences
- Able to work autonomously
- Has great time management skills
- Identifies opportunities and implements business action plans
- Engages and works collaboratively with both franchisees and management team
- Analyses and interprets financial reporting to drive business improvement
- Problem solves with a proactive approach
- Displays exceptional leadership qualities
- Motivates, supports, and encourages to achieve desired outcomes
- A calming presence in challenging times
If you have confidence that your Area Manager encompasses these skills and attributes, you have cause to celebrate! If not, it may very well be a simple fix; support, training, and extra resources could be the key to getting the results you need for your brand to grow. Alternatively, it may be time to reflect on what needs to change.
Tip: A great way to determine suitability is an informal performance appraisal. Have a list of questions at the ready and conduct a deep dive conversation – you may be pleasantly surprised!
See attached link for my top 5 questions to ask and don’t forget to book a call with me here.