You’re Gonna Have to Serve Somebody

The Franchise Council of Australia’s Supplier Round Table brings together suppliers to share ideas on how they can add greater value to the franchising community. The Round Table is facilitated by FRI’s Founder, Greg Nathan.

An interview with John Francis

A recent session featured a conversation between Greg and US franchise advisor John Francis on what separates great suppliers from the rest.

John brings a lifetime of franchising experience. He grew up helping his family build a pioneering 1,000-store hair-cutting franchise, and has since worked as a franchisee, franchisor, business owner, advisor and board member.

He opened the discussion by noting a recurring problem he sees: the gap between how suppliers see themselves and how franchisors actually experience them.

John elaborated that while suppliers may understand their product or service deeply, they often have a shallow understanding of the complexities of franchise networks. For example, franchisors are often making decisions on behalf of their franchisees, without franchisees at the table.

“The best suppliers understand that they actually have two clients,” says John.

“They build for the franchisor's strategic goals and for the franchisee's operational reality. When those two things align, adoption happens. When they don't, even a great solution can fail quietly.”

John’s advice is to do the homework before pitching or committing to a project. Understand franchisees' unit-level economics and the operational challenges they face, ideally by talking with them directly.

Also take time to understand the network’s culture, including any tensions or scars left by previous implementation projects.

How to build and maintain credibility

John’s comments naturally led to a broader discussion about credibility. Participants explored a simple question: “What do suppliers need to do to build and maintain credibility with franchisor clients?”

Interestingly, the principles they identified apply to anyone who needs to earn the trust of others, including franchisor executives, field consultants, and franchisees.

When building the relationship:
Don’t hard-sell yourself or turn every conversation into a sales pitch. Be curious, listen carefully, and ask questions to understand the business and the challenges people face.

Don’t name-drop, gossip or talk negatively about other brands or people in the industry. And don’t jump in arrogantly with advice as though you have all the answers.

Invest time in attending meetings to demonstrate your commitment to the relationship. Face-to-face meetings are always more powerful. Remember it often takes several meetings to build trust.

When agreeing on the work:
Create clear proposals that include who is responsible for what, and ensure proposals contain likely contingencies and how these will be addressed fairly.

Never promise what you can’t deliver just to win the work. Make sure your team has the capability and capacity to fulfil every commitment you make.

Be prepared to give advice that may not be in your own short-term commercial interests

Create a shared vision of what a successful outcome looks like, and define measurable goals and milestones.

When delivering the work:
Be available and responsive when you’re needed, maintain clear, realistic response times, and follow through on commitments.

If problems arise, be transparent about what happened and why. Then fix things efficiently and don’t leave people wondering what’s happening. Where necessary, help protect your client's reputation.

Be prepared to hold clients accountable for goals and roles. If boundaries are blurring, talk to them about redefining responsibilities, and refer back to what was agreed.

The common thread through the discussion was that the best suppliers don’t just sell solutions. They take the time to understand the franchise relationship, align the interests of franchisors and franchisees, and demonstrate through their behaviour that they can be trusted for the long haul.

Finally, with respect to Bob Dylan, here’s an extra verse:

You may be a franchisee or a franchisor
You may be a lawyer or be a fancy advisor
You may own a franchise that employs a thousand folks
Or you may be in franchise sales peddling dreams and hopes

But you're gonna have to serve somebody
Yes indeed, you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody