Ten practical principles for adding more value to franchisor clients — and the franchisees they serve
By Greg Nathan, Founder, Franchise Relationships Institute
Franchising is a relationship business. And that principle applies just as much to the suppliers who support franchise networks as it does to franchisors and franchisees. Fellow Franchise Consortium member John Francis and I recently co-facilitated a discussion for a group of suppliers to the Australian franchising sector.
The focus was a simple but important question: What separates a supplier who merely provides a product or service from one who becomes a genuinely valued partner to a franchise network?
I am a business psychologist specializing in helping franchisors to improve their franchise relationships and I’ve worked with more than 500 franchise brands across 16 countries. John brings a lifetime of franchising experience as a franchisee, franchisor, business owner, adviser and board member.
Our discussion with the group highlighted a number of practical lessons — beginning with a challenge John sees repeatedly.
Understand the business you are really serving
One of the biggest traps for suppliers is the gap between how they see themselves and how their franchisor clients actually experience them.
A supplier may have deep expertise in their own product or service, but only a superficial understanding of how a franchise network works. This matters because franchising adds a layer of complexity that doesn’t exist in most conventional corporate structures.
Franchisors often make decisions that affect independently owned businesses. The people who will ultimately use, pay for, implement or be affected by a supplier’s solution — the franchisees — may not even be in the room when the decision is made.
As John puts it, “The best suppliers understand that they actually have two clients.”
A strong supplier therefore needs to understand both the franchisor’s strategic objectives and the franchisee’s operational reality. When they align, implementation and adoption are far more likely to succeed. When they are not, even an excellent product or service can quietly struggle.
This means doing more homework before pitching or committing to a project. Learn how the network makes money. Understand the unit-level economics. Learn about the pressures franchisees face and how a proposed solution will affect their workload, costs, and day-to-day operations. Where appropriate, talk directly with franchisees rather than relying entirely on head office assumptions.
That deeper understanding changes the conversation. Instead of asking, “How can we sell our solution to this network?” the better question becomes, “How can we help this network achieve a worthwhile outcome?”
Credibility is built through behaviour
We then organised the supplier group into teams to identify the behaviours that build or undermine credibility with franchisor clients.
Interestingly, the principles they identified extend well beyond supplier relationships. They are equally relevant to franchisor executives, field consultants, advisers and franchisees — in fact, to anyone who needs to earn another person’s trust.
Ten themes stood out.
1. Be curious before being persuasive
Don’t hard-sell yourself or turn every conversation into a sales pitch. Ask thoughtful questions, listen carefully and seek to understand the business before offering a solution.
Good suppliers are interested in the client’s world, not just in demonstrating their own expertise. Curiosity also reduces the risk of solving the wrong problem.
2. Protect your professional credibility
Avoid name-dropping, gossiping or speaking negatively about other brands, suppliers or people in the sector. It may feel like a way of demonstrating insider knowledge, but it often has the opposite effect.
Likewise, don’t rush in with advice as though you already have all the answers. Confidence is useful. Arrogance is not. Credibility grows when you combine expertise with respect and good judgement.
3. Invest in the relationship
Trust rarely develops from a single meeting. Be prepared to invest time in getting to know the people, the network and its priorities.
While virtual meetings are efficient, face-to-face contact can be especially valuable when establishing important relationships. Showing up consistently also signals that the relationship matters beyond the immediate transaction.
4. Make agreements clear
A good proposal should do more than describe a product, service and price. It should make responsibilities explicit: who will do what, by when, and what support or input each party needs.
It is also worth anticipating likely contingencies. What happens if timelines shift, adoption is slower than expected or the scope changes? Discussing these issues early — and agreeing on a fair process for dealing with them — prevents frustration later.
5. Never promise what you cannot deliver
The temptation to say yes can be strong when trying to win important work. But an unrealistic promise made during the sales process can damage a relationship for months or years.
Before making a commitment, be sure your organisation has the capability, capacity and resources to deliver it. A realistic promise that is consistently met is far more valuable than an impressive promise that falls short.
6. Put the client’s interests ahead of the next sale
Trusted advisers are sometimes prepared to give advice that is not in their own immediate commercial interests.
That may mean recommending a smaller solution, suggesting the timing is not right, or even acknowledging that another approach would better suit the client’s needs. Paradoxically, being willing to forgo short-term revenue can build far greater long-term trust.
7. Define success together
Don’t assume everyone has the same picture of a successful outcome.
At the beginning of a project, create a shared view of what success will look like. Agree on measurable goals, key milestones and how progress will be reviewed.
In a franchise network, this should include thinking about success from both perspectives: What does a good outcome look like for the franchisor, and what will make franchisees regard the initiative as worthwhile?
8. Be responsive and dependable
Responsiveness is one of the simplest ways to build trust. People do not necessarily expect an immediate solution, but they do want to know their issue has been heard and is being dealt with.
Set realistic response times, communicate clearly and follow through. Reliability on small commitments creates confidence that you can also be trusted with the big ones.
9. Handle problems openly and quickly
Problems are inevitable in any significant commercial relationship. What matters is how they are handled.
If something goes wrong, be transparent about what happened and why. Explain what is being done to fix it and keep the client informed until it is resolved. Don’t leave people wondering.
Where a problem could affect franchisees or other stakeholders, think beyond the technical fix. Help the franchisor manage communication and, where appropriate, protect the reputation and credibility of the network.
10. Be willing to hold each other accountable
A strong partnership is not one in which the supplier simply says yes to everything.
If the client’s actions are putting agreed goals at risk, raise the issue constructively. If roles or boundaries are becoming blurred, revisit the original agreement and clarify responsibilities.
Mutual accountability protects the relationship because it keeps expectations realistic and prevents resentment from building beneath the surface.
From supplier to strategic partner
The common thread through the discussion was clear: the best suppliers do not just sell solutions. They take the time to understand the system their solution will operate in.
In franchising, that means appreciating the interdependence between franchisor and franchisee. It means recognising that a technically excellent solution can still fail if franchisees don’t understand it, value it or use it. It also means treating trust as something earned through consistent behaviour rather than claimed in a sales presentation.
Suppliers who do this well become more than vendors. They become trusted partners who understand the network’s commercial realities, help align franchisor and franchisee interests, raise difficult issues when necessary, and stay accountable for the outcomes they have promised.
And in a sector built on long-term relationships, that is where the real value lies.
