How Franchise Navigator Has Changed the Way Brands Approach Franchise Growth

Back in the 1980s, Craig Slavin, the president and founder of Franchise Navigator, realized that there was no way to be predictive in the recruitment and selection of franchise operators. As a result, he started experimenting with many different types of personality profiling tools to see if they would provide more direction and better answers.

What he quickly found, however, was that good tools do exist—but they were used to recruit employees who are very different than franchise operators. This meant that when it came to identifying the perfect franchisee, the tools had no applicability as to whether someone could properly execute a business model. He also discovered the critical factor is not identifying personality. That was not a good indicator of whether someone could execute a particular business model.

So, in 1998, after years of research, Slavin launched Franchise Navigator—the only market-validated and customized Behavioral Mapping and Assessment Process in Franchising. Today, Franchise Navigator is run by a robust team that helps to analyze and interpret results. And with the help of a training and certification process, brokers, life coaches brands and more can utilize Franchise Navigator’s automated system without the need to become Behavioral Psychologists.

“Back in the mid-80s, I assembled a mastermind of industrial, clinical, organizational and behavioral psychiatrists – many that had real world business experience. We tested as many of the personality profiles and assessments we could get our hands on, and we realized a few things: while they’re all OK, they were only measuring personality. Franchisors need to understand a person’s individual values—that’s what ultimately dictates why somebody will say what they say and behave the way they do,” Slavin said.

“When decisions have to be made, whether we realize it or not, we’re digging deep into our own internal value system. The result is a decision or action based on an individual’s own personal values. We wanted to figure out a way to help brand’s dive into behavioral sciences and better understand what makes a prospect tick.”

Whether the end goal is to determine traits of the highest-performing franchisees; predict the future success compared to existing franchise owners and employees; sell more franchises; or determine the right franchise for a candidate, Franchise Navigator works by using a values-based assessment and behavioral mapping process.

Franchise Navigator’s team surveys as many of a brand’s existing franchisees or employees as possible. A scorecard is then created, using a company’s own internal metrics of performance, to determine the ideal profiles for each specific franchise offering.

Through an online profiling tool, Franchise Navigator scores and identifies an individual’s dominant and subordinate profiles using a quadrant method of all four Navigator profiles. The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and the answers then appear in an email containing a Personal Development Chart, which identifies the strengths, weaknesses and styles of the candidates, in eleven critical categories, along with a recommendation as to whether he or she will fit into the business model.

This is what generates the Navigator Behavioral Mapping System, and it becomes the baseline for recruiting efforts. The Franchise Navigator is actually 14 different types of analysis or indicators.

“Having the right people on your team is what makes the difference between a business that thrives and one that falls flat. Franchise Navigator ensures a company is recruiting, selecting and training the right candidates that can execute their business model and deliver superior products and services,” Slavin said.

“Franchise Navigator enables a company to close more deals, select the right candidates for their brand and run a more effective business by growing with the right people.”

After analyzing the data and the scores from the assessment and comparing them against what winning looks like for each brand, Franchise Navigator is able to clearly identify what differentiates high performers from low performers within a franchise system. According to Slavin independent sources, “Franchise Navigator has a 90-95 percent probability of being able to identify future high performers.”

To date, Franchise Navigator has assessed more than 80,000 individuals from hundreds of brands.

Window Genie is one of many brands that has found success with Franchise Navigator. Looking to ramp up franchise sales, Window Genie CEO Richard Nonelle recalls trying to award a franchise to a prospect that could have ended in a disaster. He liked the prospect on the phone, but when he missed the scheduled Discovery Day three times in a row, Nonelle had trouble understanding if he was really the right fit.

Hoping to better understand not only the disappointing prospect that had missed three Discovery Days, but also all prospects, Nonelle engaged Franchise Navigator. He contacted Slavin, and proceeded to survey his 75 existing franchisees to discover, once and for all, the type of person who would not only succeed as a Window Genie franchisee, but also excel.

Once the initial benchmarking and data collection was completed, Nonelle randomly pulled several franchisee profiles and asked Slavin to tell him about those individuals by interpreting their profiles and Navigator results. Of course, he didn’t share any information with Slavin about the performance of these franchisees.

“Craig started talking about each franchisee, and by the second or third one, I was falling out of my chair because he found subtle things about each one that I knew by my experience was true, but how did he know it when he had never met these franchisees? Craig was specific about how well each of the franchisees would perform on the phone, with customers, and with their franchisor, and that’s when I knew that we would never award another franchise without the Franchise Navigator profile,” Nonelle said.

“Now, I don’t have to talk to someone to know if we should award them a franchise. I know based on their Navigator scores. At Window Genie today, it’s easy to know who has the potential to become a top performer, and who’s likely to end up in the bottom half.”

Nonelle not only embraced the Franchise Navigator results, but the entire idea that if a candidate is not a good fit for his business model, he could now explain why. This protects the candidate, and those that are selected join a stellar cast of franchise owners and a franchisor that cares.

“Selling to the wrong person is worse than not selling a franchise at all,” Slavin said. “Utilizing Behavioral Science, Franchise Navigator exists to help brands everywhere take the mystery out of growing their business.”