I recently had a conversation with a franchisor who was telling me about a franchisee who was stubborn.
Being somewhat willful myself I quizzed him on what made him think his franchisee was stubborn rather than tenacious.
The franchisor told me the franchisee was seriously under performing. Seems the franchisee was spending the majority of his time on non-income generating tasks. He was obsessed with data, analytics and spreadsheets. He spent much time studying social media marketing, reputation management, podcasting, and funnel creation.
It was clear the franchisee was not lazy. Day in and day out he would pump out videos, articles and content. Although the social media analytics were telling him his followers and subscribers increasing; the franchisee’s P&L statements the past 30 months showed more loss than profit. The franchisee was unable to attribute even one sale to his marketing efforts.
Naturally, I was curious why the marketing was not working.
The franchisor went on to tell me their franchise model required the franchisee to have face-to-face interaction with potential clients. It was a high trust, high credibility, high ticket, business-to-business, consultative sale. Although there was some minor marketing necessary – without direct contact through networking and referral partners the franchisee would struggle.
The franchisor offered extensive training and mentoring so franchisees could be competent working with and selling to influential and affluent clients. However, bullheaded franchisee rejected mentoring, always seemed to know better and believed his marketing efforts would compensate for his lack of desire to sell.
So you might be asking yourself … why would someone buy a franchise, then ignore the instructions of the franchisor and choose instead to head down a path that would lead to nowhere?
To answer that question first we have to distinguish the difference between perseverance and stubbornness?
Stubbornness is the ugly side of perseverance.
Perseverance is the continuation of commitment through action in spite of the lack of immediate success. It’s staying the course over hill and valley knowing at some point one will reach their desired destination. Perseverance is a tenacious, eyes wide-open commitment to getting up, suiting up and getting on with our day. It’s a laser approach to reaching one’s destination knowing there will be slight modifications and course corrections along the way.
Stubbornness is perseverance to the extreme. Stubbornness will cause someone to blindly and obsessively use the same action, thought process or behavior again and again, even when it doesn’t work, evidence shows it never will or the cost of arriving at the destination far outweighs its reward. It’s the true definition of insanity!
I liken it to a man without a compass, map or navigator who jumps in his car, turns left and believes if he keeps driving one day he will reach Timbuctoo. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, how long it takes or that there are hundreds of signs along the way … none of which say Timbuctoo just ahead.
Again one might ask, why would someone ignore the signs, be unwilling to listen to feedback or stubbornly go without direction or map? What causes someone to be stubborn? And how can you as a franchisor encourage perseverance, tenacity and grit while screening out stubborn, unyielding prospective franchisees?
Stubbornness and identity are intertwined.
Stubborn people are rigidly attached to their beliefs, opinions and ideas. They can’t stand anyone disagreeing with them because disagreeing with them means disagreeing with who they are. Asking them to change their opinions, beliefs or actions threatens to tear down their very identity.
When anything is about to be torn down there are always those who resist even if it is a rats nest. Think about those who stubbornly refuse to move or protect themselves in the face of tornados, fires, and volcanoes.
Stubbornness is about maintaining control.
Stubbornness is, of course, based on fear, the fear of change and the fear of being forced to do something we don’t feel ready for or simply don’t want to do. We don’t like being forced into anything and we don’t like changing our ways once we have grown accustomed to them. Stubbornness is about clinging to a familiar way of thinking about and doing things.
Ever see that weird look in franchisee’s eye as they announce that the new system or process you introduced – didn’t work in their market or that your suggestion to make things better failed. The truth is they often sabotage the new process so that it won’t work and then express delight in your failure to get them to be successful.
Stubbornness includes a deep mistrust.
While stubbornness is born of fear it also includes a deep mistrust leading to outright anger and irrational behavior. When a stubborn person backs far into their corner resisting change … they can become like a trapped injured animal, fangs and claws out unable to see that you, as a franchisor, are extending your hand to help.
Someone who finds it difficult to let go of his or her identity as successful corporate executive and see themselves as semi-ignorant and budding franchisee, may find it difficult to let go of control and trust a franchisor’s leadership. Fear closes their minds. They are unwilling to embrace your systems, adapt to your strategic plans and will choose instead to stubbornly cling to their old identity, their fears, opinions and ideas however misaligned and misinformed and sadly suffer the consequences.
Sounds like a bunch of doom and gloom, you might be thinking. Indeed it can be if you accidentally select a stubborn rather than a tenacious franchisee.
Fortunately, the tools at Zorakle Profiles measures a prospective franchisee’s perseverance markers including tenaciousness, adaptability, initiative and commitment.
To encourage tenacity in your current franchisees watch Grit: How to cultivate courage and perseverance.