When Franchises Conduct Meet the Team Dates

By: Franchise Update Media | 496 Reads | 1 Shares

Franchise Update Media has been researching franchise lead generation and franchise recruitment processes for more than a decade. An annual in-depth online survey queries franchise development professionals about a number of issues related to their lead generation and recruitment strategies. The results are presented each year in the Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR).

The AFDR is a valuable resource that can provide crucial insights into franchise development, lead generation, and recruitment best practices. It’s the kind of information that can help brands assess what they are doing right and what needs improvement.

The annual project seeks to identify what’s new and innovative in franchise lead generation, recognize the methods and approaches yielding the best results, and gain insights into franchisors’ perspectives on current and future business performance.

Survey participants were franchisors who completed an in-depth questionnaire online. Responses were aggregated and analyzed to produce a detailed view into the recruitment and development practices, budgets, spending allocations, and strategies of a wide cross-section of franchisors. The data, along with accompanying commentary and analysis, provided the basis for the 2025 AFDR.

The in-depth report features results from more than 110 organizations actively expanding their franchise systems. The thoroughly researched report spotlights the latest trends and reveals various franchise lead-generation and sales trends. The AFDR represents companies totaling more than 50,000 franchise units and 42 industry categories.

Franchise Update Media creates this report annually and shares its findings with franchise development teams to give them an edge in their lead generation and recruitment efforts.

Frequency of meet the team dates

While it should come as no surprise that nearly every franchise surveyed in the AFDR said they conducted a meet the team date (94 percent), Franchise Update wanted to get more specifics on the frequency of the meetings. In general, 42 percent of the respondents said they hold those dates once per month, and 37 percent said as needed. Sixteen percent said they host the meetings on a bi-weekly basis, and five percent said they hold them quarterly.

We also examined these responses in further detail based on the types of franchises in this survey. For franchises that reported they were exceeding their development goals, 48 percent said they hold meet the team dates on a monthly basis, the highest percentage in the survey. Franchises that said they were on target or below their development goals generally reported hosting meet the team dates on a monthly or as needed basis at around a 40 percent clip.

The AFDR also broke the responses down by industry sector: food, retail food, retail (non-food), service (brick and mortar), and service (non-brick and mortar). Brick and mortar service (68 percent) and non-food retail (64 percent) franchises had the highest percentage of monthly meet the team dates. Retail food franchises that said they hold the dates as needed (58 percent) were the next highest response.

The AFDF grouped franchise responses by their financial investment levels. Franchises on both ends of the spectrum ($25,000 to $50,000, and over $1,000,000) had the highest responses in conducting monthly meet the team dates at 67 percent and 56 percent, respectively. Franchises with the smallest amount of investment were one of the few groups that held quarterly dates (33 percent).

The report also categorized responses by the number of franchise units from each respondent: less than 25, 26 to 100, 101 to 250, 251 to 500, 501 to 1000, and 1001 to 2500. Monthly meet the team dates were the most popular responses, especially among the larger franchises. Franchises with the highest number of units held monthly dates 75 percent of the time, while those with 501 to 1000 units held the monthly meetings 64 percent of the time.