Corporate Espionage and Competitor Information Gathering - Fake Franchise Buyers Visiting Franchise

Franchisees are often confronted by a potential franchise buyer of their franchising system, and they are barraged with questions. But, I'd like to put out a little bit of a warning about this. You see, I've noted that previously, as a Franchisor that many of our competitors had tried to hoodwink our franchisees into giving them information, and explaining all the equipment, the marketing program, the training, and the accounts we had.

It makes sense that a competitor would try this, and it is amazing how freely the franchisees would divulge proprietary information without considering the risks. Franchised owners should be completely reluctant to talk about more than vague generalities when it comes to the operations, training, equipment, marketing, cash flow, or customers of the franchising system.

If you are unsure about a person that is asking you a ton of questions, call the franchisor and verify that they have indeed, filled out an application, and have received the FDD, Franchise Disclosure Documents. Still, you should not divulge anything in the confidential operations manual to the other party. Otherwise you could be giving important information to a competitive spy that is using simple corporate espionage tactics.

We often caught our competition at this game as they assumed that the franchisees were not on a first name bases with myself and staff, and I would literally get cell phone calls from our team telling me of someone snooping that, I'd never heard of and that was no more a franchise buyer than Maxwell Smart! Be smart and play it safe; trust but verify!

Lance_Winslow

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