6 Best Franchises for a Person With a Sales Background

Michael Nicholas / Franchising / March 23, 2022

If you have an educational or professional background in sales, you have a considerable head start over your competitors when it comes to opening a franchise. No matter what type of franchise you’re interested in, your history working in sales will be a massive help while getting your franchise up and running.

That being said, some franchises might utilize your skills more than others. So let’s take a look at the best franchises for people with a sales background.

What Makes a Salesperson a Great Franchisee?

It doesn’t matter how great a product or service is – if you can’t sell it, it’s not going to make you money. Sales are a crucial part of any business, and those with experience closing deals are more likely to run a successful franchise. Especially with the competition in today’s market, standing out above other vendors is crucial. The qualities of excellent salespeople just so happen to overlap perfectly with the qualities of a great franchisee.

  • Persistent: As a salesperson, you learn that to achieve your goals, you have to move forward past each failure with the same tenacity as the first attempt. This mentality will help you overcome any adversity when starting your franchise.
  • Strong communicator: A background in sales turns you into an excellent communicator, which is crucial for leading the staff of your franchise.
  • Adaptable: As you start your franchise, you need to be flexible as you learn the ins and outs of your new business. As a salesperson, you’ve had to adapt to many different potential customers and scenarios and should be able to carry your adaptability into your franchise.
  • Teachable: Expert salespeople aren’t born with those skills. You likely spent countless hours learning from your coworkers, bosses, and clients alike. When opening a franchise, you have to learn the systems in place and follow certain rules and instructions from the franchisor to succeed and be profitable.

B2C vs. B2B Franchises for Salespeople

The hard and soft skills you’ve mastered with a career in sales can be highly beneficial in any franchise you may be interested in. However, specific industries may utilize your sales skills more than others. Not to mention, there are many more franchise options for those with a background in sales, including home-based service businesses.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) franchises are generally driven by traditional advertising, location, and consumer perception. That means that your sales skills won’t be fully utilized in these types of franchises.

Business-to-business (B2B) franchises, on the other hand, rely mainly on salespeople, offer a lower overhead, and give you the chance to create recurring revenue. Therefore, B2B options are typically the best franchises for a salesperson.

Finding a B2B franchise that aligns with your current skill sets or interests gives you the best chance of excelling in the industry. You have plenty of options, mostly with service franchises, so choosing an opportunity that aligns with your background is your best bet.

For example, some B2B franchises that would be a perfect opportunity for those with a sales background include business coaching/training, consulting, commercial cleaning, staffing, business, services, commercial graphics, and digital marketing.

Understanding Franchise Implications With a FDD

Many businesses are selling franchises and making tons of promises to potential franchisees, but there is never a guaranteed positive outcome. It is critical that you do thorough research, weigh the pros and cons, and make an informed decision. To ensure there is total transparency between a franchisor and franchisee, they must disclose certain aspects of the business.

A Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) will list all the pertinent material regarding the franchisor and franchisee systems so that you can have all the information you need to make an educated decision. A FDD consists of 23 sections that cover pertinent information such as all fees involved, trademarks, patents, copyrights, obligations of both parties, restrictions, and many other vital components.

The Best Franchises For Salespeople

1. P3 Cost Analysis: Best for Cost Reduction Consulting

  • Minimum cash required: $59,500
  • Work from home: Yes
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Available through a third party

If you have sales experience and a passion for helping other businesses thrive, consider a cost reduction franchise with P3 Cost Analysts. As a cost reduction consulting company, P3 Cost Analysts franchise owners help companies avoid being taken advantage of by vendors and cut costs in categories like waste management, utilities, copier/print, telecom, merchant processing, and more.

While it may sound a bit complicated, you’ll have a team of experts doing the technical stuff for you. Your background in sales coupled with P3s guided training will have you delivering the best results to your client every time.

2. CMIT Solutions: Best for IT Support

  • Minimum cash required: $122,570
  • Work from home: Yes
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Available through a third party

CMIT Solutions aims to empower small and mid-sized businesses by supplying technology and IT solutions. They’re seeking new franchisees with a background in sales, a strong work ethic, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

With CMIT, you will build your own team to deliver IT support to small businesses. It’ll be your job to use your sales abilities and networking skills to acquire new clients. But you won’t have to do it alone. CMIT has an intensive 14 to 18-week training program, plus they will continue to support franchisees for the first two years.

3. Solar Grids: Best for Solar Sales

  • Minimum cash required: $50,000
  • Work from home: Yes
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Yes

If you’re looking for an industry that’s both recession-proof and growing at record-breaking speeds, solar energy is the sector for you with a growth rate of 48 percent. The best part about selling solar is that it makes you money and saves money for your customers in the long run.

Solar Grids franchise model handles a majority of the micro-duties of owning your own business. They’re looking for hungry sales professionals who want to focus their time on making sales. In exchange, they offer accounting, marketing, and admin services. Plus, you’ll receive hands-on training, tools, and resources to help you run your solar business.

4. Dale Carnegie: Best for Corporate Training

  • Minimum cash required: $20,000
  • Work from home: No
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Available through a third party

Those of you with a strong sales track record who have established a strong business network in their area are perfect candidates for a Dale Carnegie franchise. Dale Carnegie Training has been around since 1912, but the Global Corporate Training Market has begun to boom in the last ten years with no sign of stopping, so now is the perfect time to get in.

Dale Carnegie offers initial training, a dedicated launch team, alignment on a support plan, weekly coaching and training, and world-class marketing. Together, you and your team will offer training solutions to positively impact businesses and organizations in your territory.

5. Stratus Building Solutions: Best for Commercial Cleaning

  • Minimum cash required: $108,600
  • Work from home: Yes
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Yes

Now more than ever, cleaning is an absolute necessity, and demand for services is expected to continue to rise. Stratus is at the head of the pack with cutting-edge cleaning tools and processes, and it shows through their franchise program, which is the fourth fastest-growing in the world.

There are sixteen different franchise options to choose from, starting for as little as $1000 down, plus Stratus has plenty of room for growth. A background in sales will help you hit the ground running, but they also offer training, sales and marketing support, billing and collections, insurance, and branded products to help you build your business.

6. Servpro: Best for Restoration Services

  • Minimum cash required: $191,825
  • Work from home: No
  • Training provided: Yes
  • Financing assistance: Yes

With a franchise program that repeatedly ranks number one with Entrepreneur Magazine and offers services that are resistant to recessions, Servpro is a restoration services company that is standing the test of time. They provide clean-up services for water, fire, mold, and storm damage, as well as construction and specialty cleaning.

An ideal franchisee for Servpro would have a background in sales and potentially in construction or remodeling. They offer brand awareness, business development, comprehensive training, ongoing support to all of their franchisees, plus optional ancillary services, the option to expand to additional territories or to sell your franchise down the line.

Leverage Your Sales Background as a Franchisee

With thousands of franchise options out there, it’s important to do your due diligence when selecting the right one for you. Opting for a franchise instead of creating your own startup comes with plenty of benefits, but it’s essential to understand all the aspects of your franchise agreement.

With a background in sales, you already possess many traits that make a good franchisee. If you’re interested in getting your own franchise up and running, take some time to figure out your interests, consider between B2B or B2C, and research your options. With so many different industries and startup costs, there’s no doubt you will find the perfect franchise for you.

If you want to help other business owners save money by starting a cost reduction franchise, check out our franchising page or send us an email to learn more about this unique opportunity.

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