Director of Franchise Sales

Potbelly Corporate•Chicago, IL

6d•Remote

About The Position

Potbelly Sandwich Shop is looking for friendly and outgoing people who enjoy working in a fast-paced, friendly environment. We are where good vibes and great careers are a way of life! What started as a small antique store in 1977 has become a nationally recognized neighborhood sandwich shop with over 400 locations across the United States. But toasty sandwiches are only as good as the people behind them. And yeah , we've got the best. Ready to join our growing Potbelly Nation? The Director of Franchise Sales is a business development role that is responsible for prospecting, recruiting, qualifying, and ultimately committing new franchisees to multi-unit development agreements across various domestic markets. This position will greatly contribute to the company’s franchise growth acceleration initiative as a leader within the Potbelly Development Team. This individual contributor will work to establish relationships and network with existing multi-unit franchisees, restaurant professionals, entrepreneurs, developers, private investors, and industry groups, to gain potential future business for traditional shop development.

Requirements

Has broad based business acumen and ability to collaborate with business leaders.
Experience in recruiting multi-unit/multi-brand franchisees.
Creative problem solver, working through challenges with adaptability, resilience, and expertise.
Can develop contingency plans to deal with unexpected situations in the selection process.
Recognizes emerging patterns, makes connections among data and issues, and appropriately reacts.
Can analyze specific selection and business challenges and offer solutions based on best practices and business knowledge.
Strong communication skills, both written and oral.
Strong presentation skills (in person and virtually).
Strong collaborative skills that demonstrate teamwork, creativity, and innovation.
Media experience including traditional social networking sites and internet marketing strategies.
Excellent computer skills.
Must represent The Potbelly Values
Demonstrated success in meeting or exceeding quarterly goals/quotas.
Demonstrated success in developing and executing strategic growth plans.
Must be passionate about the food business in general and Potbelly in particular.
Self-starter who can work well with others as well as independently.
Must be highly organized with the ability to handle multiple projects at once.
Strong negotiation and influencing skills.
Strong analytic skills.
Skilled at operating in all sales environments to include, but not limited to, internet, social media, email, phone, text, instant messaging, and other direct face to face interactions.
Must be coachable, driven, focused, confident and a self-starter.
Can responsibly take calculated risks on candidates and decisions for the future organizational benefit.
Can balance intuition with fact-based knowledge.
Fully understands and can articulate the “why” behind both good and bad decisions and apply learnings to current and future decisions.
Must have experience performing in a highly competitive environment.
Must strive for excellence and have only the highest integrity in their intentions.
Experience with CRM, FranDash, SmartSheet, and all Microsoft products.
Working knowledge of standard franchise documents & compliance standards.

Nice To Haves

Experience in food service franchised brand preferred.
10 years of restaurant franchise sales experience preferred.
Bachelor’s degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Contributes to all recruitment initiatives for Potbelly franchisees, which includes working with Potbelly’s marketing department and ad agencies to design and implement recruitment campaigns.
Participate with multiple departments within the organization (i.e., legal, operations, training, marketing, finance) to ensure proper onboarding of new franchisee candidates.
Represent Potbelly at industry trade shows, seminars, social events, webinars, networking sessions, speaking engagements, etc.
Take initial point on all franchisee leads regardless of how the lead was generated (digital marketing, cold call, public relations, event driven, website, etc.).
Provide weekly pipeline reports to senior leadership so there is a clear and concise understanding of deal progression.
Utilize CRM platform (FranDash) to ensure proper documentation throughout the candidate qualification & onboarding process.
Conduct all in-person meetings as necessary throughout the sales and recruitment process and provide acceptable notification to senior leadership regarding their required participation.
Coordinate and conduct all ‘Discovery Day’ activities with franchisee candidates which may include in-person meetings with senior leadership, dinners, events, shop and home office tours, presentations, and interviews.
Provide guidance when necessary and appropriate to franchisee candidates in the completion of business plans, and marketing plans.
Lead franchisee candidates through the proper execution of all required documents: Non-Disclosure Agreements / Franchise Disclosure Documents / Franchise Applications / Corporate Entity Formation / Shop Development Agreements / Franchise Agreements / Etc.
Work with the recruitment team to design and implement effective outreach campaigns to the franchise community utilizing trade publications, LinkedIn, direct mail, industry connections, data mining, social media, and other resources.
Manage the franchise sales process to achieve quarterly and annual quotas.
Perform such other related tasks as reasonably requested.