Monday, July 13th, 2009 - 10:27 pm
Prospective Franchisee Visit – Pilani
Today I shadowed a Sales Team member, Nalin Dadhich, on a visit to a prospective franchisee in the small town of Pilani about 14 miles away. The prospect picked us up at the Sarvajal office in his standard issue Mahindra Jeep (very common in India), and drove us to the site in a very rough and white knuckled 45 minute drive.
Upon arriving at the location, we found that the prospective franchisee was planning on running the actual filtration machine out of his rural farm house - because it best met Sarvajal's water, electrical and space requirements for the machine - and then delivering it approximately 3 miles to the main consumer base in the nearby town center of Pilani. Such a delivery-based approach has become increasingly popular with current franchisees, as consumers prefer delivery for a nominal charge of 5 Rupees as opposed to picking up the water at a town-center location.
This particular location though was significantly off the “beaten path,” and resided in the middle of a large dirt field about 100 yards off the main road. When asked about how he plans to overcome this problem, the prospective franchisee said that he would build a road from the farmhouse to the main road to facilitate delivery.
Upon inspection of the actual farm house, we found that the water availability, electrical capabilities, and the actual space for the machine was quite sufficient. After the visual inspection, Nalin and I sat down with the franchisee on cots outside, and enjoyed lemonade prepared by his veiled wife as we filled out all of the paper work concerning his location, sales/marketing background, and the background of the people he planned to employ.
My initial thoughts are that though this prospective franchisee has a decent business background and means of running a machine in his farmhouse, his locality to the consumer base is simply too distant. I think that this distance will be too big a factor in creating face-to-face relationships with the consumers, having a presence in the community, and general water delivery.
Upon arriving at the location, we found that the prospective franchisee was planning on running the actual filtration machine out of his rural farm house - because it best met Sarvajal's water, electrical and space requirements for the machine - and then delivering it approximately 3 miles to the main consumer base in the nearby town center of Pilani. Such a delivery-based approach has become increasingly popular with current franchisees, as consumers prefer delivery for a nominal charge of 5 Rupees as opposed to picking up the water at a town-center location.
This particular location though was significantly off the “beaten path,” and resided in the middle of a large dirt field about 100 yards off the main road. When asked about how he plans to overcome this problem, the prospective franchisee said that he would build a road from the farmhouse to the main road to facilitate delivery.
Upon inspection of the actual farm house, we found that the water availability, electrical capabilities, and the actual space for the machine was quite sufficient. After the visual inspection, Nalin and I sat down with the franchisee on cots outside, and enjoyed lemonade prepared by his veiled wife as we filled out all of the paper work concerning his location, sales/marketing background, and the background of the people he planned to employ.
My initial thoughts are that though this prospective franchisee has a decent business background and means of running a machine in his farmhouse, his locality to the consumer base is simply too distant. I think that this distance will be too big a factor in creating face-to-face relationships with the consumers, having a presence in the community, and general water delivery.
