The excitement has dwindled, and most are no longer thinking about the baseball playoffs. Unless, of course, you’re me – a devout Red Sox fan. I enjoy any excuse to talk about my favorite team, but this one is a good one. The Red Sox is a team totally transformed by using data and statistics to go from worst to first. In 2013, Boston Red Sox General Manager, Ben Cherrigan (user of the “MoneyBall” approach to baseball) found a way to get better results and rebuild a winning baseball team.
Can you implement the same techniques as the Red Sox to find better franchise candidates? Yes! Do you have a limited budget for franchise recruitment? Are you looking for ways to get better results with fewer resources? Then take a cue from some of baseballs most successful General Mangers by implanting three key “MoneyBall” tactics that can help you get better short- term and long-term results.
1. Use Past History To Figure Out What Works. Baseballs most successful teams use data and statistics to help them understand that successful players get on base. Study your most successful franchisees and identify, statically, what kinds of demographic, lifestyle, and other characteristics make them superstars. In addition, what channels did they use to find you? Also look at your bottom franchisees to learn what doesn’t work. It’s as important to identify what works as well as what doesn’t work.
2. Now That You Know What Works, Shift Your Dollars There. Always focus your dollars on what is the most effective. If you are generating the right franchise candidates using SEO linked to a content-driven landing page, shift your resources in that area. If posting on LinkedIn works, test paid advertising to help layer your message.
3. Stop Funding What Doesn’t Work. If sound evidence shows that a certain investment is failing, repurpose the dollars to something that does work. The Red Sox lost 69 games in 2012. Cherrigan had to first analyze what was not working before he could design a World Series championship plan moving forward.
Embracing “MoneyBall” for franchise recruitment will provide you better information that could be your first step to designing a successful, results-oriented campaign that’s as big a winner as the Red Sox. Go, Sox!
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