The Buyer Conversion System
From the moment a lead drops in the box to a signed Heads of Agreement and holding deposit — with the quiet lane drawn out: what happens when they go silent, and how they find their way back.
Five doors in, ranked by warmth
Existing franchisee
Knows everything. Wants another store.
Franchisee referral
Insider view via a current operator.
Broking site
Seek Business, AnyBusiness, Bsale. Expects NDA → IM rhythm.
Google search
Found the specific store. Knows the opportunity, not the process.
Meta
Often knows nothing yet. High drop-off is normal.
Before the gate
The spam-folder fix
Lands in seconds, gets Sean's number in their phone, points them to the email.
Non-confidential snapshot
Store type, support model, price band. Sounds like a person, not a system. One clear ask:
Education + soft reminder
"Day in the life of a franchisee" video — the % watched becomes an interest signal.
Honest scarcity
NDA signed — the pack goes out, the clock slows down
Anyone who signs is serious. On signature, one email fires automatically — and then the system deliberately gives them room to breathe. From here, every lead is in one of two lanes.
After the gate — two lanes
IM + financials, with three soft doors
Secure expiring SharePoint link to the full pack, plus:
Room to actually read the pack
They have full-time jobs. No chasing, no calls. The system watches signals instead: pack opened, pages viewed, video % watched, questionnaire started.
They book — Sean gets the brief
Bookings drops the meeting straight into Sean's Outlook calendar. The AI pre-call brief assembles everything: source, signals, questionnaire answers if given. NDA + booking = hot, questionnaire or not.
Discovery call
Confirms fit, answers the real questions, covers anything the questionnaire didn't, steers to a site visit.
Site visit at Avondale Heights
Meets the owner, sees it trading.
Expression of Interest + headline terms
Heads of Agreement signed · holding deposit paid
Hands over to the formal sale contract, franchisee application & approval, finance and training induction.
"Any questions on the pack?"
One-line nudge
The call they were told about
No surprise, no pressure — it was promised in the pack email. One call, voicemail if unanswered. This is the single follow-up call, not the first of many.
"The door stays open"
Drops to the nurture rail
Status, source and every signal retained — they re-enter warm, not cold, if they ever come back.
🌱 The nurture rail (runs forever, costs nothing)
- Monthly drip — one email: a franchisee story, a finance-options explainer, a "what makes a good store" piece. Never salesy.
- Reactivation triggers — a new store lists near them, a price adjusts on a store they viewed, EOFY "thinking about next year?" touch.
- Re-entry — any reply or click puts them straight back into the engaged lane with full history intact.
- Quarantine, not deletion — unsubscribes are honoured instantly; everyone else stays. Dead leads are tomorrow's buyers.
The questionnaire: before the call, never a gate
It rides along in the pack email as optional — "three quick questions so Sean can tailor the conversation." Booking is never blocked on it. If they book without filling it in, Sean covers funding and timeframe live, and the AI brief leans on engagement signals instead (pack opened, video watched, pages viewed). The worst outcome would be a serious buyer bouncing off a mandatory form. NDA signed + meeting booked = hot lead, full stop.
How each source bends the flow
Existing franchisee
Detected against the franchisee list. No automated sequence at all — "David from Lakelands has enquired about Albany Creek" goes straight to Sean. It's an expansion conversation.
Referral
"Damon from Hawthorn mentioned you'd make a great operator…" Skips cold framing, fast-tracks to the call. The referrer gets a quiet thank-you — protect that relationship.
Broking site
The full flow above, at full speed. They're comparing listings — speed-to-lead wins or loses it.
Email 1 leads harder on the specific store and the "why now" — search intent is already store-specific.
Meta
No NDA in the first three touches. Pure education and soft qualification first; introduce the NDA only once they want the financials. Most stall — that's the filter working.
What runs it
Power Automate
Every "when X → send Y → branch by source" rule, including the lane-switching logic. Your n8n, inside the tenant.
Dynamics 365 / Dataverse
Every lead, stage, source, grade, lane. Region: Australia East — PII stays onshore.
Outlook / Exchange
Personal-looking sends that land in the inbox. SPF / DKIM / DMARC fixes the 50% spam leak on day one.
SharePoint
IM & financials behind the NDA gate — per-buyer, permissioned, expiring links. Opens are tracked as interest signals.
Forms + Bookings
Microsoft Bookings is the click-a-time-and-you're-in-Sean's-calendar app. Forms runs the optional questionnaire feeding the grade.
Copilot Studio + Power BI
Classifies replies, drafts follow-ups, writes the pre-call brief. Power BI tracks enquiry → NDA → call → sale by source. Board one-pager is a by-product.
Azure Communication Services
Instant texts, in your own Azure tenant, onshore. (Twilio = faster to stand up.)
Adobe Sign / DocuSign
The NDA and the eventual sale documents. Power Automate connector: on signature → pack releases automatically.
Vidyard / Wistia
Knows Marcus watched 100% of the walkthrough — a grading input Microsoft Stream can't give you.