Top-of-Funnel Franchise Prospects Quickly Focus on a Few Options
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
August 27, 2025 – After perusing among hundreds of options across multiple categories on franchise directory websites, most individuals narrow their focus and ultimately inquire about only one or two concepts. This franchise buyer behavior has been consistent over five years of customer journey analysis of websites and mobile apps.
In July 2025 for example, data for thousands of franchise inquiries showed that 39.3% of prospects selected a single franchise opportunity for follow-up. An additional 17.3% inquired about a second franchise, and 8.7% requested follow-up from a third concept.
Almost 56.6% of all prospects ultimately inquired about only one or two franchises.
This behavior is consistent with prior reviews, the most recent being from October 2024. Many of these prospects began with a broader search, even across categories. Monthly reviews of franchise portal website and mobile app usage data show that about 47% of users are initially open to “any category”, with location, investment level, or other criteria being more important.
Further, we regularly feature an article about the role that franchise portals (directory sites) play in the awareness and discovery of franchise options. In recent 2025 surveys, 83.4% of prospects report that they inquired about a franchise with which they were either “completely unfamiliar” or “vaguely familiar” prior to their visits.
In recent 2025 surveys, 83.4% of prospects report that they inquired about a franchise with which they were either “completely unfamiliar” or “vaguely familiar.”
The implications of these findings for franchise development teams are straightforward:
- Franchise portals and their mobile apps play a useful role in generating awareness and consideration of your franchise concept(s).
- They help prospects quickly comb through hundreds of options across diverse categories to narrow the search to a few options for further consideration.
- And about two-thirds of prospects who submit inquiries through portals go on to franchisor websites afterwards to get more information and prepare for a conversation with franchise representatives.
Following best practices for initial contact by email and/or text has a high probability of putting you in contact with an individual who has only inquired about a few options, and may be hearing from you first.
Given the high cost and potential lifetime value of a franchise lead, it is important to act promptly. Data consistently show that many of your competitors do not attempt initial contact with all of their incoming leads within seven days.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Saturday, August 16th, 2025.