Key Takeaways

• Across 460+ brands and three years of data, lead volume grew just 7% while lead-to-agreement conversion nearly doubled, from 0.76% in 2023 to 1.50% in 2025. Growth came from conversion, not spend.
• High-engagement brands produced 1.9 times the net unit growth of low-engagement brands in 2025, up from 1.2 times a year earlier.
• 8,379 units enter 2026 already sold but not opened. How brands manage that pipeline decides what actually opens.
• Referrals from existing franchisees convert at 21 times the rate of internet leads.
• The fastest-growing brands are not the ones with the biggest development budgets. They are the ones executing most consistently across conversion, engagement, and post-agreement support.

Three Years of Data, One Pattern: Execution Beats Expansion

The chief development officer at a 60-location brand opens the 2026 planning deck and sees the contradiction she has been trying to explain to her board. Lead spend is up. The pipeline looks full. The deal count barely moved.

She has done what the old playbook said to do. More portals, more broker relationships, more money at the top of the funnel.

The funnel got wider and the brand did not get bigger.

What she feels is harder to put in the deck. The board will read the flat number as a development problem, and the development problem will read as hers.

She spent the money. She ran the plays. The scoreboard did not move.

It should have. A brand that invests more in growth should grow. When effort and results stop tracking together, the instinct is to push harder on the same lever. The data says the lever itself has moved.

That contradiction is the story of the 2025 Franchise Sales Index, and the numbers say she is not alone.

The strongest brands in this dataset stopped trying to outspend each other on lead generation. They started getting more out of the leads, the franchisees, and the signed agreements they already had. The growth lever moved from the top of the funnel to the quality of execution underneath it.

What the 2025 Franchise Sales Index Measures

The Index is FranConnect’s annual benchmark for franchise development. It tracks how development teams convert leads, engage franchisees, and manage their pipeline from first inquiry to open unit.

This edition draws on three full years of behavioral data, 2023 through 2025. The scope:

• 460+ franchise brands across Enterprise, Mid-Market, and SMB segments
• Approximately 3.4 million leads
• More than 33,000 signed franchise agreements
• More than 178,000 locations across eight verticals

It is the largest behavioral dataset in franchise development.

Why Behavioral Data Beats Survey Data

These numbers are not survey responses. Nobody self-reported how fast they follow up or how engaged their franchisees feel.

The figures are pulled directly from platform activity: real leads, real follow-up timing, real training completion, real opening dates. That distinction matters. Survey data tells you what teams believe they do. Behavioral data tells you what they actually did.

Set against the broader franchise sector tracked by the International Franchise Association, it is the deepest behavioral view of development activity available.

When the behavior of 460+ brands points in the same direction for three straight years, that is a pattern worth planning around.

The Three-Year View

The 2025 edition is the first to put three full years of behavioral data side by side. The progression is the argument:

• Lead volume: 991,000 (2023), 1,027,000 (2024), 1,062,000 (2025)
• Lead-to-agreement conversion: 0.76% (2023), 0.96% (2024), 1.50% (2025)
• Engagement gap, high versus low: 1.8 times (2023), 1.2 times (2024), 1.9 times (2025)

Lead volume grew at a modest pace. Conversion roughly doubled. The engagement gap narrowed briefly in 2024, then widened in 2025 to its highest level in three years.

The brands that invested in conversion efficiency and franchisee engagement outgrew their peers every year. What changed in 2025 is that the size of the advantage got bigger.

Finding One: Better Conversion, Not More Leads

From 2023 to 2025, total leads in the dataset grew by 7%. Over the same period, lead-to-agreement conversion went from 0.76% to 1.50%.

Leads rose 7%. Conversions rose 97%.

That is the single most important number in this report, because it rewrites where growth comes from. The brands that grew did not buy their way there. They converted their way there.

The Gap Between Volume and Conversion

The improvement reflects real operational change: faster follow-up, sharper qualification, and a better candidate experience from first contact to signed agreement.

Conversion still varies widely by vertical. QSR converts at 2.81% against a 1.50% baseline, while full-service restaurants sit at 0.44%.

The direction of travel matters more than the absolute figure. Brands that moved the number worked the funnel differently rather than funding it harder.

We dig into the mechanics of that shift, including where leads die and how speed-to-lead changes the math, in a companion analysis on franchise lead conversion.

Finding Two: The Engagement-Growth Multiplier

Across 309 brands with complete engagement data, the brands that invested in field operations, franchisee training, and content platforms consistently outgrew the ones that did not.

That pattern held in 2023. It held in 2024. In 2025, it got stronger.

High-engagement brands produced 1.9 times the net unit growth of low-engagement brands. A year earlier, that multiple was 1.2 times.

The gap is widening, not closing.

What a 1.9x Multiple Means in Practice

A high-engagement brand targeting 100 net new units produces the same output as a low-engagement brand targeting 190.

That is a different kind of return than most development budgets are built around. The investment in field visits, training, and content does not just support compliance. It compounds into demand. Customers using unified operational systems have seen an 18% increase in average unit economics, which is the kind of unit-level strength that turns existing franchisees into a growth engine rather than a maintenance cost.

The widening gap also tells you when engagement matters most. 2024 was a strong year for franchise development across the board, and low-engagement brands rode that market momentum to nearly keep pace, which is why the multiple compressed to 1.2 times. In 2025, conditions softened, and the brands that had not invested in engagement felt it. The gap widened back out to 1.9 times.

Engagement matters most when you cannot rely on the market to do the work for you.

Engagement is also a leading indicator, not a trailing one. The brands with strong engagement numbers today are the ones whose growth numbers will look good in next year’s report. We unpack the four signals that make up engagement, and how engaged franchisees become advocates, in a dedicated piece on the engagement multiplier.

Finding Three: The SBNO Pipeline Nobody Manages

SBNO stands for sold but not opened: units where a franchise agreement is signed but the location has not yet opened.

Across the dataset, 8,379 units enter 2026 already in the SBNO pipeline. Every one of them is revenue that has been sold but not yet realized.

Why SBNO Concentration Hits Small Brands Hardest

The pipeline looks very different depending on brand size. Enterprise brands carry the most units in absolute terms, but the concentration runs the other way:

• Enterprise (300+ units): 5,564 units in pipeline, 3.8% of active system
• Mid-Market (75 to 300 units): 1,948 units, 7.7% of active system
• SMB (under 75 units): 867 units, 13.3% of active system

For an enterprise brand, 3.8% in pre-open status is manageable. For an SMB brand, 13.3% means a meaningful share of projected growth is sitting in limbo, waiting on build-out, permitting, training, or franchisee readiness.

The brands that open more of that pipeline are not lucky. They are engaged. We cover how post-agreement support drives a 48% difference in opening rates in a separate analysis of the SBNO pipeline.

Where Leads Actually Get Lost

Most franchise leads die in silence, not in rejection.

Ranked by relative volume, the top reasons leads are closed and lost are:

• Unresponsive: the lead responded once, was never reached, or stopped responding
• Not interested: active disqualification by the candidate
• Financial qualification: not financially qualified, or financing unavailable
• Territory unavailable: no open territory in the candidate’s market
• Bad contact information

Here is the encouraging part. No-response losses fell 30% from 2023 to 2025.

That decline is a direct fingerprint of process maturity. Brands are closing the gap between inquiry and first contact, and the data rewards them for it.

Consider what a single unresponsive lead actually costs. You lose the candidate. You lose the months of portal spend that delivered them.

You also lose the franchisee that candidate might have become, the unit they would have opened, and the referral that unit would have generated three years on. One slow follow-up does not cost one lead. It costs the compounding chain that lead would have started.

Decades of research on lead response timing point the same way: the faster the first contact, the better the odds of qualifying the lead. Speed-to-lead remains the cheapest conversion lever in franchise development, and most brands still leave it on the table.

Your Highest-Converting Lead Source Is Already in Your System

When you rank lead sources by conversion rate, the order surprises most development teams.

• Internal network (existing franchisees, referrals, development prospecting): 18.9%
• Trade show: 13.5%
• Brokers: 3.9%
• Internet: 0.9%
• Franchise website: 0.6%

Referrals from existing franchisees convert at 21 times the rate of internet leads.

This is where development and operations stop being separate departments. Franchisees who are well-supported and meeting brand standards refer better candidates and represent the brand positively in their markets.

The same engagement investment that drives operational performance also shapes the quality of your referral pipeline. The connection between how well you support current franchisees and how efficiently you grow is direct, and it shows in how the best brands maintain brand standards as they scale.

The Real Frontier: Profitability and Retention on the Units You Have

Read the three findings together and a single message emerges. The growth advantage in franchising is moving away from how many units you can add and toward how well the units you already have perform.

Better conversion produces better-fit franchisees. Better engagement produces more profitable, more loyal ones. Better post-agreement support turns signed agreements into open, revenue-generating locations.

None of that is a top-of-funnel story. It is a unit-level story.

From Adding Units to Strengthening Units

For a development leader, the shift changes what a strong year looks like:

• Growth is measured by units that open and perform, not just agreements that get signed
• The development budget is judged on conversion quality and franchisee fit, not lead volume
• Operations and development share one scoreboard, because referrals and openings live at the intersection

What This Means for 2026 Planning

The brands pulling ahead are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones executing most consistently across conversion, engagement, and post-agreement support. That is a discipline question before it is a spending question, and it is the same discipline behind the shift from reactive to proactive operational management.

The chief development officer staring at her flat deal count does not need a bigger lead budget. She needs to convert better, engage deeper, and open faster. The 2025 Index says the brands that do are the ones that grow.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Franchise Sales Index?

The Franchise Sales Index is FranConnect’s annual benchmark for franchise development. It tracks how development teams convert leads, engage franchisees, and manage their pipeline. The 2025 edition draws on three full years of behavioral data, 2023 through 2025, across 460+ franchise brands, approximately 3.4 million leads, and more than 33,000 signed agreements.

What is a good franchise lead-to-agreement conversion rate in 2025?

The 2025 industry baseline in the Index is 1.50%, up from 0.76% in 2023. Conversion varies significantly by vertical: QSR leads at 2.81%, while full-service restaurants sit at 0.44%. The most useful benchmark is your own vertical’s rate, not the overall average, because consumer demand, capital accessibility, and operator pool depth all shape the number.

Why did franchise conversion double while lead volume stayed flat?

Conversion roughly doubled because brands improved how they worked the leads they already had. The data points to faster follow-up, sharper qualification, and a better candidate experience. No-response losses, the single most common reason leads die, fell 30% over the three-year period, which reflects brands closing the gap between inquiry and first contact.

What does SBNO mean in franchising?

SBNO stands for sold but not opened. It refers to units where a franchise agreement has been signed but the location has not yet opened. Across the 2025 dataset, 8,379 units enter 2026 in the SBNO pipeline. The pipeline is most concentrated at smaller brands, where 13.3% of the active system is pre-open, compared with 3.8% at enterprise brands.

Member counts are on forecast. Cancellations are within normal range. Revenue per location is tracking the pro forma. 

So why is your newest cohort generating half the referrals your flagship does? 

This is the Participation Ceiling — and it’s one of the hardest growth problems to catch in fitness and youth sports franchises because it doesn’t look like a problem until it’s already compounding. The dashboard reads fine. The trajectory doesn’t. 

Fitness and youth sports brands run on word of mouth. Not partially — entirely. When a member’s experience changes something real for them, they bring people in. Their friends. Their kids. That referral engine is the whole growth model. When it works consistently across every location, the brand compounds. When it doesn’t, the engine doesn’t break loudly. It slows quietly, months before any report tells you what happened. 

The instinct is to push harder on marketing. More paid acquisition. A member-get-member campaign. Different creative next quarter. By Q3, you’re spending meaningfully more per new member at newer locations than at the flagship — and nobody can explain why. That’s because marketing isn’t the lever. Something upstream is broken. 

Most brands at 20–75 locations made the same default choices: FDD training for the franchisee, a few site visits a year, hope the rest works itself out. That architecture stops working around location 35 or 40. The network surface area becomes too large for manual oversight to cover — and the gaps start showing up in places the standard dashboard doesn’t measure. 

The churn survey isn’t wrong. It’s just late. A lagging indicator collected carefully is still a lagging indicator. 

The brands that don’t hit the Participation Ceiling made different architecture decisions — deliberate ones, built into the operating system. The result isn’t just better retention. It’s a referral engine that gets stronger with scale instead of weaker. 

In Built for Participation, we break down exactly where fitness and youth sports franchise networks lose momentum, why the most common fixes keep failing, and what high-participation brands built instead. 

If any of this sounds familiar in your network, it’s worth a read. 

👉 Download Built for Participation 

Want to find out if your fitness brand is ensuring franchise growth?   Book a Consultation Now!

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In quick-service restaurants (QSR), the difference between good and great often comes down to one thing.

Of course, the systems and processes matter but it’s the people behind the counter, in the kitchen, and leading each location that truly drive long-term success.

The one thing we are talking about is culture.

Your brand relies on more than just serving great fast food. There is more weight in systems that make sure every team member in every location consistently delivers an experience rooted in shared values and clear standards. With that, your culture pulls more weight than the brand name.

For multi-unit operators and franchisees, building a great organization starts with choosing the right brand and cultivating the right people. Let’s dive into how QSRs unlock business success through great QSR management and organizational culture.

Culture Starts with Leadership

When you look at thriving franchise systems like Jersey Mike’s or Solo Salon,more than just the operational excellence stands out. What people really notice and flock to is the leadership and the culture curated them.

Strong leadership inspires confidence from the top down, and it shows. That inspired confidence shows up in how executives engage with franchisees, how decisions are made, and how values are lived out daily. For many successful owners, that’s the deciding factor when choosing where to invest and grow.

As one multi-unit franchisee explained:

“What drew me to those brands were leadership, strong leadership in both brands, the culture of both brands. The philanthropy, especially in Jersey Mike’s, was huge for me… the CEO really took interest in their franchisees, spending time with you, and personalizing the transaction instead of just being another IFF they’re collecting.”

After working with nearly 1,500 multi-location brands globally, it has become crystal clear that when leadership values people, franchisees feel it and it trickles down to every team member and guest interaction.

Leading Managers Who Build Alignment

Management is where strategy becomes reality. But in many QSRs, management still looks more like firefighting than leadership.

It’s not that managers don’t care. it’s that they’re buried under competing priorities, disconnected systems, and the constant pressure to perform. Without clarity, alignment and the time to instill both, they default to supervising tasks instead of leading people.

Strong QSR management changes that. 

It starts with clear expectations, consistent processes, and accountability that empowers rather than overwhelms. Great systems free managers from the daily grind so they can focus on coaching, performance, and guest experience, AKA the things that actually drive growth.

In the best franchise systems, management excellence isn’t accidental. It’s built on structure, rhythm, and trust. Managers know what success looks like, how to measure it, and how their work ladders up to the brand’s larger goals. That’s how leadership grows. Not through control, but through clarity.

Encouraging Franchisees to Manage with Confidence

Even the best systems fail without empowered operators. Franchisees sit closest to the customer, and their ability to manage effectively determines how well brand standards are lived out at the local level.

The best franchisors understand this and lead with partnership, not policing. They give franchisees the tools, insights, and freedom to run their business effectively while maintaining alignment with brand-wide goals.

Ownership is powerful. When franchisees feel trusted to lead,  to solve problems, coach teams, and make decisions within a clear framework, location quality rises and performance follows.

The highest-performing QSR networks strike a balance with structure without suffocation. Corporate sets the playbook and trusts franchisees to call the plays. That combination builds consistency without killing creativity, and it’s what turns a good brand into a resilient one.

Strong Management Protects the Brand

Every decision a manager makes, every shift they run, and every interaction they have with staff and customers directly shapes the guest experience. Poor management leads to turnover, inconsistency, and missed revenue.

It starts with passionate leaders and adaptable teams who do whatever it takes to make things work. In these early stages, success depends on hustle and heart.

As brands grow, the best operators build structure around their values. They standardize what work so great performance isn’t accidental. Managers evolve from doers to developers, shifting their focus from managing tasks to leading people.

At the highest level, excellence becomes culture. Leaders coach more than they correct. Franchisees take full ownership of their results. 

And the guest experience feels consistent because every team member, from corporate to crew, understands what “great” looks like and takes pride in delivering it.That’s what separates good brands from great ones and it’s the foundation of the FranConnect platform.

Ready to Build Your Path to Management Excellence?

As a Chief Operating Officer, you play a crucial role in shaping how your brand delivers, grows, and scales. You oversee daily performance, drive efficiency, and align teams to a shared vision, but management excellence doesn’t happen by chance.

To help, we’ve created a free resource ‘The Operational Excellence Playbook for COOs.’

Inside, you’ll learn how leading brands use operational excellence to:

• Drive efficiency and accountability across every location
• Empower local management to execute with confidence
• Align daily performance with long-term growth

Download this free playbook today to learn how to create systems that scale, empower teams to perform, and turn operational excellence into a lasting competitive advantage.

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In the beginning, instinct feels like enough. 

A founder knows their customers, understands their franchise model, and can sense when things are going well. That gut-level awareness works when there are only a few locations to watch over.

But the picture changes quickly. At 10 or more units, patterns start to blur. Sales performance varies, openings run late, and some franchisees quietly drift away from brand standards. Without clear data, it becomes impossible to tell which problems are isolated and which signal a larger issue.

This is why early data matters. 

The numbers you track in your first 10 units are more than reports. They become the blueprint for how well your system will scale at 25, 50, or 100 locations. With the right franchise analytics in place, you move from guessing to growing with confidence.

Why Early Data Matters More Than You Think

Many founders think structured data collection can wait until their brand is larger. At three or four locations, it feels easy enough to manage performance by memory or through quick conversations with franchisees. Spreadsheets seem to do the job.

But growth introduces complexity fast. By the time you reach 10 or 15 locations, gut instinct is no longer reliable. A few late openings, small compliance gaps, or missed sales opportunities can snowball into costly setbacks. What feels like “a minor issue” at one store often signals a trend that could affect the entire network.

Early data is powerful because it shapes the way you run your system from the start. The metrics you decide to track, and how you use them, become the foundation for smarter decision-making. In practice, they act like a blueprint, revealing patterns you can refine, risks you can prevent, and strengths you can scale.

The Core KPIs Emerging Brands Should Track

The goal is to focus on the numbers that reveal whether your franchise system is healthy and growing. For emerging brands, three KPIs stand out as the most important.

Franchise Sales Velocity

This measures how quickly prospects move through your development funnel, from first inquiry to signed agreement. Slow velocity often means leads are slipping through the cracks or that your process lacks structure. Faster velocity shows your sales engine is tuned and your pipeline is healthy.

Location Readiness

Every new unit needs to hit milestones on time: site approval, build-out, staffing, training, and opening. Tracking readiness ensures that stores open when they should and begin generating revenue as planned. Without it, openings get delayed, investors lose patience, and franchisees start questioning support.

Operational Compliance

Consistency is the hallmark of any strong franchise brand. Monitoring whether franchisees follow brand standards protects your customer experience and safeguards your reputation. Compliance data also helps you identify which owners need more support before problems spread.

Together, these KPIs act as an early-warning system. They give you clarity on what’s working, where you’re falling behind, and where to direct your attention before small issues become system-wide challenges.

Making Franchise Analytics Accessible to Everyone

Collecting data is only the first step. 

The real value comes when the right people can see and act on it. Too often, early-stage franchises keep reports locked in spreadsheets or dashboards that only the founder reviews. That creates bottlenecks and slows decision-making.

The smarter move is to give each stakeholder access to the metrics that matter most to them. Franchisees should see their compliance scores, training completion rates, and sales performance. Field consultants need visibility into how units are operating so they can coach owners and identify risks. Executives and founders benefit from roll-up dashboards that show system-wide health and trends across multiple locations.

When data is shared this way, accountability improves. Decisions happen faster because no one is waiting for reports. Franchisees feel supported rather than monitored, because they can see exactly how their performance ties back to brand standards and growth goals. The result is a culture where data becomes a tool for improvement, not just a record of past performance.

The Competitive Advantage of Early Data Collection

Think of your first 10 units as more than new locations. They are a laboratory for your entire growth strategy. Each data point you collect during this stage tells a story about how your system performs in the real world.

One franchise might notice that every delayed opening traces back to the same missed milestone in site readiness. By documenting the problem and adjusting their playbook, they cut future opening times by weeks. 

Another brand may discover that franchisees with higher early training completion rates consistently outperform others in first-year sales. That insight shapes how they prioritize onboarding for every new unit that follows.

Patterns like these are only visible if you start measuring early. By the time you reach 25 or 50 locations, it is too late to recreate the data you missed. Brands that collect early insights build a roadmap for scalable growth, while those that delay often repeat the same mistakes at greater cost.

Early data also builds credibility. Investors, prospective franchisees, and partners want proof that your system is working. Concrete numbers on sales velocity, readiness, and compliance demonstrate that you have more than passion. You have a business model that scales.

Building a Data Culture From the Start

For emerging brands, building a culture around data is less about technology and more about mindset. The goal is not to have the most advanced system. It is to create habits where numbers guide decisions at every level of the business.

Start simple. 

A lightweight dashboard that tracks sales velocity, location readiness, and compliance is enough to provide clarity. Use it consistently so every new location opening or franchisee onboarding experience adds to the record of what works and what needs fixing.

Make data part of every role. 

Franchisees should expect to review their compliance and training results. Field consultants should use performance numbers to coach owners, not just audit them. Executives should reference KPIs when setting goals or allocating resources. When everyone has visibility, accountability becomes shared.

Encourage storytelling through data. 

Numbers are not just statistics. They are indicators of effort, execution, and outcomes. A spike in onboarding completion shows commitment. A dip in readiness scores signals where support is needed. Treating data as a narrative keeps teams engaged and invested in improvement.

When data habits start early, they scale naturally. By the time your brand reaches 25 or 50 units, you are not scrambling to put systems in place. You already have a blueprint built on years of insight that guides decisions and fuels growth.

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Data is more than a set of numbers. For emerging franchises, it is the story of where your brand is headed. The insights you collect in your first 10 units become the blueprint for how well you scale at 25, 50, or even 100 locations.

Brands that wait too long to build this foundation often repeat mistakes at greater cost. Brands that start early gain foresight, credibility, and a system that improves with every new opening.

If you want to know which KPIs matter most and how to use them to build a franchise that grows with confidence, download From One to Many: A Growth Guide for Emerging Franchise Brands. It offers practical checklists and strategies to help you turn data into a clear roadmap for scalable success.

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