Franchise Development Specialist

Overview

Are you looking to build a career in Franchise Development? Do you have strong organizational and communication skills? Are you nuts about pets? This could be the place for you - come work in the neighborhood you love!

The Franchise Development Specialist, reporting to the Director of Franchhise Development, supports franchise growth, franchise owner engagement, and strategic department initiatives through project coordination, marketing support, candidate management, reporting, and administrative leadership.

This role serves as a key contributor to franchise sales, franchise owner programs, and departmental initiatives, helping ensure projects are executed efficiently and effectively throughout the franchise lifecycle. This is a hybrid position with an in-office work schedule of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Pet Central, our Livionia, MI corporate headquarters. Remote work is available on Thursdays and Fridays. Responsibilities/Qualifications Primary Responsibilities Franchise Lead & Candidate Management

• Manage franchise lead and candidate activity within Fran Connect, ensuring accurate records, timely follow-up, and complete documentation throughout the franchise sales process.
• Serve as the primary administrator for Fran Connect and maintain accurate candidate, broker, territory, and franchise development records.
• Maintain visibility into candidate progression and sales pipeline activity while providing regular status updates and reporting to franchise development leadership.
• Generate and distribute reports related to lead volume, candidate conversion, pipeline activity, broker performance, marketing effectiveness, development trends, and franchise development milestones.
• Audit candidate records, reporting, and data integrity to ensure accuracy, consistency, and completeness.
• Support preparation of franchise sales presentations, candidate materials, Meet the Team Day resources, and executive reporting.
• Coordinate Meet the Team Day logistics, candidate bios, meeting schedules, presentations, and supporting materials.
• Support development and maintenance of dashboards, trackers, scorecards, and reporting tools that improve visibility into franchise development performance.

Franchise Marketing & Lead Generation

• Serve as the primary day-to-day contact for franchise development marketing partners, including Hot Dish Advertising, Fishman PR, and other agencies, consultants, and vendors as assigned.
• Support the development, implementation, and ongoing management of franchise development SEO strategies, partnering with internal stakeholders and external agencies to drive organic traffic, improve search rankings, and generate qualified franchise leads.
• Partner with agency resources to support franchise development website performance, content strategy, public relations efforts, lead generation campaigns, and digital marketing activities.
• Serve as the primary owner of franchise development marketing analytics, monitoring lead-generation performance, website activity, lead quality, lead-source effectiveness, and campaign performance while driving optimization efforts, managing follow-up actions, and providing strategic recommendations to leadership.
• Assist in directing franchise development marketing expenditures and priorities to maximize lead generation effectiveness and return on investment.
• Develop and maintain franchise development marketing collateral, presentations, online listings, digital assets, and sales materials to ensure consistent branding and messaging.
• Coordinate development and publication of franchise-focused content, including blog articles, website updates, owner success stories, press releases, and candidate-facing materials.
• Maintain marketing-related reporting, dashboards, and performance tracking tools to support evaluation of franchise development marketing investments.
• Audit lead source attribution, campaign reporting, and marketing data to ensure accuracy and consistency across systems.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and external partners to identify opportunities to strengthen franchise marketing performance, website effectiveness, lead generation, and candidate conversion.
• Support franchise development participation in trade shows, franchise expos, broker events, webinars, and franchise recruitment activities.

Franchise Engagement & Strategic Initiatives

• Manage all administrative and logistical aspects of the Franchise Advisory Committee (FAC), including meeting coordination, agenda development,…