Turn Your Franchise Training into a Strategic Asset

Jeff Walter, Founder and CEO of LatitudeLearning, delivered a compelling and practical session at the IFA World Franchise Show about how franchisors can elevate training from a necessary cost to a profit-generating strategic asset. Drawing on two decades of experience in Learning and Development (L&D), Walter outlined a framework to help franchise leaders rethink how they approach training at every stage of their growth.

 Training as a Strategic Asset

Walter opened by challenging a pervasive mindset among executives: that training is a cost of doing business, not an investment. He explained that executives typically allocate funding to two categories:

  • Cost of Doing Business (e.g., accounting, compliance)
  • Strategic Investments (e.g., sales, marketing, product development)

Most training programs, he argued, are viewed as the former. The key to transforming training into a strategic asset is to ensure it produces measurable ROI—increased revenue, improved efficiency, and higher profitability.

 Benefits of Franchise Training

Walter outlined five specific benefits of a well-implemented franchise training program:

  1. Operational Consistency – Ensures uniform customer experiences across locations.
  2. Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty – Higher satisfaction yields stronger retention and brand reputation.
  3. Operational Efficiency – Trained employees reduce waste and work more effectively.
  4. Employee Retention – Proper onboarding and ongoing training mitigate early turnover.
  5. Increased Revenue & Profit Margins – A natural result of the above, driving top- and bottom-line growth.

 Who Needs Training & What They Need to Know

Walter emphasized tailoring training for various roles within a franchise:

  • Franchise Operators & Managers: Financial literacy, leadership, business model understanding.
  • Skilled Associates & Sales Staff: Product knowledge, customer service, technical skills.
  • Support Roles (e.g., Marketing Coordinators): Process knowledge, compliance, customer feedback protocols.

He stressed the importance of designing learning paths based on role-specific responsibilities and required competencies.

 The Five Stages of Training Program Maturity

Walter introduced the Training Program Roadmap, a five-stage model that franchises evolve through as their training programs mature:

  1. Self-Directed Learning – Voluntary, informal learning. Useful, but inconsistent.
  2. Knowledge Acquisition – Mandatory content with assessments and certifications.
  3. Skill Development – Transition from knowing to doing. Requires practice and coaching.
  4. Individual Performance – Certification based on performance benchmarks.
  5. Organizational Performance – Program aligned with franchise KPIs, retention, and revenue goals.

He noted that each stage requires different best practices, from blended learning to performance-based certification models.

 What Most Franchises Do Today

Walter examined a common training model among franchises:

  • Onboarding: Typically a Stage 3 instructor-led program. New franchisees attend multi-week HQ and field location training to learn operations, skills, and culture.
  • Ongoing Employee Training: Often reduced to a Stage 1 “train-the-trainer” model where franchisees are expected to train new employees without sufficient resources or structure. The result? Poor training, low retention, and operational inconsistency.

 A Model for Scalable Training

To help franchisors break this pattern, Walter presented a real-world example from a power sports franchise client that built a successful and scalable training program. Key practices included:

  • Blended Learning – Employees complete self-paced modules before attending instructor-led sessions.
  • Tiered Certifications – Encouraging participation through level-based incentives (e.g., discounted training, improved warranty payouts).
  • Clear Role-Based Objectives – Skill profiles and learning paths tied to job responsibilities.
  • NPS as a KPI – Net Promoter Score used as a simple but powerful metric to gauge program impact.

This model yielded tangible ROI and became a blueprint for transformation.

Scaling Franchise Training for Growth

Addressing emerging franchisors, Walter provided a roadmap to scale training as the business grows:

0–10 Units:

  • Instructor-led onboarding dominates.
  • Begin building self-paced foundational content.

10–50 Units:

  • Introduce blended learning.
  • Use an LMS to track learning and performance.
  • Create certifications and set franchisee-level training objectives.

50–100 Units:

  • Shift focus from individual certifications to location-level training benchmarks.
  • Start introducing incentives and partner accountability.

100+ Units:

  • Emphasize skill development with coaching and practice.
  • Explore emerging technologies like AI and VR to scale practice-based learning.

Walter highlighted how AI coaching and simulation tools are lowering the cost of skills training—making what was once expensive (practice and mentoring) more accessible and scalable.

Final Takeaways

Walter closed by reinforcing the core idea: franchise training can and should deliver strategic value. Done right, it directly contributes to:

  • Revenue growth
  • Margin improvement
  • Brand consistency
  • Franchisee and employee satisfaction

He encouraged L&D professionals to speak the language of ROI, show how training drives performance, and shift internal perceptions to unlock greater investment and innovation.

Access the Resources

Participants were encouraged to scan QR codes linking to supporting materials, best practices, and more detailed frameworks to help implement the ideas discussed.