All franchisors must address issues of national account pricing and service. The renegade franchisee who does not wish to follow the pricing guidelines for the demands of the customer can in fact cause the entire franchise system to lose a major national or international account. How do all you know this, you ask?

Well, because this became a serious issue in our company, where we had many regional accounts with nationally known companies who wished to use our services in each market we expanded into. In some cases they wished us to travel to faraway markets just so we could serve their entire fleet. It is for this reason that I added this clause below to our franchise agreements;

4.8 National and International Accounts

To the extent that Franchisor enters into an agreement to provide The Company to any National or International Account which has a location within the Marketing Area, Franchisor may offer Franchisee the right to service such account at such location at the terms upon which Franchisor and the National or International Account have agreed. In the event that there is more than one Franchisee licensed by Franchisor in the Marketing Area, Franchisor may allocate opportunities to service National or International Accounts between such Franchisees, as Franchisor in its sole discretion deems appropriate. If, for any reason, Franchisee elects not to service a National or International Account that is offered to Franchisee, Franchisor may, in its sole discretion, service such account or appoint any other party to service such account.

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It is recommended that all franchisors who runs service companies or sell products to large government agencies, corporations or national organizations that they get with their franchise attorney and ask them how best to address this issue for their strategic marketing plan. I hope you will consider this in 2006.