[Hiring] Franchise Sales Specialist @Potbelly

Role Description

At Potbelly, we believe great neighborhoods deserve great sandwiches - and great partners to bring them to life. As Franchise Sales Specialist, you will help grow our franchise community by supporting the franchise recruitment and sales process from initial inquiry through candidate qualification, agreement execution, and transition to development.

This role is hands-on, highly organized, and metrics-driven. You will:

• Serve as an initial point of contact for franchise inquiries, prescreen prospective candidates, begin building rapport, and route qualified candidates through the appropriate franchise sales process.
• Generate and support prospective franchisee leads outside Potbelly's marketing lead systems through outreach, direct mail, event follow-up, digital channels, broker and consultant coordination, and other targeted recruitment efforts.
• Support the full franchise sales process, including lead intake, candidate qualification, FDD disclosure coordination, deal progression, agreement execution, Initial Franchise Fee tracking, and transition to onboarding and development.
• Maintain candidate records in FranDash and other sales tools, set up qualified candidates, monitor pipeline stage movement, and ensure franchise candidate documentation is accurate, complete, and compliant.
• Facilitate sales process metrics by tracking lead flow, source performance, response time, candidate status, conversion rates, follow-up aging, deal status, agreement activity, Initial Franchise Fee activity, and other franchise recruitment and sales KPIs.
• Prepare weekly pipeline updates, dashboards, and reports for franchise leadership, including qualified candidate activity, Warm Welcome readiness, event follow-up, market progress, and sales funnel performance.
• Coordinate, prepare for Warm Welcomes, candidate meetings, webinars, franchise recruitment events, trade shows, broker conferences, industry conventions, and other franchise sales events.
• Support franchise recruitment and sales events by managing registration, agendas, materials, candidate communications, pre-event preparation, post-event follow-up, lead capture, and performance reporting.
• Support non-traditional shop development opportunities by helping organize prospect information, development materials, candidate communications, internal updates, and coordination with real estate, operations, legal, finance, and development partners.
• Support weekly update calls with the franchise sales team and provide additional administrative, project management, and coordination support to help the team meet franchise growth goals.
• Represent Potbelly professionally in the market and travel as needed to the Support Center, candidate meetings, franchisee meetings, trade shows, industry conventions, conferences, market visits, and team collaboration sessions.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in franchise sales, franchise recruitment, franchise development, restaurant development, marketing sales, lead generation, or a related growth support role preferred.
• Understanding of the franchise development lifecycle, including lead generation, recruitment, qualification, FDD disclosure, franchise sales, agreement execution, onboarding, and development handoff.
• Experience in using franchise systems and sales tools; FranDash, SmartSheet, Microsoft Office, and reporting or dashboard tools are strongly preferred.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple candidates, projects, events, deadlines, follow-up needs, and internal stakeholders at the same time.
• Analytical ability to interpret sales funnel data, identify pipeline gaps, assess lead source performance, and help improve recruitment and sales process execution.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to build trust with candidates, franchisees, brokers, consultants, and cross-functional partners.
• Comfort operating across multiple sales environments, including phone, email, text, video conferencing, social media, webinars, trade shows, conferences, and in-person candidate meetings.
• Working knowledge of franchise documentation, candidate compliance requirements, and the importance of timely, accurate, and complete sales process records.
• Creative problem-solving skills, strong attention to detail, and a collaborative working style grounded in accountability, urgency, brand stewardship, and integrity.
• Ability to work well with franchisees, candidates, and partners from diverse backgrounds and broad geographic markets.
• Willingness to travel as needed for candidate meetings, franchisee meetings, trade shows, conferences, market visits, industry events, and team collaboration.

Benefits

• Competitive pay with performance-based annual raises!
• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Domestic Partnership Benefits
• Paid Parental Leave
• FSA and HSA with Employer Contribution
• Commuter Benefit Program
• Retirement Savings 401(k) WITH company match
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid Time Off
• Discount Program
• Flexible Work Schedule
• Career growth opportunities