Understanding the Candidate Journey.

An Opportunity in FranFlow represents where a candidate is in their journey toward franchise ownership.

While a Contact is the person, an Opportunity is their progress. A Contact may have multiple Opportunities, but you shouldn't have multiple Contacts. Check out: Duplicate Contacts vs Multiple Opportunities.

If you’re new to FranFlow, this is one of the most important concepts to understand.

👉 Contacts = People
👉 Opportunities = Process

An Opportunity tracks a candidate as they move through the franchise discovery process.

It lives inside your pipeline, which is made up of stages that represent each step of the journey.

Opportunities help you:

✔ Track where each candidate is
✔ Stay organized across multiple leads
✔ Know what action to take next
✔ Power workflows and automation
✔ Align with the FranTracker™ process

Each candidate (Contact) can have one or more Opportunities.

As they move forward, their Opportunity moves through different stages.

These stages reflect real milestones in the process.

FranFlow includes a pre-built 12-stage pipeline designed to match how franchise consultants guide candidates.

A new contact has entered your system.

👉 Focus: Speed to lead and initial outreach

You’ve reached out, but the candidate has not responded yet.

👉 Focus: Follow-up and connection

The candidate has responded and is actively communicating.

👉 Focus: Build rapport and qualify

The candidate has booked an initial call.

👉 Focus: Prepare for the conversation

👉 Focus: Reschedule and re-engage

You are reviewing the candidate’s profile and assessing fit.

👉 Focus: Analyze data and prepare recommendations

You are aligning the candidate with potential franchise options.

👉 Focus: Match based on goals and qualifications

You are presenting franchise opportunities to the candidate.

👉 Focus: Education and alignment

The candidate has been introduced to a franchisor.

👉 Focus: Support the introduction and next steps

You are guiding the candidate through decision-making.

👉 Focus: Clarity, validation, and confidence

The candidate has selected a franchise and is moving forward.

👉 Focus: Support final steps and close

The candidate is not ready yet but still a future opportunity.

👉 Focus: Maintain relationship over time

Several stages are directly connected to FranTracker™.

These stages reflect key actions inside the FranTracker system, such as:

✔ Updates may sync between systems
✔ These stages align with the “Reading Your Prospects” process
✔ FranTracker remains the source for franchise matching activity

You move Opportunities as the candidate progresses.

👉 Move stages based on what has actually happened, not what you hope happens.

You can move an Opportunity two ways:

An Opportunity is typically created when:

Most FranFlow workflows automatically create Opportunities for you.

To create a new Opportunity manually, which should only be done in cases where a candidate is purchasing another franchise, you will go to the Contact card:

A single Contact can have multiple Opportunities.

👉 Do NOT create duplicate contacts — use multiple Opportunities instead.

You can access each Contacts Opportunity history from the Contact card:

Leads get “stuck” and become hard to track.

Jumping stages reduces visibility and consistency.

This breaks your system and creates confusion.

When Opportunities are used correctly:

✔ You always know where every candidate stands
✔ Your pipeline becomes your daily dashboard
✔ Automation works properly
✔ Your process becomes repeatable and scalable

👉 Contacts = Who the person is
👉 Opportunities = Where they are in the journey

Master Opportunities, and you master FranFlow.