Chapter 1
Placements
Who makes the placements, how they find candidates, and where their leads come from.
The Franchise Consulting Index · 2026 Edition
The first independent report on the people who drive the franchise industry's growth
Who makes the placements, what earns their recommendation, how brands and candidates get vetted, and the agenda the profession is asking for.
63%
of all units placed come from the top 20% of consultants
3%
where a consultant's own commission rate ranks among reasons they recommend a brand — second to last
71%
of consultants who pulled back from a brand pointed to something about its development team
88%
have declined to present a brand over compliance, financial stability or litigation concerns
A first look at how franchise consulting actually works
Franchise consultants sit at the centre of how franchise brands find their franchisees. They shape which brands a candidate sees, in what order, and with what framing. For many emerging brands they are the primary route to market.
Remarkably little is known about them.
There has been no public record of how consultants choose the brands they present, what they research before presenting them, what makes them stop working with a brand, or how large a role their own compensation plays in any of it. Individual networks hold parts of the picture for their own members. No measure has spanned the field across networks.
The Franchise Consulting Index was built to close that gap. It records, in the profession's own words and numbers, how franchise consulting works — across networks, across tenure, and across levels of production.
Why it exists
The report was not built to argue a position about the industry. It was built to establish a factual baseline the industry can argue from.
Findings are presented as they were measured. Where the data shows an association, it is described as an association. Where a base is small, it is flagged. Where a question could have been asked better, that is recorded in the limitations section — which is published in full, alongside the complete survey instrument.
The Index is intended to run annually. A single year describes a profession; successive years measure how it changes.
What the report covers
Read the report
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About the Index
The Franchise Consulting Index is published by Consulting Hub Services Inc., which also operates The Consultant Exchange (TCX), a platform connecting independent franchise consultants with franchisor brands. TCX therefore holds a commercial position in the sector this report examines.
No franchise brand, consultant network, franchise sales organization or other third party funded this research, reviewed it before publication, or had any editorial input into its findings. Participation was voluntary and unpaid. Respondents were not required to be TCX users and were not asked about TCX.