By: Jim Thomas

In many clubs we go into they have everything they need to be successful.  By simply changing the attitude, the process and fundamentals, things can start to change their sales volume right away.

Here are some things to consider:

Telephone Inquiries and Log Sheet.  Be sure every inquiry is logged in.  First, this will tell you exactly what kind of phone response you are getting.  Don?t leave this to guesswork.  Second, monitor the salespersons effectiveness on setting the appointments and show percentages. We find that clubs are getting more phone response that they realize.  This one step alone will improve your performance.

Always, always agree.  You want to eliminate such words as no, not, never, can?t, won?t, don?t from your vocabulary. It?s nearly impossible to get agreement when you have disagreement and so many salespeople sell from a standpoint of disagreement. This doesn?t commit you to anything; it simply means you have the same opinion.  Mary, I understand, I have said the same thing myself from time to time, now, let?s get you started.  Be agreeable at all levels of communications, watch the difference it makes.

Show membership options to every prospect.  Regardless of circumstances, be sure and present membership options to every prospect that enters your club.  If you start to prejudge, you?ll lose sales.  A good rule to follow is to treat all prospects like buyers.

Give the prospect what they came in for.  We see this one a lot.  The club offers a free week trial or a paid trial through Groupon or something similar.  The key here is to give the prospect what they came in for right when they come in.  Don?t give it to them AFTER they decide they don?t want to join.  This will put the prospect at ease and simplify the sales process.

The Second Sale.  This will be one of the easiest sales you will ever make.  Once the new member has joined, be sure you are offering such things as personal training, apparel, nutrition, etc.  Most sales people never do this. Additional purchases will also help solidify the membership sale.

Volunteer to handle all complaints.  Successfully handling a member complaint is the highest level of service you can provide and great opportunity to make another sale.  Upgrades, add ons, personal training or whatever you club has to offer.  There are sales to be made every day from this valuable source.

Now, go close a sale!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting and turnaround firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars and workshops across the country on the practical skills required to successfully build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Learn more here: Jim Thomas On Demand

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We recently took on a client club whose sales were on a steady decline. Of course, we heard the normal push-backs such as too much competition, time of year, rates are too high, marketing is not working, etc. One of the first things we will normally do is listen in to call-tracking results on incoming calls ? most of this is tied to direct mail marketing. In this particular case, a prospect called in asking about membership rates. Not only did the club representative not follow the provided script, but when the caller volunteered that she may have called the wrong club, the club rep offered to find the phone number of the competitor. You may be thinking this was a new rep that was answering the phone prematurely?..unfortunately, it was the club manager.

Do you know what your salespeople and front desk staffers are saying over the phone?

92% of customer interactions happen via the phone. 85% of customers report dissatisfaction with their phone experience.

Do you have a written phone script? If not, you need to get one and it should be memorized to the point of being second-nature. Regular training and role-playing should be done to be sure everyone is on track. And be sure to listen to your call tracking notes?this will only be important to your staff, if it?s first important to you. You must inspect what you expect.

A customer is 4 times more likely to buy from a competitor when ignored.

Are you ignoring your customers?

Many clubs will put a significant effort into getting the phone to ring and people to walk through the door, but then don?t maximize the opportunity to increase membership sales when the salespeople fail to follow up.

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect.

25% of salespeople make a second contact and stop.

12% of salespeople only make three contacts and stop.

Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts.

80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

The biggest reasons we find salespeople do not follow up like they should ? they simply don?t know what to say. Web leads, for example, on average, require 8 attempts before contacting?.you may speak to some web leads right away which means someone else make take 16 attempts.

The key to successful follow up is to commit to it, get creative on different ways to do it and understand that speed is power.

Do you know what your salespeople are saying? Can your salespeople pass the test? If you would like for us to phone shop your club, just email jthomas@fmconsulting.net or call 800-929-2898.

Now, go learn that script!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting and turnaround firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars and workshops across the country on the practical skills required to successfully build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net.

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There?s much about ?selling? in the 21st Century that has become tangled. ?Price presentation? and ?deal-offering? now precede ?value advancement.? Club sales personnel think that they have to tour a potential member through a maze of steel and Naugahyde before he/she can make a decision! Sales reps are taught to ?overcome objections? rather than find out facts.

To which I say: Baloney! Foolish!
Modern selling actually needs to return to earlier-era professional sales approaches. In those approaches, the first concept that sales personnel (regardless of age, sex, or type of personality) mastered was ?qualifying the prospective customer.?

What does that mean – qualify?
It means find out about the customer first – even before you ?tour? him/her. What promoted him to come in today? How does he or she feel about themselves in relation to exercise? What gets in the way of him participating in an exercise program in your club?

There are four (4) basic steps that any salesperson – regardless of length of service, whether a ?veteran? or a ?rookie? – can use to qualify any possible buyer.
A genuine ?prospect? exhibits four (4) definite characteristics (think of the acronym N-M-T-U):

1. NEED- The person considering buying genuinely has to know he/she needs/wants this product or service.
2. MONEY- The person considering buying has funds to pay for the product or service, either up front in full, or on a continuous/scheduled-payment basis.
3. TIME- The person considering buying is willing to devote specific time to participate/use the ?product or service being offered.
4. URGENCY- The person considering buying wants to buy now.

Remember, please remember that you are NOT selling memberships. You are conducting a personal interview with a human being who is attempting to find out if what you have to offer meets what he/she perceives to be their needs. If, in the personal interview process, each of these four aspects is not satisfied?you do not have a prospect – you merely have an ?interested person? (I call them ?suspects!?). If you fail to engage each and all of these four principles, it?s likely that in 60% of circumstances, you?ll have a “walk-out” leave without buying because he/she felt that you were trying to sell them rather than get to know them and provide space for them to make a good decision.

Even if a person does buy without being qualified, there?s a strong chance that he or she will cancel membership within a few months. One of the facets of modern selling that is of uppermost importance is that the customer expresses satisfaction with the sales process itself?it seems to add ?value? to the purchase – at least in the customer?s mind.

(Michael Scott Scudder is Founder/CEO of Fitness Business Council, the independent club business network. Michael can be contacted at 575-751-1212 or mss@fitnessbusinesscouncil.com.)

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We were asked recently to conduct a health club sales training class on ethical selling practices. The following are some of the points that came out of that training seminar/workshop.

Whenever I conduct a training class of this nature, I start by asking each person in attendance the first thing that pops into their head when the word ?sales? is mentioned. I am always amazed at the negative descriptions many people use for sales.

I get the sense that this negative perception some health club people have about sales is used as a permission slip to ?just get the sale.? Here is what came from the training session:

1. Don’t intentionally misrepresent anything.
   Never. Never, never, never lie to a health club member or guest. About anything. Ever. Period. That should be pretty straightforward.
2. Make it a priority to fix any significant misunderstandings that you can.
   It’s possible that your member or guest will form incorrect ideas or beliefs about your health club.

   It’s very tempting, when these misunderstandings work in your favor, to ignore them. On the important issues that impact the membership sale, allowing misunderstandings to exist is called an act of passive dishonesty. Correct them when you can.

3. Without exception, you should work hard for the health club owner.
   It’s easy for a health club salesperson to give in to the temptation to cut corners when it comes to working a full day, every day. After all, who really knows if you make your first prospect call at 9:00 A.M. instead of 8:30 A.M.?

   A code of ethics is easy to live by when the club owner is watching. But it’s a real test of character when your ethics are tested in situations where no one else knows, and you know you can get away with it. You owe your club owner consistent, full days of your best efforts at the health club. Anything less is unethical. Do the right thing when no one is watching.

4. If you say you?ll do something, do what you say you are going to do.
   This isn’t as easy as it sounds. In its? simplest form, don’t over promise. That’s difficult to do when you’re in the middle of a competitive situation over a big corporate sale, and you know the health club around the corner is over promising to get the sale. But, if you’re going to be an ethical health club salesperson, you won’t over promise, because you know you won’t be able to do what you say you’re going to do.
5. No one does it alone, recognize those who help you.
   It’s easy to get into the mind-set that you alone are responsible for your health club selling success. After all, you’re out there all alone, fighting the membership sales battle every day. Nobody else knows what good work you did following up to get that sale, or how hard it is some days when nothing goes your way.

   In spite of this, you couldn’t do your job without the support of a staff of people at the front desk, on the workout floor, in maintenance, etc. Your health club owner gave you an opportunity and nurtured you along. I?m sure the front desk has cleaned up more than a few of your messes, and they have positively impacted many of your new members and guests.

   All of these health club support staff has contributed in significant ways to your success in selling memberships. It is just as dishonest to not recognize them as it is to misrepresent the health club.

6. Be coachable and willing to continuously learn and improve.
   You are not as good at health club sales as you can be. You have yet to reach your potential in the health club industry. One of the reasons why the club owner hired you for membership sales is that they saw potential in you. I believe you have an ethical obligation, not only to the health club owner but also to yourself, to become as good as you can be? to continuously improve yourself. When you decide that you are good enough, that you know about all you need to know about health club sales, you quit learning and improving. And when that happens, you rob yourself and your health club of that potential you have that will not be developed. You?re either getting better or you?re getting worse. There is no in between.

Now, let?s get ready to sell. Ethically.

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It?s always interesting to see the different ways health clubs across the country go about selling a membership. Most that struggle in the sales process have made the process overwhelming and complicated without even realizing it. Most that do well in the sales process seem to have figured out a way to make the entire process very simple.

So, before you continue reading, I’d like you to take a moment right now and decide whether you think selling a health club membership is simple or complicated?

Ok, please continue.

People demand the simple in their lives and they see the value in simplicity. Simplicity sells and people who visit your health club are even willing to pay more money for things to be simplified.

Now let’s come back to selling a health club membership and whether it is complicated or simple.

I think that many health club owners have been convinced that selling a membership is difficult and complicated but we also use the perspective that selling a membership is complicated as an excuse to miss the sale. Let me explain this a bit further.

Many health club owners have been told selling a membership is difficult, overwhelming and complicated. They have been convinced that:

• As the health club facilities and services we are selling get more and more complicated?and the competition increases, the selling of these complicated and highly competitive facilities and services must by definition get more complicated as well.
• As the number of people involved in making a single buying decision increases (husband/wife, corporate sales), the more complicated the selling of a membership becomes.

Since many owners have been convinced that selling a health club membership is complicated, they start to believe they need a complicated membership sales process and complicated sales tools in order to effectively sell. As a result, lots of health clubs do not maximize an opportunity that is right in front of them.

Complexity in the sales process provides us with many additional sources of excuses and gives us the ability to cover up our failures in the sales process. If you are selling complicated facilities and services at your health club, you can use the excuse that a prospect failed to see the value of your health club because the facilities and services are so complicated and overwhelming. If it is taking a long time for your prospect to make a decision to join, you can make the excuse that selling a membership is complicated as there are lots of people involved (husband/wife, corporate). You could go on and on making excuses because selling a health club membership is complicated.

I would like to say to any health club owner, manager or salesperson that selling a health club membership is not in fact complicated; it is in fact quite simple.

Even if the facilities you are selling are overwhelming and complicated, so what? You are not selling a complicated facility or service; you are selling a solution to a problem. You?re selling strategy, a plan and focus is around the solution to your prospect’s problem and not around your complicated or overwhelming facility. Whether your health club is complicated with every piece of equipment imaginable or just a simple workout studio should not be relevant to the membership sales conversation.

If you are willing to take on the belief that selling a health club membership is simple and you are prepared to give up the excuses you can use if you believe selling is complicated, then what is your next step?

I suggest that you look at the membership sales process you are using and if it is complicated, replace it with a proven, simple membership sales process. Find something that can be effectively used by everyone on your staff.

Commit yourself to finding and learning a simple, beginning-to-end, membership sales process that focuses on selling solutions, benefits and results to the prospect (as opposed to selling facility and price) and which works whether one or more people are involved in the buying decision. If you do, you will naturally be a lot more successful at selling health club memberships and you will enjoy it a lot more too.

Selling a health club membership really is simple and simple sells. Now, try it and see.

Jim Thomas? Fitness Management & Consulting

fmconsulting.net

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Sales training participants in our workshops often ask how they can better control the membership sales process. Although many have been trained to spend the majority of their time talking about their club features and programs? believing that telling is selling? it is an ineffective approach. The most effective way to control the membership sales process is to ask more questions.

Selling is like driving a car: The person who asks the questions sits in the driver’s seat and controls the direction of the sale, while the passenger?the person who answers the questions?goes along for the ride. Unfortunately, many health club sales people feel that they are selling when they respond to their prospect’s questions. They mistakenly believe this will demonstrate how smart or knowledgeable they are and will help their prospect make a membership buying decision. In actuality, the prospect takes control of the sale whenever he moves into the driver’s seat by asking questions.

You can also lose control of the membership sale if you aren’t asking the right kinds of questions. Many health club sales people have learned to ask questions, all too often they sound like this: “If I could save you money, would you be interested?” “Is this the one you want?” “What will it take to earn your business?”

The problem with questions like these is that they do not help you gain the knowledge you need to effectively present a solution?and these questions only demonstrate a lack of sales ability that will quickly cause the prospect to lose interest in the discussion.

Instead, you need to ask high-quality questions that will make your prospect think and will demonstrate your club?s knowledge and expertise. For example, focus on learning more about the prospect’s goals and challenges. This approach helps you gain more insight to your prospect’s situation, which means you will be able to present an attractive solution.

Here are three tips to developing good sales questions:

1. Determine your key objective. What information do you require in order to move the sales process forward or determine the best solution for your customer? Your questions may vary depending on the customer.

2. Consider the person you will be speaking with. Questions about the individual?s goals and objectives and the challenges and barriers that are preventing them from reaching those targets will give you valuable insight.

3. Use “what” questions.

• What caused that problem?
• What action are you taking to achieve your goals?
• What specific challenges are preventing you from reaching your targets?
• What results are you expecting?

By determining the cause of their problems, you will be able to better tailor your presentation and show your prospects how your program is a solution.

Another mistake membership sales reps make is that they tend to move backwards through the sales process. Oftentimes, reps start a sales presentation to a client followed by a Q & A session. This is a recipe for failure and sets the prospect up to ask questions and take control of the sale. Instead, ask questions about your prospect’s needs first and then adapt their presentation to address those needs. If you can offer a prospect a definitive solution, closing the sale will be a certainty.

In today’s competitive business world it is actually easy to stand out from the competition. Most sales people are so focused on trying to get the sale that they don’t learn anything about their prospect’s situation. If you truly want to control the sales process and positively influence the outcome, you must teach yourself to ask questions instead of talking. Contrary to popular belief, telling is NOT selling.

Jim Thomas? Fitness Management & Consulting
fmconsulting.net

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What if your gym memberships were FREE? What would your closing percentages be? Would your members ever leave?

Today the growing trend for health clubs is to create a value in their membership that is greater than just the use of the club. One of easiest and most lucrative ways clubs are doing this is by partnering with local merchants to provide discounts to their members where they shop everyday ? just for being a member. Key partnerships include restaurants, car washes, barbershops, nail salons, health services, car service centers, etc.

Think about it. If my dues are $25 a month and my membership with the club saves me $75 a month with discounts around the community, how could I ever leave? Better yet, how could I ever say no to a membership in the first place?

Not only can this type of program be leveraged as a prospect closing and retention tool, but many clubs are also taking it a step further. Following the success of Lifetime Fitness, clubs are now offering a low cost membership plan solely for access to their merchant discount programs. Yes, gym memberships with no gym access!

Though some clubs charge nothing to the merchants for participating in a program like this, many clubs are discovering an entirely new recurring monthly revenue source. By soliciting member businesses and partners throughout the community, there is thousands in monthly revenue to be made ? even for the smallest clubs.

For the first time you can now house this concept and control access to merchant discounts all from your club?s own custom mobile app. Not only will your app provide your members with your entire gym experience at the palm of their hands, but also by being the home for all of your merchant discounts, it drives your members to your business each time they want to use their discounts.

For more information on merchant discount programs and custom mobile club apps please visit Perx Advantage at clubapps.com

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If you need to make changes to your existing membership agreements, please contact us as soon as possible so we may begin the proofing process and have your new templates in place in time. You can reach us by email at Agreements@abcfinancial.com or by calling 1-800-622-6290 x 1501.

All paper agreements must be ordered by December 12th to guarantee delivery before January 1st, so do not delay!

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Contrary to popular belief, some changes don?t have to be painful! As an example, the conversion from paper based sales systems to electronic systems is one of the strongest trends in club management today because it works! Electronic information provides easier prospect tracking, better sales structure and accountability, and long term better member management. From prospecting to member retention, it is all about communications for a club and those critical components of the business best handled in one integrated package that is integrated in real-time with your billing and member management provider.

John Custard, an ABC Financial client with three clubs in Northern VA, is enjoying the advantages of switching from a paper to electronic sales system.

?The [prospect management] software has increased our gross profit by 10% and has allowed us to directly relate the success of the club to the effort of our sales team. We have realized an increase in their closing ratio of nearly 15%. Additionally, it lets me keep my finger on the pulse of what is happening in all of our clubs ? real-time ? even when I?m away from the club. I know up-to-the-minute, how many calls and appointments have been made and the status of every lead.?

Spread Some Happiness at the Club
When the electronic entry screens look and feel like the paper forms your sales team and staff has been familiar with, the transition is simple and adoption is quick! A big plus for you and your staff is the elimination of unnecessary paper forms which should make everyone a bit happier. One of the truly great features of electronic entry and tracking is the need to only enter prospects into the system once. The elimination of double entry drives significant time savings and minimizes errors.

New Features, But Prospects Still Need to be ?Closed?
It is important to note that electronic sales systems are not a silver bullet; it is only a facilitator to better processes in the club. Prospect to member conversion still relies on having a sales approach that leads to closing the deal.

Out With the Old
Traditional sales systems have focused on a model where the end goal was simply driving the sales process to signing up a new member. Using the ?close at all cost? model, clubs see as high as a 45% loss of new members. Try a better way. The cost effective goal, and today?s new sales solution, is to manage new members and ease them into a club community insuring that they keep the club top of mind. With this model, the sales cycle is expanded to a total member?s life cycle. The Club becomes part of the member?s community.

Keeping the Club Top of Mind is the way to Retain Members
It is just as important now to reach out to a new member the week after they join, as it was the week before they joined the club. Fitness is a passion and the club must fuel it. From prospect through membership, the club must continue to market club services and products. The good news is that today there are integrated programs, like Customer Won, designed to support both sales and member satisfaction. You don?t have to pay three vendors to do the work of one software package. You can now better target the marketing for better return on marketing efforts.

What?s Working; What?s Not?
Don?t scratch your head and guess, now you can know. Now with what is called a cloud-based system, you can access your business critical information in near real time and not after hours of someone building a spreadsheet. The information is available in a few clicks of a mouse. With electronic sales systems, your business information is delivered to your inbox as you need it; be that daily, weekly, or monthly.

Now as you start the day you can know the leads and prospects (which before might have been lost in a paper system) that your team is working. You track and understand which direct mail or marketing programs are causing your phone to ring and creating guest traffic at the club. Most importantly on a daily basis you can know your clubs sales success and the sales effort required to reach that level.

Stop asking questions, KNOW the answer. Are leads being worked? Know your staff?s activity level. With the click of the mouse, you can see total sales activity ? leads called, prospect appointments, shows/no shows, guest passes and of course, new members. Now you can know the answer BEFORE you ask the questions of your staff.

GAIN More Sales Per Week From the Current Lead Pool
We all know that with a better system and structure in place, membership sales will increase. Electronic sales system help your staff exceed their goals by providing tools to better schedule the next steps with a prospect or member. Additionally, owners and managers get reports and insight into the daily activity in the clubs improving their ability to drive staff behavior. Now you have a rainmaker in your electronic friend that will help close a minimum of one to two more prospects a week.

In the end, it?s not a secret and we?re not talking rocket science. You know you must acquire more new members from the prospect streams you already have. One of the keys to future growth comes in finding new possible revenue streams in the business model you now have. A sale is no longer just the advertising you use to bring a prospect in the door. Today, it is a total picture that changes by the hour. The model for club growth today is open and fluid based on accurate and real-time information and data. In the end the most important topic is to keep the club on the minds of prospects and members.

Customer Won is an integrated, real-time partner with ABC Financial; by employing Customer Won?s electronic sales system, a club owner can do everything and more in acquiring, engaging, and retaining members. For more information on Customer Won’s products and services, please call us at 703-621-4624.

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