This is all too common. We receive a phone call from a club owner who indicates they need help with marketing. They don?t have enough people to talk to. Now, at a certain level, this may be true, but when you investigate further, you find they have cracks in their sales process and marketing foundation. That?s what needs to be fixed first; otherwise you?re simply driving additional guest traffic into a broken system. The business of your gym is either trending up or it?s on the way down. Growing and making improvements to the business of your gym is a choice. The key is to choose the right area of your business that will make the necessary impact. Here are some things to think about.

1. Track Your Numbers: It’s always interesting to see how few independently owned gyms know their daily, weekly, and monthly sales and production numbers and member attrition trends. How can you expect to fix something if you don?t know where you?re at? You can?t guess at it and conditions will continually change.
2. Expectations and Goals: This is a crucial element of gym success for the independent owner. I had a meeting with a club owner recently and he expressed his frustration that his staff was not hitting their numbers?.when the staff was asked what their goals were, they were unclear of expectation.
3. Use Proven Marketing Programs: Do not know where to start? If you?re not sure, this is an area to get some help, but you want proven marketing programs. If you?re trying to get your gym business back on track, now is not the time for trial and error.
4. Know How to Give a Tour and Membership Presentation: If you don?t learn the proper sales process, you?ll find yourself simply making it up as you go along. At its core, you need to be sure you?re selling the benefits of your gym and not the features.
5. Know the Industry Trends: The way you run your business will continually change and you must keep up. As hard as it is to believe, there are still clubs that don?t understand their web site analytics, have a web site that is not mobile friendly, don?t have a club app?well, you get the picture.
6. Regular Sales Training: This is no different than any other profession; you and your team must continue the educational process with daily sales training. You must focus on sales improvement and the accountability to the process.

Now, go improve your gym!

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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By: Jim Thomas

Many gym sales managers get the job because they happen to be good at selling memberships, not because they are necessarily good at actually managing or understanding the gym management process.  Others may be personal trainers or perhaps the gym owner, but still with no experience in the successful running of a gym sales department.

The following is a run-down of the key processes for the successful gym sales manager.

Hire quality staff

Be sure you have a recruiting plan of action in place and always be on the look-out for talent, even when you don?t need it.  You never want to hire just to fill a slot.

Staff training

This is the only way you will improve.  After all, you wouldn?t suggest a member workout only once or twice a month if they want to get results.  It doesn?t work in sales either.

Know that conditions change

This is why you track the numbers.  This will tell you what?s happening.

Sales process and fundamentals.  Some key steps to always bear in mind;

a) treat all prospects like buyers

b) regardless of circumstances, everyone gets a presentation

c) sit down for each presentation

d) use a printed presentation sheet

e) be agreeable

f) ask to buy

Managing

Be sure you have established clear goals and manage by objectives.

Solutions selling

Your prospects want answers to their problems.  They buy solutions.  No one buys a monthly payment.

Save members

Install a new member nurturing program that helps to maintain interest and desire for your members.

Lead management

New lead creation is a must and then the understanding of how to properly follow-up.  We can generally increase a clubs membership sales by 15% immediately by simply improving follow-up.

Plan of Action

This will help give you a sense of control of the outcomes you are seeking.  The goal setting secret is to write down your goals the first thing in the morning and at the end of the day.  It?s important to remember that you never lower your goals, but you increase you action levels.

Sales tools

The basics are guest register, needs analysis, price presentation sheet, referral sheet and telephone inquiry script.

Prospecting

You must be able to successfully prospect or you will have no one to sell.  Referrals, upgrades/add-ons, print work, one-on-one referrals and lead boxes are all proven methods.

Member service

As we mentioned, you want to maintain interest and desire with your members.  You want to keep your members engaged?text them short videos showing you and the club.

Structure

Do you have enough sales people?  Do you have enough front desk staff?  How about instructors?  Be sure everyone is cross-trained.

Goal setting

Do you have goals?  Is everyone aware of these goals? 

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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This easy-to-use software program enables you to carefully examine every aspect of your company from the inside-out through real-time analytics and reporting. The time that you save is guaranteed to free up your day and your staff?s availability to attend to your gym?s valued members. Everything is faster and more efficient. It just makes sense.

Run Your Business More Efficiently with DataTrak?s Dashboard and Mobile App Features

The DataTrak mobile app includes over 100 customizable features making it a breeze to access your business from anywhere at any time. DataTrak?s Dashboard feature empowers you to make better, more informative decisions instantly. Within your customizable Dashboard, you?re able to view easy-to-read graphs and charts, and compare business progress with business goals.

Take a peek at the smaller picture with daily snapshots and weekly snapshots of goals or look at the bigger picture with snapshots of monthly goals. Your gym?s very own Locker Management feature enables you to easily track maintenance history and is accessible with your customized access combination. This access combination is accessible with just one quick click.

Control Loss Prevention and Gym Re-Stock Levels with Inventory Management

There?s nothing more frustrating for a club member or an employee to discover that they’re in need of an item that your gym does not have on-hand. This is a problem you?ll likely avoid with DataTrak?s Inventory Management. When you manage your gym?s inventory with this easy-to-use gym software program, you?re able to stay on top of inventory levels while also tracking vendors and unit cost. This is a win-win for any club owner. Loss prevention is controllable and avoidable with this system as well, which will also help to improve profits.

Recurring Services Makes Bill Payment Hassle-Free for You and Your Club Members

With the Recurring Services feature, club members are billed monthly and enable the club member to sign up for automatic bill payment. Automatic bill payment means there?s no need to chase down club members to pay their monthly fees. This is good for the club member and it?s good for business. Late club payments mean more money for the club member in late fees and loss of profits for your gym.

Going Paperless Equals a Reduction in Spending

When you go paperless with DataTrak, you?re going to save yourself and your club from the hassle and cost of paper waste. You?ll likely still have a club member or two that would prefer a paper bill, but these days most people prefer to go paperless. It?s easier for you to provide instant billing and it?s easier for the club member to make timely payments when you go paperless.

To learn more about how ABC Financial?s highly-intelligent DataTrak gym software can help your gym?s bottom line, request a demo!

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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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We work at both ends of the fitness industry ? with those gym owners who are just starting out and want to shorten the learning curve and those who have been in business are in need of a turnaround (and everything in between).

There are many reasons why some gyms grow and others become stagnate. Of course, there are factors like market size, competition and consumer demand. But there are also other factors that have to do with operations, leadership, accountability and systems.

Based on what we?re seeing across the country, here are some thoughts on why gym owners and their business become stagnate.

1. Success apathy. Just because you have had success in the past, it doesn?t guarantee success in the future. Simple complacency?we take our eye off the ball. . An independent gym is usually a reflection of the club owner?s needs, desires and personality.

2. The right staff. You cannot build a successful gym without the right people in place. This requires both the proper hiring and training process and the willingness to make the changes that become necessary as the business grows. This is easier said than done for many gym owners. It takes dedication to the process.

3. The lack of standards, systems and controls.  It?s not enough to have high standards in your gym without implementing the control systems that assure those standards are met. Without the controls, you will have good intentions accompanied by bad results.

4. The member attitude. Not the member?s? attitude but the gym?s attitude toward its members. There is nothing more destructive than gym staff who dismiss difficult members as ?nutty? and conclude that there is no way to make them happy. The problem is that most nutty members have not so nutty friends, and word of mouth travels fast these days.

5. Technology. New technologies can do many great things but can also be overwhelming and time consuming for gym owners. Acquiring the financial, technical and staff resources necessary to solve a technology problem can be very difficult for a small gym, but there?s not much choice; the marketplace does not stand still.

6. Marketing. This includes everything from branding to advertising to market analysis. How your gym executes may be the major driver of its success, but how your gym is perceived is also crucial. The other reality is that small gyms can have a difficult time finding resources to help them with this critical part of their business. That means that the success or failure of a small gym?s marketing frequently comes down to the abilities of the club owner. Few people are good at everything.

7. Stale fitness services. Whether you are talking about fitness products or members, the market is always changing, and your products and services have to change with it. If you are fortunate, the changes are slow and subtle; sometimes, they are dramatic.

8. Lack of investment. Whether it is for more new gym equipment and accessories, new technology, a bigger facility, or more employees – growing gyms require more cash than non-growing gyms. Getting this cash may require borrowing money, finding more investors or using up whatever cash is on hand. It?s ongoing. Some gym owners tire of the demands and decide to slow down the investments ? and that slows down growth of the gym.

9. Stubbornness. It is stubbornness that helped the gym owner get the club off the ground, get through the learning curve, survive the recession and cope with every problem along the way. At some point, though, focused adherence to what you know can limit a gym?s ability to adapt to change and get to that next level. Policies and strategies that might have worked when you had 10 employees can hold you back when you have 30 ? a common example is when you start to hire higher-priced managers who have different expectations than a $10-an-hour employee.

10. Leadership. This includes vision, courage, fortitude, attitude and gym culture ? all of which should create an inspired staff. And of course there?s the often-used word that is many times called the secret to it all, passion. Here is the real secret: passion is critical, but it can?t make up for deficiencies in the other categories. I have seen many owners struggle in the gym business that had plenty of passion. It will not be enough.

Jim Thomas | Fitness Management & Consulting | 800-929-2898

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