Cheap is Expensive

Spending Less Means You're Spending...More?

By Brian Cannone
http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com


One of the biggest mistakes I see health clubs making all the time is that when they're buying equipment, whether it's a replacement or a brand new piece of equipment when they're first opening – they're buying equipment that's way too cheap.

There are a few things you need to think about when it comes to this subject. Let me lay them out for you:

1) Members Want Luxury – Especially when going to a health club instead of a regular gym, your members EXPECT the equipment to be more high-quality than they can afford. Trust me if they could afford it they wouldn't be going to your club. They go because they don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a treadmill or other piece of equipment. But if you have cheap equipment – why would they even bother going when they could save up for a few months and get their own and save a ton of money in the long run?

2) Think Long-Term – Let's say you buy a treadmill for $1000 and your competitor buys one for $3,500. Even though the $3,500 treadmill MIGHT not last 3 times as long (it probably would), think of all the hassle you have to go through each time one of them breaks. Not only does it make your health club look like the dollar-store of health clubs, it's a pain in the butt getting them fixed and will annoy your members! Do you have people in your staff that would be able to fix it in a day's notice? Probably not, so why not just spend a few extra bucks and go for the high quality equipment that's much less likely to break and will have a much longer and better warranty?

3) Throw Away Items – Although some things like the “bigger” pieces of equipment should be more expensive, other things such as hair dryers and even scales can be less expensive. You really don't need one of those medical scales which cost hundreds of dollars. These days, scales are pretty decent for under $100 and usually come with a warranty as well. The same goes for hair dryers – they all have the same purpose (drying hair) so it's not a huge deal if it's not the most expensive thing you've ever seen.

However like always you need to put this all in context.

Before you start buying equipment you need to think of what your members think of your health club anyway. If it's a high-end club, pretty much everything should at least LOOK high-end because that's what your members will expect. If you're trying to get more volume at a lower price, you definitely don't need to spend thousands of dollars on one piece of equipment. It's still better not to go cheap, but you don't have to go “quite” as high as a high-end health club would have.

Think of what kind of club you have, what your members expect of the equipment you have, and use my suggestions to get the best equipment for YOUR health club!