Corporate Membership

Do You Give Out Corporate Memberships?

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


When it comes to price, everybody is looking for a deal. Sometimes they'll even lie or make something up in order to save just a few bucks. This doesn't happen very often, but it happens.

One thing I personally come across very often is when people come into my business asking if I have corporate memberships. This means they work for a particular company and want a discount because they work for that company.

(As a side note, this usually happens when that company is in a close proximity to the health club or has some kind of joint venture deal with it.)

One thing you absolutely must not do is make up things when they ask you, just to make the sale. It might work a few times but if your staff is unclear on the “rules” and gives someone the wrong information, it can do horrible things to your credibility and positioning in your market.

So what do you do?

Personally, I give them 3 options.

1) Company Pays For Everyone – In this, the company would pay for whoever went to my health club with one check. Not very many companies take this option because unfortunately a lot of companies don't care about the health of their employees, but it's a good idea to have this just in case. If you do find a company willing to do this, it can mean some big bucks for you.

2) Company Pays Part Of The Membership – This is similar to the first option except the check is split up and instead of the company paying the entire membership, they pay a portion of it. How much of a portion of it is up to you and the company, but you might consider sticking with one percentage for all companies regardless of size (just to keep it simple), depending on your own preferences.

3) Company Only Allows My Club To Solicit Employees – In this option, which is the one most companies choose, the company doesn't really pay anything. Most of the time people come into the club asking for a discount because they work for a certain place because they're simply looking for a discount. I'm not sure why customers don't just ask “what deals can I get if I work for (insert company name)”? But, that's how they usually asked so be prepared for it!

Whether or not you give discounts, and the percentage of a discount for certain companies is up to you. This is pretty obvious but I recommend giving larger discounts for larger companies because they're going to bring you more customers. Just make sure you have rules set in place so if someone comes in and asks you these questions, you know what to say!