Saturday, March 21, 2009

Professional Business


5 Easy To Implement Ways To Make Sure You’re Running A Professional Business

In today's world, people aren't looking for a regular, run of the mill health club. Instead, they're looking for a place that makes them feel comfortable, a place that treats them like they're supposed to be treated, and above all, a place that acts professional and is serious about the service they provide.
With competitors on every block, why would you even take a chance on not giving your client the exact type of service they need? It’s not enough anymore to simply have everything they need and provide a great service, now consumers are looking towards the staff of companies as a huge part of the overall atmosphere that company brings.
Here are a few tips you can put to use immediately to give your clients what they need and to give you that extra “boost” you need in the marketplace to be successful:
1. Be Proactive – Instead of your staff simply “reacting” to whatever your clients are doing, make sure you’re hiring a proactive staff who are starting pleasant conversations, making sure everything is perfect for the client instead of waiting for the client to complain, and making sure they’re solving problems before problems ever start.
2. Treat Them Like Gold – Instead of your staff simply going to work and going through the motions, make sure they’re treating your clients like they’re the king of England. One idea is to give them an incentive that the person who gets the most compliments from clients in one month will receive a bonus.
3. Are They Qualified? – If you’re staff doesn’t have the correct amount of training in the field, they probably aren’t going to be able to perform as well as you’d like. They should have the right amount of knowledge in all areas of fitness, as well as in the areas of being professional and treating people with respect. All of these areas will go a long way towards helping your company seem not only professional, but it will also increase the perceived value of the treatment they’re receiving.
4. Positive And Consistent Image – One of the most important things you’ll realize is that the image of your company is one of the most important things in a customer’s eyes. When they think about your company, what comes to mind? Is it a positive image, or a negative one? Some of the factors that will play a role in this include how you answer and speak on the phone, the first impression a customer receives, and how well your professionalism carries throughout the entire organization. Always strive to give 100% professionalism in every single area of the business, not just one or two areas.
5. Have Regular Meetings – Last but not least, an important part of keeping a professional image is that you make sure everybody on your team is on the same page. If one staff member doesn’t clearly understand what’s expected of them, they’re going to ruin the professional image for the entire company. Having a quick daily “prep-talk” meeting can go a very long way towards helping keep your staff on the same level and making sure they’re always being professional.
Having a professional staff in your company is one of the most important things to business success. If people don’t view your staff as professional, they won’t view your company as professional, and they won’t come back. I suggest holding regular “contests” within your staff instead of just hoping that they’re professional. This will go a very long way towards not only improving your company’s image in the eyes of your customer, but also helping keep your staff on board longer, which will improve your bottom line over time.

First Impression


Why Your First Impression Is So Important

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

There is one aspect of running a successful health club business that 95% of people completely forget – the first impression.
When a prospect walks into your health club, what do you think their first initial reaction is? Are they greeted promptly by an incredibly friendly staff, or do they sit around waiting to be serviced? Do they see that you’re full of business (which would subconsciously tell them that it’s a great place to be a part of), or do they see an empty business which would suggest that there’s a reason why it’s empty?
Do they see trainers who “look the part” and are in great shape themselves, or do they see trainers who look like they need to be trained themselves?
These questions – and many others – are all the questions your prospects are thinking as they walk through your doors for that infamous first impression.
And guess what?
If they don’t like what they see – they’re probably gone forever!
Think about the last time you got a bad impression of another person. It doesn’t matter whether or not that person was as bad as you thought or if they were a saint, it still probably took you some extra time to get over your first impression and change your thoughts about that person.
Unfortunately it’s the same way when it comes to the first impression of a business, except in most cases it’s actually worse because once they have that bad impression; it’s hard to make it up.
Another reason the first impression is so important is because if a person has a bad first impression, or any bad impression for that matter, they’re much more likely to tell their friends about it than even if they had a great impression.
So although you should be focusing on creating a great first impression for your prospect so they start out on the right foot and hopefully will eventually sign up to be your client, it adds an extra benefit of putting you on the “defensive” and preventing any bad rumors being spread about your business.
Whatever way you want to think about it, creating a fantastic first impression is something you should start thinking about immediately. If there’s one thing you need to remember about making a great first impression, it’s this – imagine yourself in your prospects shoes. Think about what YOU would want if you were walking into a health club for the first time, and give them even MORE than that!


Behind the scenes fitness expert finallyreveals his secrets…
Discover How To Instantly Create A Stampede Of New Members Into Your Health Club, Fitness Studio, Or Gym…With These “No Discount Street Tactics” Invented By A Connecticut Man Who Created $59,845 in New Billings Out Of Thin Air…And How He Did It Again 4 Years Later...
The Best Part: He’s put these tactics into a complete step-by-step system anyone can follow to launch a new health club, re-launch an old one, or get a bunch of new members on the cheap. Read this special fitness sales online report to discover more…
Read on at: FitnessSalesTraining.com

Employee Training


Why You Need To Train Your Employees On A Monthly Basis

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

Do you know what one of the main causes of business failure is?
It’s changing the way your business is run and making ever so slight decreases in the way you perform your daily activities. Doing this will slowly erode trust and eventually cause you to close your doors for good.
Fortunately, there’s a very easy way to make sure this never happens.
Simply have a monthly training with your employees!
Although your employees might not enjoy this (you might consider having a monthly review with each individual employee for 5-10 minutes before their shift starts so they don’t have to come in on their day off) – it’s going to help you business stay consistent and always improving.
Training your employees on a monthly basis will do 2 main things:
First, it’s going to help them remember exactly what they need to be doing, exactly what attitude they need to have, and it’s also going to help hone their skills and make them the best trainer they could possibly be.
The second thing it’s going to do is, as I already mentioned, help keep the consistency the same within the company. Having a lack of consistency is one of the biggest business killers out there, so you need to make sure you’re doing everything in your power to make sure your business is run the same day in and day out – whether or not you’re actually there.
Another great aspect of training your employees monthly is that if there are any conflicts between employees, which you’re usually not aware of if you’re not there every day, you can get the 2 parties involved and figure out a way to solve the problem. Some of the biggest conflicts are often the result of something small and insignificant that built up over time.
By talking with them and seeing how the group dynamics are going every month, you’ll be able to smother any conflicts that may have been created in the past month and make sure that conflict isn’t going out into the workplace where it’s affecting your customers.
Because remember, although you might have a seemingly perfect health club, your staff are directly involved with your clients so if you have a staff member not on top of his or her game everyday – the client is going to get frustrated and probably leave!
You need to be sure that within these trainings, your employees are allowed to be 100% open and honest about everything they’re bothered by. You need to make it known before they even get hired that you’ll be having these meetings and if they can’t take constructive criticism, this job is probably not for them.Between your employees being open, smothering any conflicts between employees, being more consistent, and making sure everybody is always on the top of their game so your members are always happy – having monthly trainings can do wonders for your business so I suggest starting them right away!

Behind the scenes fitness expert finallyreveals his secrets…
Discover How To Instantly Create A Stampede Of New Members Into Your Health Club, Fitness Studio, Or Gym…With These “No Discount Street Tactics” Invented By A Connecticut Man Who Created $59,845 in New Billings Out Of Thin Air…And How He Did It Again 4 Years Later...
The Best Part: He’s put these tactics into a complete step-by-step system anyone can follow to launch a new health club, re-launch an old one, or get a bunch of new members on the cheap. Read this special fitness sales online report to discover more…
Read on at: FitnessSalesTraining.com

Newsletters

What Are The Best Topics For Your Health Club Newsletter?

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

First of all, if you’re not already picking up email addresses for your newsletter, you need to start right away. Literally, start it today.
Starting a newsletter can be one of the easiest and most profitable ways to get more business to your health club.
Why?
First, hardly anybody else is doing it. Second, you’re helping to strengthen the bond between you and the prospect and you’re showing them your expertise. This helps them trust and like you more, which leads to higher sales.
So what are the best topics to write about for your health club newsletter?
1. Controversial – If you can find a “new spin” on a controversial subject, you can simply give your views on it backed up with some research you’ve done or at least a very good explanation as to why and how you came to that conclusion. Whether or not people agree with you, they love seeing controversial topics being talked about.
2. Timely – Is there a topic in the news you think is interesting? For example a few weeks ago there was a story in the news about how they supposedly found a “virus” which causes obesity. You could then talk about what you thought on that subject. This also makes it a lot of fun for you to talk about because you get to share your ideas and thought process even more clearly, and those who agree with you will latch onto you like a sucker-fish. And of course once they do this, they’re more willing to join your health club.
3. Your Philosophy – If you have some great philosophies on various fitness topics, people will love to hear it. For example most people talk about how you need to eat perfect all the time to lose weight. However if you talk about how although that’s true, there are also times when it’s OK to go off your diet, people will feel more connected to you because they’ll sense that you’re “more like them”.
4. Update Them On Your Studies – Have you recently read a research study or found out some new information that you think is important? Let your subscribers know about it and explain whatever you learned in detail. They’ll love the honesty and the fact that you’re sharing what you learned with them.
5. General Information With Your Unique Spin – Sometimes is a great thing to simply give them information they “might” already know. However you should also put your own spin into it. Maybe you could talk about the importance of eating enough protein to build muscle, then talk about how one of your clients followed your advice and lost extra weight, built more muscle, or both at the same time.There are hundreds and thousands of things to talk about in the health industry so I doubt you’ll have any problem coming up with topics. But if you do, come back to these 5 main areas, pick one, and spend a few minutes brainstorming to see what you could write about in your upcoming newsletter.
http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

YouTube

How YouTube Can Explode Your Business With Minimal Time Investment

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

YouTube is becoming quite a phenomenon and is one of the fastest growing companies in the world right now. For whatever reason, people love to watch TV and YouTube is no exception.
And the best part about YouTube is that it’s not only great for getting more people to your website or place of business, it also helps cement trust and build a relationship with your prospects before you ever meet them!
Think about it, which would you trust more – an ad you saw in a local newspaper, or a video of a person giving you great advice followed by a recommendation of their business?
Ok so how can you actually start getting some traffic to your business by making videos and putting them on YouTube? Here are 3 quick and easy ways to do just that:
1. Create A TV Show – If you already have a website for your business (which you should), start making a few videos and posting them on YouTube. Then, create a new “videos” section on your website called and start posting the videos there. Then when your prospects check out your videos, they can see you and the relationship building begins.
2. Give Helpful Advice – When you’re making your videos, make sure you’re giving them great information. Also make sure you put as much personality in the videos as possible because people love seeing personality. It keeps them engaged, makes them send it to friends more often, and makes them like you more easily which will results in an easier sale down the line.
3. Create An Infomercial – You can actually create a short infomercial and put it on YouTube. Then, whenever somebody finds it – you get free exposure! You can also take this video and advertise it with Google and actually set it up so that only people in your area will be able to see the video. Infomercials that you normally see on TV can costs tens of thousands of dollars, but doing it this way will only cost you a few cents per click and can bring you some incredible results.
Making videos and putting them on YouTube is a great way to enhance the quality of your business in your customers and prospects eyes. After you’ve made a few videos, feel free to tell your customers and prospects where they can find them.
For customers, it’s going to help solidify the relationship you already have with them and keep them at your health club much longer.For prospects, it will lower their sales guard and make that all important first sales much, much easier to make. It’s a win-win for everybody because they’re getting great information and you’re making more sales, so start doing it today!
http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Secret Shoppers


What Sherlock Holmes Can Teach You About Making More Money With Your Health Club

Sherlock Holmes was a great detective. He could solve some of the most impossible cases, and there’s actually a lot you can learn from him when it comes to increasing the revenue to your business.
But what does he have to do with your business?
A lot actually!
You see, Sherlock Holmes was a detective, and that’s exactly what you need to be. In the online marketing world, some of the most successful people are those who kind of “spied” on their competitors and borrowed the ideas they were using to put into their own business.
And that’s’ exactly what you should be doing!
By spying on your competitors to see what they’re doing right, you not only get more ideas from them to help increase the revenue to your business, but just seeing those ideas will often times give you even better ideas. That way you’re not blatantly copying what they’re doing, you’re just improving on some aspect of their business.
Ok so how do you spy on your competitors without making it obvious?
Here are a few ways:
1. Collaborate With Them – If you can find a business similar to yours but not competing (i.e. if you have a weight loss club and they have a muscle-building gym), you can partner up with them and form a small mastermind. Then, bounce ideas off each other and start putting those ideas into use. This is probably the best method because with this method you get to copy the ideas without your prospects knowing, because you’re marketing to different types of people!
2. Secret Shoppers – You can actually hire people to go into your competitors businesses and jot down the ideas that they think are the best. They can also critique them, figuring out what things they didn’t like so you can make sure you’re not doing them in your business. You can get friends, family, or even pay people to do this – that’s up to you.
3. Secret Shoppers For YOUR Business – Along the same lines, you can hire people to do the same thing, but doing it for your business. By doing this you get to objectively find out how your business is run when you’re not there. Just be prepared to understand that it’s never going to run as smoothly as you want it to, and although you may need to change things around when you find out the truth, don’t get so angry that your employees start to resent you. If you’re able to not only pick up ideas from your competitors but also find out what they’re doing wrong, plus what you’re doing wrong, your business is going to start jumping way ahead of the competition. This is simply maximizing the good things about your business and minimizing the bad. And guess what – your clients and your prospects WILL notice, and they’re going to love it!

Franchise or Not


To Buy A Franchise Or Privately Own A Health Club – That IS The Question

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to running health clubs. One thinks that buying a franchise is the best way to go while others think privately owning your own health club is the best way.
What these people often don’t understand is that there is NO best way for everybody, there’s only a best way for YOU!
If you’ve ever wanted to figure out which route would be better for you to take, just keep reading. First I’ll tell you the benefits of franchising, followed by the benefits of privately owning a club. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
The Benefits Of Franchising
1. You simply pay the money for the franchise and literally everything is set up for you.
2. You don’t have to worry about making different advertisements, learning how to market, or any of that stuff which takes awhile – it all comes with the package!
3. Building the brand is already done for you and it will probably be easier to get customers right off the bat because people already know about the franchise so you don’t have to “convince” them of anything.
The Benefits Of Privately Owning A Health Club
1. It’s usually much cheaper to start – franchising fee’s can get up into the hundreds of thousands while you can open a health club or simply buy out an existing health club and save a ton of money.
2. You have control over everything. If you’re an individualistic type of person and like things done your own way, privately owning a club is the best option for you.
3. If you want to change your marketing, your image, run specials, or pretty much do anything different or change anything – you can. With a franchise you’re usually limited to what they tell you to do.
The disadvantages of both are pretty easy to figure out as well. Essentially, the benefits of one are usually the disadvantage of the other.
For example since everything is set up for you in a franchise, the disadvantage to privately owning a health club is that obviously it’s not set up for you.
Since an advantage of privately owning is that it’s usually cheaper than buying a franchise, the disadvantage of a franchise is that it’s more expensive.
You can do this for each of the benefits I’ve laid out.
So now you have to figure out which of these two options would be best for you. If you already have a marketing background, are willing to learn, and/or want things done your own way – start your own health club.
On the other hand if you simply want to invest some money and have everything done for you and buy a “plug and play” business, franchising is probably best for you.Both are great options, but they’re both designed for different types of people. Figuring out what you want may take days or even weeks to figure out, but it’s absolutely worth it!

Become a Fitness Expert

The Importance Of Becoming A Local Fitness Expert – And How To Do It!

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

If you want to crush your competition into the dust and never again have to worry about another competitor – ever – you’re going to love this.
By becoming a local fitness expert, you’re going to be able to absolutely dominate the local market, and the best part is, it’s easy to do!
Ok so first, the reason you want to become a local fitness expert is simple – when people hear your name, you have instant credibility. Positioning yourself as THE fitness expert in your area will not only land you on the news, it will bring you in more clients and they’ll stay much longer and buy more from you.
So here’s how you do it:
First, you’re going to want to plan an event at your health club. There are a few things you can do with this including having a contest (think “biggest loser”), holding a charity event, or doing some crazy publicity stunt that grabs the attention of your entire town.
Next, you’re going to want to personally contact every single media person possible and tell them about what you’re going to do. Make it so that these media are practically like paparazzi – shoving each other out of the way so they can get a better shot.
Of course you don’t want it to be insane, just try to get as many people from the media as possible.
Your time to shine is during the event. You might think of holding a short but incredibly powerful seminar during the event. This is going to position you as the expert and people will remember you. Be sure to give them some of your most secret and useful information possible.
You should also make a bunch of shirts to give away and make sure your logo, business name, and maybe even a special offer and call-to-action on the shirt!
For example it might say “I completed the 5k run at Joe’s Health Club and helped promote breast cancer awareness to the country!” Then under that, have something like “call Joe’s at xxx-xxxx and ask about the special 5k run discount!
And there you have it – free advertising which will probably continue to come in. People will see those shirts and call you months after the event.
Plus, if you get yourself on the local news/TV – people will associate you as being the expert which will make you THE person to go to if they need to get in shape.
My point is that the best thing you can do to position yourself as a local fitness expert is to simply get yourself on the radio and TV. When you can say you were on the local radio/TV, you have instant credibility and your prospects will turn into paying members – and your current members will most likely start buying more from you. It works like a charm!


http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Image of Quality


Why Having A High Quality Image Will Propel Your Fitness Business To New Heights

If you look at nearly any business in any niche, the one characteristic you’ll see in the most successful business is that they hold a very high quality image.
What I mean by this is that when a consumer thinks about your business, they should be thinking of it as a high quality business, not some run down shack that’s cheap and for poor people. Think about it, what kind of business would you rather be a part of it you were your prospect? Would you rather belong to a health club that holds a high quality image, or one that people think of as a place where poor people go if they want to get in shape?
When people walk into your business, they should feel like they’re a king or queen. They should feel like they’re getting pampered, like they belong to a high-class club, like they’re part of an elite group that only certain people are allowed to get involved with.
If you can help your clients feel like this when they’re in your business, it’s going to go a very long way towards helping keep your client retention rate sky high. In fact, you’ll even be more likely to get a lot more referrals if they feel like they’re part of an elite group because they’re going to brag to their friends about it!
So now all of this begs the question – how do you make your business appear high quality?
The answer is simple.
If you make your client feel like they’re the only person in the room. Make them feel like they’re your only client.
And you can do this in many ways, including how you answer the telephone, how you treat clients as they’re walking through the door, how you treat them as they’re leaving, how you treat them when they’re asking questions, how clean and “tidy” you keep the business, and generally how you run every aspect of the business.
Also, one of the most advanced psychological tricks you can play is to simply increase the price. Even if you literally change nothing else in your business, simply increasing your price will increase the perceived value of your services.
Think about it, would you rather buy a named brand item at a store, or a generic brand? Most of the time the ingredients are the exact same thing, yet people are willing to spend 20%, 30%, 50% or even higher simply to buy the name brand item.It’s the exact same for your business. Increase the price and you increase the image of quality of your business. Then if you follow my other steps and treat your clients like gold, you have a winning strategy!

Telephone Skills


10 Tips To Close More Sales On The Telephone

So you’ve gotten the attention of your prospect and they’ve decided to call your business for more information about your health club.
Do you know what to do next?
So let’s get started, shall we?
The telephone is an often under-appreciated and much maligned piece of office equipment. Have you stopped to consider how much business you conduct over the telephone? These 10 tips will help you improve your telephone presence and presentations.
1. The First Impression – Before you even pick up the phone, put a nice big fat smile on your face. This might sound easy but doing this will make your voice more clear plus help your prospect feel more at ease because you’ll sound more pleasant and relaxed.
2. Listen – When you’re on the phone with a prospect, don’t do ANYTHING else. Listen to them and try to “read between the lines”. Showing empathy while listening has also proved to be incredibly useful because the prospect will feel like you genuinely care about them.
3. Let Them Finish – Make sure the prospect is completely finished talking before you speak. A second of silence is better than interrupting them.
4. Open-Ended Questions – Don’t ask them questions that allow them to respond with a simple yes or no. Doing this breaks up the flow of the conversation and makes it feel more awkward, which is never a good thing. Keep the questions open-ended, let the prospect vent, and you’ll make more sales.
5. Match Their Voice – This little psychological trick can work wonders towards creating trust. All you have to do is simply slow down or speed up your voice to match the prospects. They won’t even notice, but it subconsciously creates more trust because they’ll feel more comfortable.
6. Phrase It Positively – When you’re answering questions, make sure everything is positive. Instead of saying “I don’t think that’s a good solution” you can say “I think the best solution is X”.
7. Voicemail – Although it’s better to talk directly to the person, when you’re leaving voicemails, try to be as friendly as possible – inviting them to call you back.
8. Pre-Call Planning – Before you call someone back who’s interested in your club, figure out exactly what you want to say. You might even want to write out 10 things in a sheet of paper that you want to make sure you say to your prospects and keep that piece of paper in the same place as where you make your calls.
9. Tape Yourself – If you can tape yourself and figure out what you’re doing wrong, or even have other people critique you, it will help hone your skills. Doing this will help eliminate any weird sounding phrases, messages that are unclear, and other things which will help you be more persuasive.
10. Make An Action Plan – Although I gave you 10 tips, you might choose to work on just one of them at a time and become an expert in that area. Then, move onto the next, and the next, until you’ve finished them all.I guarantee that if you follow these steps and continually improve your sales pitch over the phone, you’re going to see that your phone conversions go through the roof which means more money for the same amount of work!

Opening a Gym - Read This! http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Social Networking


Using Social Media To Drive People To Your Health Club

Social media is a huge phenomenon producing some incredible results in today’s marketing world. Some business are already cashing in on the enormous opportunity while others don’t seem to understand that social media can be used for any business in any niche.
But how is that possible?
You can only understand the answer if you truly know the purpose of social media. And to put it simply, the purpose of social media is to create conversation with anybody and everybody at the same time. In a marketing sense, the purpose of social media is to simply build trust with your prospects, but I’ll get to that a little later.
So how can you use sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. for your local offline business? Let me show you.
The first thing you need to realize is that with social media, your main goal is to create an engaging conversation and build trust. You can do this in the form of polls, surveys, or simply posting a fascinating article or blog post and letting your followers know about it. This in turn helps cement the fact that you’re an expert and will make them trust you even more.
And going back now to trust, which is one of the most powerful tools you can use to get people to go to your health club, are you trying to build it with your prospects?
It just so happens that you can build trust incredibly easy with social media because your followers get to see the real you. They get to see your personality, your interests, what you’re doing throughout the day, and they get to see whether or not you truly care about them.
Let me give you an example.
Your prospect is deciding whether to join your health club or your competitors – we’ll call him Bob.
They’ve visited both your clubs which they like equally and have the same price, but they’re your friend of Facebook and not Bob’s.
Once a week you send them an article giving them some great health information, and they check out your profile and get to see that you’re not just some health club owner, you’re an actual human being. That might sound strange, but most people will tend to pick one business over another just because of the fact that they’ve met or have seen the owner – literally!
Now who do you think that prospect is going to pick – you or Bob?
You of course! Because you’ve shown them you know what you’re talking about, you’ve started to build the relationship, and now you seem more “accessible” to them, which immediately lowers their buying guard down.
I highly suggest getting on multiple social media sites today and getting in contact with your current clients as well as your prospects.For starters, try setting up an account with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed. Then get in there, be proactive, and watch the money roll in!

Get the free report on fitness marketing http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Referrals


How To Build Up Such A Strong Referral System You Might Be Able To Stop Advertising All Together!

Want to get a leg-up on your competition without increasing much of how you run your business? It’s easy when you learn what I’m about to tell you.
What I’m talking about is learning how to get more referrals to your business. Getting more referrals is literally like getting free advertising, and the best part is, it’s the BEST kind of advertising!
Think about it – what would you be more likely to see…
A movie that you saw a review about from a person you didn’t know, or a recommendation from a personal friend who said the movie was great?
That’s exactly what happens when your current clients refer their friends to your program.
Ok so the next question is, how do you do it?
Here are 3 things you can do immediately to increase the amount of referrals you get to your business and increase your revenue without increasing your expenses:
1. Be Referable – Nobody is going to refer a friend to any business unless that business gives that client an incredible experience. Think about your business right now, is there any way that you could create a more meaningful/fun/memorable/unique experience for your client? If so, start doing it immediately. You’ll be surprised at how little things can make your business appear as having a great experience. Sometimes all you have to do is smile more and be more polite!
2. Create A Referring System – People love doing things with their friends. This is especially true in the fitness industry. Try to create a system where people get some kind of discount or special offer for referring friends to your business. If your margins are high enough, you can even give both the referrer and the referee a discount
3. Go Above And Beyond – This is very similar to “being referable” but different in a way that it will require a little more thought and contemplation. What you should do is look at your competition and find out exactly what they do and how they treat their clients. Then, think of creative ways to do things differently and better than them so people feel like they’re treated like gold when they go to your business. By being thought of as “the best”, people are automatically going to think of you when they think of a health club, which is automatically going to create buzz for your business and create many more referrals.Take these 3 suggestions and put them to use in your business today and I can guarantee you, you’re going to see more referrals. This is an easy, no-risk way to increase the revenue to your business and I’d highly recommend making this one of the first things you do, because once you start improving some of the things I just talked about – your entire business will improve in ways you can’t even imagine!

Promote Weight Loss

What Is The Best Type Of Fitness Program To Use In Your Marketing?

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

As you already know, the fitness industry is one of the biggest industries in the entire world. Because of that, there are dozens of different niches you can get into.
But if you actually take a minute to think about what your prospect truly wants, what do you think it is? Do you think there are more people that want to get huge and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or more people who are interested in losing 10-20 pounds, dropping a few pant sizes and looking better at the beach?
If you guessed that there are more people who want to lose weight –you’re absolutely correct.
If you want to maximize your advertising dollars and bring in more clients, your main focus in all of your marketing materials should be about losing weight. Losing weight is the most popular niche out of any of the sub-niches in the fitness industry, and you should be taking advantage of it.
Because remember, people don’t care about what kind of fancy equipment you have or how big your business is – all they care about is how fast and easily your health club is going to help them achieve their goal, which is losing weight.
Your prospects are bombarded with sales messages everyday and if the one they’re looking at doesn’t show them the main benefit they want to achieve, they’re going to simply glance over it and never think about it again.
Let me give you an example – which of these 2 ads do you think would catch your interest?
Ad A – New 5,000 sq. ft. health club with 6 Stairmasters, 10 treadmills and a swimming pool will help you get in the best shape of your life!
Ad B – Come to “business name” for a 30 day trial and you’re guaranteed to lose at least 2% bodyfat or get double-your-money-back! Call “phone #” for details.
If you picked Ad B, you’re absolutely correct. I just wrote that really quick off the top of my head, but I think you get the point. Notice how Ad A was very general and didn’t give a true benefit. People care about the results you’re going to give them, not about how many machines you have, how big the place is, or anything similar to that.
They want to know how they’re going to get results, and in this world of skepticism, they also want a great guarantee which I threw in there for you.
And as I already mentioned – the benefit the majority of people interested in health want…is to lose weight!
Although we know that looking better is about building muscle PLUS losing weight, most people don’t understand that, and it’s pointless to try and convince them in your marketing. The job of your marketing is to get them into your doors. Once you have them as part of your health club, feel free to educate them further but for simply getting more clients you’ll definitely want to stick with making it simple and telling them you’ll help them lose weight.Keep it short, to the point, and relevant to their goals (i.e. losing weight) and your marketing will get much better results than it’s currently getting.
http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Name Tags



How To Figure Out If You Should Be Using Name Tags In YOUR Business

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

Name tags are a very controversial subject.
Some people swear by them and say they’re incredibly important to keeping great relationships between the staff and your health club members while other people say the staff hate them which makes them resent working at your club, which leads to even bigger problems.
In the next few minutes I’m going to show both sides of the coin and tell you how to figure out whether or not they’d be a good thing to have for YOUR business – because we all know – every health club is run just a little differently and therefore there is no “template” for everybody.
Here are the good and the bad things about name tags that you need to know.
First, by having a name tag on your staff, the members might feel a little more comfortable with them. Have you ever felt awkward around a person whose name you didn’t know? That’s how your members might feel about your staff.
On the other side of this, having name tags might also make your staff feel like they’re on display. It might make them feel like the members are going to be able to “tell on them” for every little thing they do – whether or not that’s really true.
Name tags might also make your uniforms look a little cheap. Although they were used very frequently in the past, not as many business use name tags anymore and one of the reasons why might be because they interrupt the flow of the uniforms and don’t make them look as professional.
They also might be uncomfortable for your staff to wear. Depending on the type of nametag (some are stickers, some can clip onto the shirt with a pin, etc.), since being a health club trainer is a very active job which requires your staff to be moving around a lot, having a nametag might get in the way and make them lose focus when they should be focusing on something else – like checking the form of the client.
My suggestion is this – instead of using a name tag, which your staff probably will hate anyway, why not create some kind of “game” your staff plays with a new member so they remember their name more quickly?
The main reason for wearing a name tag is to create a relationship quickly between the staff and the member, so if you can think of a great way to strengthen that relationship as fast as possible, a nametag might not be necessary.In the end, every business is different and you have to compare your business and weigh the negatives and positives of name tags to see what would be best for your business. However you always need to keep in your mind that you want to build the staff/member relationship as fast as possible – so whatever way you choose to do that is probably the best thing you can do!



Free Marketing Report for Gym Owners http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Follow Up


How To Instantly Increase Your Business By 20-40% or More With Almost No Extra Work


There is one little-known trick that most offline business owners don’t use that can literally increase your business instantly by 20-40% or even more. This is a trick that’s very commonly used with online marketing, but for some reason people simply haven’t taken it to the offline world yet.
So what is this secret I’m talking about?
It’s called picking up your lost sales!
Let me give you an example to clarify this much further for you.
Two people each have a health club in the same neighborhood. For examples sake, we’ll pretend they both have the exact same amount of revenue coming in, the same amount of marketing, the same amount of expenses, and that everything else in their business is exactly the same.
However, there’s one big difference.
Company A has a system in place that keeps following up with people interested in the health club but haven’t quite made it there yet to actually buy a membership.
Company B simply let’s them go and pretends they were never even interested in the business. The prospect comes into the place, tries it out for a few days, and leaves without ever hearing from the company again.
Who do you think is going to grow their business faster?
Company A of course!
Following up with interested prospects is literally one of the most easy and lucrative things you can do for your business. Studies have shown that on average, it takes a person roughly 7 times of being asked for the sale to actually make the purchase.
Are you getting your message in front of your prospects face at least 7 times? If not, you’re losing out on tons of money.
Here are a few ways to follow up on missed sales and grab tons of extra revenue you never would have had:
1. Direct Mail – Go out and purchase a list of people you think would be interested in your services. For example you could find out what your ideal prospect reads and get a list of people in your area who read a certain magazine. Then create a direct mail sequence containing not just 1 direct mail piece, but several.
2. Start A Newsletter – Just like many online business owners are doing, you can start an offline newsletter as well. One idea is to advertise the newsletter in your direct mail piece, and within the newsletter you would obviously advertise for people to come sign up at your place of business.
3. Create A Contest – Hold a local contest or some kind of publicity event at your place of business. During this event, have a place where people can sign up to receive a discount or special offer if they sign up for your newsletter. Then again, advertise your services within your newsletter so people will sign up for it over time.Putting just these 3 ideas to use and making sure you follow up with your prospects is a very easy way to capture people who are “on the fence”, just not quite ready to buy yet. Then down the line when they’re ready to purchase your services, you’ll be in constant contact with them so they’ll purchase your services instead of your competitors!

Get Your Free Marketing Report http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

First Impressions


Do People’s Initial Reactions To Your Health Club Determine Your Success?


When a person walks into your health club, what do they think? What do they feel? HOW do they feel? Are they comfortable, or do they feel uneasy? Is your business inviting, or nerve-wracking? Does it feel like a place they can comfortably belong to as part of a group, or a location where they’d feel out of place?


These are just a few of the questions you must be asking yourself if you want your business to flourish in any economy. I’m going to give you a few things to consider about why you need to think about what people are feeling as they’re walking through your doors for the first time.
So first, you need to understand that although your prospects might not think anything negative consciously, for some reason or another they might be thinking them unconsciously. Most of the time they won’t even know it!


Have you ever walked into a place and simply felt “weird” about it?
That’s exactly what I’m talking about – you don’t want you health club to be giving your prospects those types of feelings!


But since they’re most likely getting these feelings unconsciously, how do you know if they’re having them?


Well, that’s where test subjects come in.


All you need to do is get a few people, it could be relatives, friends, or anybody else, to come into your health club and tell you exactly what they’re feeling (oh and by the way, try to find people who will honestly tell you and are very open with their feelings).
Have them come into your business and simply walk around, telling you where they feel themselves getting positive or negative emotions.
And obviously if they’re feeling negative emotions anywhere, try to figure out why. Maybe it’s the colors, maybe they noticed somebody gave them a weird look, maybe there’s a poster on the wall that simply isn’t connecting with them like it should, or maybe they’re feeling intimidated for some reason.


These are things you absolutely need to find out, because as you know, first impressions are a big factor and if you drive someone away the first time, it might be hard to get them back.
In my opinion some of the best emotions your prospects could be feeling when they walk into your health club for the first time include feeling comfortable, impressed, and also that they get the feeling that could easily belong to your club.


This can be accomplished by having extra-friendly staff, having bright, warm colors, as well as simply making them feel like they’re already part of your “family” even if they’re not a paying member yet. All of these factors combined will give you an extra boost above your competition, without spending any needless money on extra marketing or advertising!

Does It Matter What Color Theme You Pick For Your Health Club?

Does It Matter What Color Theme You Pick For Your Health Club?

by Brian Cannone www.fitnesssalestraining.com

We know from various psychological studies that certain colors evoke certain emotions and these emotions can actually influence your prospect – many times enough to make them feel “uneasy” and end up walking out of the place they’re in!

But the most important thing you need to understand is that first of all, not all the same colors should be used for the same businesses, and secondly, you need to match up the emotions each color represents to the emotion your health club is giving off.

For example, Gold’s Gym used to use the color yellow and red, which stands for intensity. They were trying to evoke a feeling of intensity and powerfulness in their gyms and did so with those 2 colors.

Many gyms also have a black and red color combination which is yet another way to evoke the “intensity” emotion.

Planet Fitness uses the purple and yellow combination to try and evoke a feeling of warmth, joy and happiness.

So let’s go through each color one by one:
Red – the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure.

Yellow – Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy.

Black – Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colors – black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

White - White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products and is considered to be the color of perfection.

Purple – Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design, which is why the franchise “Shapes” has a lot of purple in it. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

Blue – Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Orange – It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

Green - It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. It’s also rumored to have healing properties, and is the most restful for the eyes.

No one color combination should be used for all business. First you must figure out what emotions you’re trying to convey. Whether you’re trying to promote a prestigious club, a hardcore club, a sophisticated club, a “pure” club, simply go through the colors above and see which 2 or 3 color combinations would best fit your own club.Although this might not a huge difference in the way people feel about our club, subconsciously they’ll somehow feel more comfortable, and trust me, making people feel comfortable is very important!

For free report of health club marketing get it here http://www.fitnesssalesatraining.com/

Brand Vs. Direct Response Marketing


Brand Vs. Direct Response Marketing


In business there are 2 main ways to market your business – you can choose either brand marketing or direct response marketing. And in the next few minutes I’m going to show you which one is probably better for your business, and why.


But first let me explain the difference between the 2.
Brand marketing is something you’d typically see businesses on TV use, such as Coke or Nike. They don’t do any direct selling but instead simply try to get the “brand” stuck in your head so whenever you think of, for example, shoes, you would think of Nike first.


On the other hand, direct response marketing is when you test every aspect of your marketing to find out exactly what return on investment you’re getting. For example, if you’re direct response marketing one thing you might do is send out direct mail and set it up so that you can track the exact response you get from that and determine how much money you made back from whatever you spent getting the list and sending the letters out.

So, which is better?
Well, unless you have pockets the size of the Grand Canyon, direct response marketing is better in nearly 99% of the cases.

Why?
It’s simple really. Because you get to find out EXACTLY what marketing methods are making you money, and exactly which ones aren’t! This is something you don’t typically get to do with brand marketing because, well, there’s no way to test it.

However, there is actually a way to combine the 2 so you can get the benefits of both. How would that sound?

Here’s how you do it.
First you’ll need to create what’s called a “USP” (unique selling proposition). In layman’s terms, a USP is what makes you stand out from your competitors.

Do you offer a lifetime guarantee on your services? That might be a great USP for your business. Or maybe your club is the only health club with a certain piece of equipment that your target market wants. Your USP would then reflect that.

So then you take that USP and inject it into all of your marketing. For example the USP Dominos used to have is “pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”. They then put that into all of their marketing so people would remember them easier. It’s kind of like a jingle you hear on the radio which make phone numbers easier to remember, you’re just putting it in print.

So say for example you’ve rented a list of 5,000 names of individuals you think would be interested in joining your health club. In your direct mail piece, you would make sure to base that letter on your USP. That way you can both track the response from the direct mail piece, plus you’re branding yourself with your unique selling proposition which will in turn make them think of you when they think of a health club.It’s a win-win situation and can do tremendous things for your business. I recommend taking 30 minutes every day to simply sit down and brainstorm various USP’s you can use for your business. Get creative, people love it!


Get a free marketing report for gym owners here http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/

Does Your Staff Uniform Matter?


Does Your Staff Uniform Matter?


Although this may seem like something you don’t need to put a lot of thought into, subconsciously people will associate the way your staff looks with the quality of your health club.
Because of that, I highly suggest taking a few minutes out of your day to not only read this, but to also take a close look at the uniform your staff is wearing to make sure it fits the following criteria:
1. Matching Colors – Your uniform should have a very similar “look and feel” to the colors inside and outside your business. A very common color used for health clubs is blue because it gives a comforting feeling when you look at it, but having colors similar to the inside of your club is more important.
2. Different Uniforms For Men & Women – You’re going to want to get completely different fitting uniforms for your male and female staff. Why? Because you want the uniforms to fit your staff as best as possible and if girls are wearing guys shirts or vice versa, that simply can’t happen. They’re cut in different ways and will make it look a bit “strange” on your employees. This in turn will make them look more unprofessional, which is something you obviously don’t want.
3. Cheap Or Quality Uniforms – You’ll obviously want to make your uniforms look as professional and high quality as you can. When prospects walk into your health club they want to see a high quality business, not a place where the uniforms are cheap and flimsy.
4. Are They In Good Shape? – This is more of maintenance and not actually selecting certain uniforms, but you should be sure to have a strict uniform policy. Uniforms should always be pressed, cleaned with absolutely no stains, and full of color. When any of those criteria aren’t met, the employee wearing the uniform needs to be told. Whether or not you want to pay for a new uniform is up to you.
5. The Logo – Since your clients will be seeing your staff uniforms very often, you might as well put a little marketing into it right? Making sure the logo is very visible to your client will help cement your business into their minds and make them more likely to think about it (and talk about it) when they’re not in the health club. Although this may only make a slight difference, every little bit helps. Plus, it will make the uniform appear more professional.Picking a great looking staff uniform is something you shouldn’t just gloss over – it’s something you should think about carefully. Take your time and look at various designs and styles before picking out what you think would look best for your business, then choose complimenting colors to your health club, and you’re on your way to highly effective uniforms!

Retain More Members In Your Health Club


5 Tips You Can Implement Immediately To Retain More Members In Your Health Club


Many health club owners think that simply getting members is the most important money than can spend when it comes to marketing.
But did you know that you can make up to 500% more money by simply focusing on retaining the members you already have and trying to upsell them on the various products or services you carry?
If not, you’re in for a huge income boost when you focus on retaining and upselling members instead of only trying to obtain new members.
So here are my top 5 tips you can use to retain more members immediately:
1. Treat Them Like Gold – If your in-laws decided to become part of your health club, do you think you’d make sure your employees treated them absolutely perfectly? I bet you would, but if so, why aren’t you doing this for EVERY member you have? Hold a very high standard for the way your staff treats your members and it will do wonders for your business.
2. Be Exclusive – If you offer something that your competitors don’t, your members will be more likely to stick with you. If you were given the choice between 2 products, but one product had some kind of interesting gadget that you loved, wouldn’t you pick the one with the extra gadget?
3. Keep Them Excited – You should be constantly thinking of new products and services to come out with. Not only will you have more to offer your current members, but by telling them a few months in advance what is coming (but “teasing” them and not telling them exactly what it is) – it will keep them there longer because of the anticipation!
4. Frequent Flyer Miles – How do airlines and/or credit cards keep you going back to their business over and over again instead of switching to other companies? They give you incentives for using their services. Think of a few different offers or discounts your members will receive after sticking with you for a certain number of months, and many will stick with you just to get the bonus!
5. Re-Capturing Members – If for some reason you do lose a member (for whatever reason), send them a series of postcards, about a week or so apart, asking them to come back. And, of course, give them an incentive for coming back. Tell them that if they call you and let you know why the left, you’d be willing to offer them a special offer – only for them – if they come back. And of course, promise to fix whatever problem made them leave.Retaining your members and upselling them is incredibly profitable and much more profitable than simply trying to continually find new members. By doing these 5 steps I just laid out for you, your business can easily double its revenues in the next 12 months – so get busy!
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