Give Me Your Life

Give Me Your Life And I'll Give You A Tour

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


Are you asking for too much just to give a simple tour of your health club? Listen, you don't need to get the persons license, blood sample, urine sample, lock of hair and their fingerprints just to become part of your health club!

This is a mistake I see way too many people making. Sure, getting information on your prospects is great, but if you ask for too much information you're going to try them away because it's not worth the effort for them!

You need to understand 2 things in order to be successful in this business:

1) Not every person who comes into your health club and wants a tour is a qualified guest. They might be overextending themselves with money and kind of just “dreaming” they could belong to a place like this, they might be a person who did a New Years resolution who'll be in and out of your club within 2 weeks, or maybe they were just bored and needed something to do (you'd be surprised at what people do when they're bored).

2) Most people are NOT criminals! Trust me, most people are good, honest people and aren't coming in to simply take advantage of you. Sure, some people try to work the system but these are few and far between, so don't even worry about them. You'll most likely be able to tell who they are anyway. Ease up and be friendly to your prospects and treat them as welcomed guests instead of criminals and your closing rates will skyrocket instantly.

When a person comes in looking for a tour, just give it to them. You should always ask if you'd be allowed to follow up with them and if they say yes, just get their name and address. Then ask if you might be able to have their phone number but if you're going to call people, explain to them that you're not going to call them like telemarketers do and bother them everyday of their life. Trust me, this is a GREAT way to both lower their defenses and establish rapport with them at the same time!

The point is guests should be taken care of very gently. Don't harass them and make them sign up right then and there if they aren't comfortable with it. One of the best things you can do is, one that initial visit, be as friendly and establish as much rapport as you possibly can. Don't even worry about the sale. Then, have a follow-up system in place and make sure it's as solid as a concrete wall. Let the person decide to come back through the information you give them after they leave, don't force them!

Now obviously when I say that I'm not saying to not even ask them to join I'm simply saying, don't be TOO pushy. Know your limits and learn to read their body language. When you've gone too far, ease it up and rely on your follow-up system to do the work for you.

Always remember, people want to make friends and don't like to be sold to. Keep that in mind and your closing rate is going to jump through the roof immediately.

Cash In Prospects

Do You See The Cash In Prospects?

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


Here's a little homework project for you.

On the next day you have a few minutes available, walk into either your own health club as a “fly on the wall” or into another health club and you'll see one common theme.

The trainers are usually talking to the most attractive/young people!

This is a HUGE mistake that most health clubs are making – and I want to get a little more in depth on this because it's such an important subject.

Ok so we've already established that simply talking with the young/attractive people isn't the best use of your time or your employees time.

So who do you talk to?

Whoever needs the most help!

When you're looking out over the workout floor, do you see regular people working out or do you see money signs?

You need to constantly be looking out for those people who need the help. These are the people who, when you give them the attention they need and are willing to help them out with whatever they need, will be completely loyal to your business and stay with you the longest.

You see, most companies out there have problems with customer service. They get a client and all of a sudden it's like nobody cares about that person anymore.

Trust me, it's MUCH easier to keep a person and make more money off an existing client than it is to pick up a new prospect, so start paying more attention to your existing clients to keep them there longer!

You need to be finding those people who are kind of hiding in the background, doing their own thing but not getting the help they need.

These are your goldmine clients.

Because the clients who don't need as much help are probably going to stay anyway. Yes, you need to pay attention to them as well, but something as little as noticing they're there, saying hey and asking if they need anything is usually enough.

But if you walk up to a person who seems to need help, and you give them that help, you're going to make your business stand out like a gold beacon in their eyes and they're going to stay loyal to you for a very long time. In today's world customer service is pretty bad in 90% of businesses so if you strive to pay attention to your clients, they WILL notice!

This is one of those secrets that some of the most successful health clubs in the world follow, and although it's a little more work – your returns on the work you do are going to come back to you 10 fold.

Start seeing the clients that need help not only as money-makers, but see them as people who need some help! See them as a person who wants to be in great shape but simply needs a little guidance to do so.

And then be there when that person needs help – and they'll love you forever.

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!

Do What the Hand Says

Do What The Hand Says!

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


Are you being strict about your policies, or are you being a little pansy about it? If you're being a pansy, your health club members are going to run all over you and think of you as a joke.

Think back to the last week or so in your health club. Were there weights laying all over the floor, or were they properly racked and put on the weight trees like they should be? At the end of the day, how many weights were on the floor, and how many were where they're supposed to be? Are there certain times in the day when it seems “messier” than normal?

These are all questions you need to ask yourself. And if there is a problem, you NEED to take care of it. And don't just put one of those little signs up either. That's about the equivalent of a 5 year old telling a 10 year old bully to move out of the way.

During the course of your day, you need to make sure your health club members know what they're supposed to be doing. Just because they're paying to go to your gym doesn't mean like they can treat it like they treat their own house or business. They need to be wiping everything down after they're done, putting the weights away properly, not slamming weights all over the place, and generally acting courteous to the other people in the gym.

And if someone isn't following your rules, you NEED to do something about it! Set an example for the rest of your members and kick them out if you need to. It's a great psychological tactic that will not only get rid of the nuisance member, but will also show everyone else that you're serious about how clean the place stays and that the rules are always followed.

Also, don't make your staff go around picking up weights all day either. Think about what that's telling your members.

It's practically saying “I don't mind if you leave your stuff all over the place because my staff will just be your slave and come around and pick everything up for you anyway”.

Trust me, you DO NOT want this happening inside your health club – it's going to ruin the credibility of your club and make you the laughing stock of your competitors.

If you're having problems with this type of thing, you need to start taking notice right away. A good idea might be to get a sheet of paper, list out every hour of the day you're open, and rate the “cleanliness” of your club on an hourly basis. Then simply try to figure out why it's so dirty and unorganized at that point in the day.

And as I mentioned earlier if you know someone that's single-handedly creating these problems, take care them immediately!

Dealing with Radio Blues

Dealing With The Radio Blues

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


There are tons of different personalities that are going to come into your health club, and tons of different personalities means that a lot of people are going to want different radio stations.

Some people, usually the hardcore bodybuilders, are going to want to listen to heavy metal and/or rock stations while people such as women and “less hardcore” people might want to listen to Pop, R&B, sometimes even country.

Then of course as the owner you get complaints from the people who can't listen to what they want to listen to. It's like babysitting a bunch of kids, isn't it?

Listen, you can't give in to the people who complain about a certain radio station. If your staff keeps changing the radio station to try and please everybody in the gym, it's kind of like a shotgun approach – and the shotgun approach doesn't work.

My suggestion is that you stick to one radio station – ALL THE TIME. Don't ever move from that radio station, unless of course they start playing really bad music or go bankrupt or something like that.

Another thing you need to know is that you should never keep the radio in plain view of the members of your health club. They don't care whether or not you want it changed, they're going to do it anyway. People unfortunately only care about themselves and they'll show you that – so don't even give them the option!

In my health club we have Sirius Radio, keep it on just one station and we hide the receiver so the members couldn't find it and change the stations on us.

So with that in mind you're probably asking, “ok well how do I figure out which station to keep it on”. It's simple really.

Here are 2 options:

1) Do a poll and ask every member of your gym what station they would prefer. Then at the end of the poll, put it to that station and leave it there for good. Make sure you explain to the members why you're doing this and that the final decision is the final decision. They'll respect you for doing this because they'll realize you're trying to make everyone happy. This is the strategy I recommend.

2) You can also simply pick a radio station that has a mix of genres and plays similar but different music (usually whatever is popular at that time) and leave it on there. You also need to think of what kind of members you have. If you have more of a hardcore gym, put it on a hardcore station. If it's for average people simply trying to lose a few jean sizes, just put on the type of music popular at that time.

This might not seem like a big deal, but I literally know people who have left clubs just because of the music they played. By learning how to make the most people happy you're going to keep more members for a longer time and gain their trust at the same time!

Just Doing My Job

But I’m Just Doing My Job!
By Brian Cannone
http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com

Do you have a written list of what the job description is for each person in your company? If so, do they know about them and would they be able to repeat them back to you while they’re half-asleep?
If not, you might consider holding regular meetings and making sure everybody knows exactly what they’re doing.
All too often, I see companies where their employees spend more time trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing than time actually doing work!
And if this is you, you’re wasting a lot of valuable work time and potentially losing clients and business.
So how do you fix this problem?
Well, every single person in your business needs to know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing at all times. If you walk up to them at any point in the day, they should know the exact job they’re supposed to be doing and how it should be done.
If they don’t know this, you need to make sure they know it for next time.
Just think about how much time your employees are wasting by trying to continually figure out what they’re supposed to be doing. If they’re even half confused on what they should be doing, trust me, it adds up to a HUGE amount of extra time at the end of the day where they could be doing something productive instead of walking around aimlessly trying to pretend they’re busy.
One thing you might do is print out a sheet or a few sheets of paper listing every single persons job in the company and a bulleted list of what they’re expected to accomplish each and every day.
Plus, you need to make sure that your employees know that you don’t simply expect the minimum from them. This is one of the biggest killers of businesses I know – when employees only want to do the minimum and aren’t willing to go “above and beyond” their job to either help out other employees or help clients that aren’t theirs.
But why would they do that?
Most employees are simply there to get a paycheck. Unfortunately that’s the case, but it’s the truth. So what you need to do is figure out what they want and give them an incentive for going above and beyond their call of duty.
This could be something like having an employee of the month, giving out free tickets to a local hockey/baseball game (or whatever your employees agree on), or whatever else you think they would like to work towards.
In fact, you might consider even having a vote and letting THEM pick what their reward would be, or having a few options that they could choose from if they win. This makes sure they actually want to work towards becoming an employee of the month and when you get your entire team to start working towards that goal, what do you think is going to happen to your business?
It’s going to become much more productive!
By making sure your employees both know what they’re supposed to be doing and strive to do even more than that, you’re almost guaranteed a more successful, more stress-free work environment – and more clients in the long run!

Are You Wasting Your Money On Worthless Junk?




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

You walk into a health club and it's magnificently displayed. There are glass shower doors, a rock climbing wall, a huge elegant waterfall, and plasma TV's laid out all over the place – even in the locker rooms!

Do you REALLY need all this stuff, or are you trying to satisfy your own ego by making your club seem like it's a really cool and hip place to be?

Well, this depends on a few things. Let's take a look.

If you have all these beautiful and expensive items in your health club but the place where the people actually come to get in good shape is crowded, you're spending your money in the wrong places.

If people are waiting in line for 5 minutes just to get on the treadmill or use the bench press, you're spending your money in the wrong place.

If people are coming up and complaining to you that someone is hogging the equipment – you're spending your money in the wrong place.

Listen, people come to your health club for one thing...to get in shape! Although the waterfalls, plasma TV's and all that stuff make the place look great, what is it actually doing to HELP your members?

If your members are coming in and waiting in line to use a machine, you need to get rid of the “junk” and go out and buy some more equipment. If you don't have enough room, you need to stop spending money on luxury items and instead rip down a wall and put in another 100sq. ft. of space so you can fit more members in your club.

Now obviously sometimes they might have to wait if you're having an especially busy day, but if it's a regular occurrence something needs to be changed.

Trust me, people aren't going to continue coming back if they're constantly waiting in line to use a machine. And they're going to spread the word to their friends (just because people naturally like to complain). So if they're going to complain, you want them to be complaining about your competitors – not you!

Also realize that this also depends on the atmosphere of your business. If you're trying to achieve an “upscale” image, some of these things may be necessary. However, know your boundaries and always put what is necessary first – which is always having enough machines and enough room for people to be comfortable.

I know it's tempting to purchase all kinds of fancy equipment and make the place look “pretty” but trust me, it's MUCH better in the long-run to buy equipment that's absolutely necessary first, then go for the pretty stuff second.

You might even think of doing a customer survey and finding out what they want, then giving THAT to them!

Because in the end, you need to give your customers what they want. Don't try and pretend you know what they want because a lot of times they can surprise you. Take care of them, and they'll take care of you.