Do you ever feel like you’re doing something wrong when it comes to fitness membership sales?
Are you delivering a great pitch time and time again only for a small number of prospects to sign up?
Or do you feel your pitch just isn’t up to scratch and you can see the eyes of the prospect glaze over as you talk?
With sales, there are a lot of things you may be doing right. But crucially, there is also a lot of things you may be doing wrong. In this article, we will look at a couple of key ways you can fix your sales mistakes and takes your sales strategy to the next level.
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How to Close a Fitness Membership Sale
Today, the global fitness industry is worth nearly $100 billion. Consumers are engaging with fitness like never before in order to achieve a more health-oriented lifestyle. The average gym member is worth $517 to a facility every year. Every fitness member is valuable and gaining new members contributes massively to the success of your business.
As a gym owner, you wear many hats, one of which is sales. You’re constantly selling your services. Whether you’re telling potential members how your fitness center can change their life or selling your gym as a great workplace to attract new employees. One way or another you’re always selling. Here are three qualities the best salespeople possess and how to close more sales for your gym.
Attitude
Attitude plays a huge role in sales. In order to make the best first impression, the right attitude can go along way. When you have excellent knowledge, expert advice, and an incredible fitness space combined with a negative attitude, you’re left with nothing. When you see the good in life, potential members are much more likely to react positively.
Enthusiasm
Sales have been referred to as “the transfer of enthusiasm”. Enthusiasm is contagious. Fitness membership sales are about more than enthusiasm, it’s your passion and belief that comes through in the sales process. As a business owner, your enthusiasm motivates everyone around you, your sales team, clients, and potential members.
Commitment
Believing in your service or product is essential to selling it. Everything about your voice and body language should shout commitment and confidence. Confidence is another quality that is infectious, making potential clients want to commit to a membership and hit up your next class.
To help you really sell more fitness memberships, we discuss a foolproof framework for sales conversations. Find out how the CLOSER formula can help you close every time.
12 Ways to Increase Fitness Membership Sales
Whether or not you consider yourself a salesperson, it’s important to recognize that it’s part of the job when it comes to running a fitness center. Organize your sales process and nail these 12 strategies and you’ll be able to help a ton of people with the services that you offer.
1. The Meet and Greet
First impressions happen fast and are very hard to change. The majority of the time you have one shot to make an impression. From the first phone call to the first client meeting, once that impression is made, it can have serious effects on your entire sales process. You and your gym have less than seven seconds to make an impression. Some research suggests you have just a tenth of a second to make an impact.
An essential step to fitness membership sales is the meet and greet at the front desk. Make sure your team has all the tools they need to interact with members and prospective clients. Provide ongoing and relevant training that will help them to remain at the top of their game and closing sales. Your staff represents your business and brand. Teach your team the right way to introduce themselves and greet new members.
2. Always Ask Questions
Why did you call today? Have you ever been a member of a gym before? Would they like to visit your facility? It’s crucial to ask questions. These are just some of the questions that start the ball rolling in the sales process. If you don’t ask questions, how will you find out how your health club can solve their problems.
In order to provide the best service possible and to sell the right service, you need to know the ins and outs of your member. Think about their goals, past obstacles, and why they want to join the gym. Whether it’s you or a member of your team interacting with potential members, make sure they know the questions to ask to build a more complete picture of your new members’ needs.
3. Follow a Script
A well-written script has its place in the sales process. Having said that, you don’t want to sound like you’re just reading through a script and not taking your clients’ individual needs on board.
The script is essential for questions like what’s the price? In response to this, you might ask some key questions so that you can give the best answer. If you have multiple membership options, you don’t just want to list them down the phone. You want to provide the best solution in the quickest amount of time.
It’s a good idea to have different scripts for different situations. How you respond to the first incoming call will vary to what you say on a tour or during the cancellation process. A script is another tool that can empower your sales team. To be successful in gym membership sales, as with any sales, you need to connect with your prospect. You want to be persistent without crossing over into annoying.
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Discover more 4. Remember to Listen
Asking questions is an essential element in a sales strategy but it will be for nothing if you don’t listen. Although the majority of people that join a health club or gym are looking to get in shape or maybe lose some weight, it doesn’t mean they are all the same. You can only find out individual needs and requirements by really listening.
Instead of offering a standard membership, think about who this person is and what they want. Are they looking to socialize or do they need a bit of extra help to meet their goals? If this is the case, you might suggest a membership option with plenty of classes or even throw in some personal training sessions to get them on track right from the beginning.
To help you increase sales and connect with new members, we’ve pulled together 5 things every fitness founder should know about gym membership sales. We discuss the importance of building relationships and the best ways to convert new leads to gym members.
5. Analyze Your Prospects’ Needs
After using your sales script and asking the right questions, you should have all the information you need to analyze your prospects’ needs. If you don’t understand why your prospect wants to join your gym in the first place, how will you provide them with the best solution that they can’t say no to?
Take on board what your potential member needs are and translate it into something you offer. Your goal is to make their life happier and healthier. You want your team to understand, internalize and sell with integrity.
6. Market Your Services
It goes without saying that in order to reach potential members, you need to market your services. This may be in the form of social media marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing or a referral program. There are lots of creative ways you can get in front of new members. With the far reaches of Facebook, you can reach a previously untouched audience of potential customers.
It goes without saying that in order to reach potential members, you need to market your services. This may be in the form of social media marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing or a referral program. There are lots of creative ways you can get in front of new members. With the far reaches of Facebook, you can reach a previously untouched audience of potential customers.
A crucial advertising platform in the fitness world is Facebook. With Facebook advertising, you can now define your audience by location, interest, behavior, and more. This means you can target users who aren’t members but have similar interests to your current members. Whether you’re new to Facebook advertising or looking to buff up your skills, check out our ultimate guide to Facebook ads.
7. Always Test Your Marketing
Marketing trends come and go. One marketing campaign may be very effective with a certain audience but fall short with another. Consistently evaluating and testing every part of your business should is a huge part of your role as gym owner. After all, you want to be getting better and not wasting valuable time and money.
Try allocating a large chunk of your marketing budget on tried and tested marketing methods that deliver. Use the remainder of your marketing budget to test new ideas. Research any new ideas thoroughly before deciding to invest. By using a fraction of your marketing budget to test new ideas, you can gauge how successful it will be before fully committing to it.
8. Convert Leads to Gym Members
Don’t let any of your marketing efforts go to waste. Your campaigns collect a ton of data and information. With poor organization, sometimes leads can get lost. The majority of the time leads don’t convert into members after one conversation. The entire gym membership sales process is a journey.
One way to keep on top of all leads is to use member management software. The right software solutions will store and track all the information related to your leads. You can then assign leads to specific staff members and record any interactions. By doing this, you reduce the risk of a lead getting lost in the system.
9. Follow Up
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
One of the many important elements of winning a sale is the follow-up. During a sometimes lengthy sales process, sales reps can forget to follow-up with a potential customer. This alone can send the sale down the drain. A healthy sales pipeline includes regular and organized follow-ups. You want to keep your offer or facility fresh and increase the desire to commit.
10. Overcome Objections
Naturally, during the sales process, there will be objections. Things like class diversity, instructors, price, community-feel, and gym equipment can all come up as issues. How will you overcome obstacles to progress to the next stage of selling?
Overcoming objections should form part of your sales training and your scripts. A great resource for sales reps is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Speaker and sales expert Jeb Blount offers advice on overcoming objections, negotiation, and sale strategies.
Ask Prospect to Join
People join a gym for many reasons and your entire sales process is all about getting down to the why. You’ve built a relationship with a prospect and asked the right questions. You know your prospects’ goals and needs. You think they would love your gym and be a great fit. You’ve overcome any objections and they seem happy with the price and package. It’s time to ask if they would like to join your fitness center.
Rehearse, Practice and Role Play
The more practice you and your team have, the better you will all be. You can role-play all aspects of the sales process from the first call and meet and greet to the gym tour and signing the contract. You can practice phone calls and explaining the contract and cancellation policy. Feedback should be constant and ongoing. Keep rehearsing these types of interactions to nail down your gym membership sales.
In Summary
Depending on your fitness business, there are many different strategies you can use to boost sales. The right sales process and structure can give your team the tools they need to succeed. Evaluate each of these elements to see where you can make improvements. Just a minor boost in one of these areas has the potential to generate a significant increase in sales across the business.
