A friend of mine whom I haven’t spoken to in a few years sent me an email a few days ago.  Her name is Beth, and as it turns out, she has been a personal trainer now for the last 3 years.  She works within a facility as a staff trainer.

It is obvious that she is passionate about what she does and she wants to be the very best she can be…and more importantly, make the most she can make for herself and for the studio.

Her concerns were typical.  She knows she is limited with one-on-one personal training, she doesn’t know how effective her marketing is, and she wants to create ancillary streams of revenue…specifically in her area of interest: Nutrition.

Here is a summary of my comments to her…hopefully you too can find something here that helps you too increase PT revenue.
–

As for maximizing dollar per hour worked, I agree…there is a definite ceiling on your earning potential which is directly attributable to the fact that there are only so many hours you can physically work.  One of the biggest complaints of PT’s is that to maintain their current income level, they have to continue working 4am-8pm every day.

That’s no fun.  So there are really only two solutions:

1) Train more people at once.  This is why group training and bootcamps are so popular.  You can make exponentially more money training more people at once.  It’s cheaper per client, but more profitable for you since you’re training more people at once.  I’m not sure what the layout of your gym or your parking lot, etc is like, but bootcamps are ridiculously hot right now.

Many experts agree that one on one training is a dying business model.  Yes, there will be people who prefer the one on one attention, but there are far more who appreciate the discount and even the ability to share the experience with others.

And 2) Sell more ancillary products/services to your clients.  This can include selling nutritional products, online personal training, nutritional counseling, life coaching, grocery shopping services, meal plans, etc.

As for marketing, how much are you doing? A flyer here or there isn’t going to cut it.  You need to have multiple marketing poles in the water at all times.  Go to chamber meetings, visit with local business owners, set up events for charity, speaking events, write for the paper/newsletters, door hangers, referrals from existing clients, etc.  You must always have marketing working for you every minute of every day.

Consider niching your service.  If you start a group training class, don’t do one for whoever signs up.  Do one for expectant mothers, new mothers, lunchtime warriors, teenagers, older adults, employees of a particular business, gastric bypass patients, arthritic people, back problems, children, toning class, core class, abs class, etc.

Focus on a specific group of people and be a big fish in a very small pond rather than a small fish in a very big pond.

Aim small, miss small

Network with other successful personal trainers.  I am in two mastermind groups, because the information I take away is more valuable than the amount I pay.  Join a website like www.personaltrainerU.com.  It’s run by very good friends of mine in the industry.

Go to events in the industry.  You just missed a great one for personal trainers called Fasttrack to Fitness Millions. I’ll let you know when another good one is coming up.  There are definitely some that are not worth the money.

Communicate with clients and prospects often.  Send out an email newsletter to your list.  GET A BLOG!  Promote yourself as THE expert in your area.  Dominate Google for Personal Trainers in your city.

You said you don’t know how effective your flyers were for your open house/group training.  This is important to do.  You must always know what marketing is successful and what marketing is not.  Otherwise you’re just going to be throwing shit against the wall and hoping that something sticks.  Never a good strategy.

Always ask what marketing brought them to you.  Then make a note of it…simple as that!
Feel free to call me to catch up or if you have other questions.

My cell is 573…
(Okay,did you think I’d really give out my cell phone on a blog post?)

Anyway, hopefully you can find something helpful in this.

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

Man, it’s been way too long since I’ve been able to post on here.  Internet access was not as simple as I had planned in Australia.  Everytime we passed an Internet cafe it was at the worst time.  Thanks to all who sent messages over the past few weeks while I was away.

What a great experience Australia was.  We put on a Summit for 120 ish health club owners in Melbourne and Sydney and it was tons of fun.  From health club marketing ideas to retention strategies to keep health club members staying (and paying) longer, we covered a lot of material.

It went so well that it looks like it’s going to be a yearly event!  So if you’re in the states and looking for an excuse to visit down under, it looks like next year’s show will be even bigger.  And if you’re an australian health club owner, make sure you sign up to be notified.  You can sign up at the top right of this site’s home page or at www.healthclubsuccess.com.  We will be making the video available sometime over the next few weeks.

I’m working on several new articles for www.GymSuccess.com right now and beginning work on a few new projects, so make sure you pay attention…we’re about to start doing some big things.

If you don’t have plans for October 14-17, make sure you make it to the Club Industry conference in Chicago.  I’ll be presenting on Friday and again on Saturday morning.  One presentation is on Productivity secrets for busy health club owners and the other is on how to improve your marketing message to double the return on your investment.  Should be a lot of fun!

Look for the new Gym Goldmine newsletter to go out tomorrow!

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

Do you have members or PT clients who have lost weight, overcame illness, or feel more alive after exercising at your club? 

Of Course You Do! 

We all know of members who have overcome the odds, or lost 50 pounds, or fit into a size 4 again or can make it up the stairs without shortness of breath.  Everyone at your club who has improved their health, image, or overall well being is a walking talking billboard!

There are several ways you can share these success stories with your prospects.

1.     Print Marketing:  Use a testimonial along with a picture or perhaps a before and after picture in all of your print marketing efforts.  Prospects are much more likely to read about someone who lost weight and feels great thanks to your club, rather than some boring old ½ off enrollment fee coupon.

2.     Online marketing:  Make sure to have lots and lots of testimonials on your website.  If you have before and after pictures, these are very powerful.  I would recommend even using video and audio testimonials to offer even more interactive ways for your web visitors to see what they can expect as a member of your club.

3.     Internal marketing:  Your current members may not even be aware the success stories of those who invest in personal training.  Make sure you have   some testimonials and pictures throughout your club.  Make sure to put a new picture and testimonial up every couple of weeks so the other members will see that there are several people getting amazing results. 

4.     Lead boxes:  A before and after picture along with a “Want to feel as good as Sharon?  Enter your information to receive a complimentary 2 week membership to XYZ Fitness” is one of the more powerful lead box strategies I’ve ever seen. 

5.     Billboard, TV, Radio:  If these are mediums that will work in your market, then make sure you are using pictures and testimonials.  It is so difficult to generate a direct response from these marketing mediums, but you can maximize your efforts with powerful social proof that “XYZ Fitness has helped others, and can help you too!”

6.     Wall of Fame:  Find or create a bare wall in a high traffic area of your club.  Set up a clean, professional looking wall of fame for your members who have experienced great success.  You can collect testimonials and before and after pictures to post on your wall.  Your members will feel appreciated and your prospects will be blown away and ready to sign up before you ever present prices.

7.     Success Book:  Similar to the Wall of Fame, fill up a three ring binder with lots of success stories of your members.  This is a great tool to hand a guest if they have to wait a couple of minutes for you to finish a tour or sign up another member.  They will likely be sold on your club before you even say a word.

Social proof such as testimonials and pictures are the most powerful forms of marketing you can use at your health club.  It doesn’t matter what type of marketing: internal, external, guerrilla, internet, etc…Seeing the success stories of others will ALWAYS help you sign up more members and more personal training clients.

Dedicated to your success…

Curtis Mock

It is my hope that all of you are capturing email addresses from your members and sending them information weekly, or at least monthly.  If you aren’t doing this, you should stop reading this now and sign up for an autoresponder program.  Then collect all of  your member email addresses and begin sending them regular updates  and information.

If you already communicate with your members, here is another important way to maximize your efforts.  Many club owners only focus on sending information to current members.  Make sure you capture email addresses from your hot, warm, and even cold leads as well.

By hot leads, I mean the people that come into your club interested in a membership.  If you don’t close the sale the first day, you need to put them into your email autoresponder system and send them emails about the benefits of the club, success stories, fitness tips, etc.  You must remain relevant and in the forefront of their mind.  Each email will serve as a reminder that they need to get back in and join.

Warm leads are email addresses you’ve received through lead boxes, health fairs, and other community events.  These are people who have expressed at least a moderate level of interest.  They are people who would like more information from you to decide if they want to join a health club.  By sending regular, timely, and valuable information, when these leads are ready to join, they won’t even consider one of your competitors because you’ve been thoughtful enough to send them information.

Cold leads are email addresses you have in your possession, of people who have never expressed interest in your club.  For example, when you join the Chamber of Commerce, you have access to the email addresses of all other Chamber members.  Though they have never raised their hand requesting more information, because of your mutual tie to the chamber, they will likely be open to receiving information from you.  You will need them to opt into your newsletter list, so it would be a good idea to offer an irresistable offer and contact the person to introduce yourself prior to sending. 

So begin collecting email addresses from everywhere…but you MUST use them.  Just having the email address does you no good.  And you must send emails to your prospects, not just your current members.  Automate your marketing at no extra cost by sending a Fitness Tip of the Week, your monthly newsletter, and occasional promotions to your prospects  through an autoresponder system.  You will find more cold and warm prospects becoming HOT prospects, and you’ll find more hot prospects becoming members.

Dedicated to Your Success…
Curtis Mock

Show your health club members you appreciate them by sending them Thank You and Greeting Cards on a regular basis.  Don’t think of it as a cost, think of it as an investment in retention.  Nothing, and I repeat nothing works as well to solidify your relationship with your members than a hand written card!  

You may already send these, but I guarantee you are not utilizing this amazing strategy as often as you should.  Thank you cards or greeting cards are one of the most powerful things you can do to increase retention rates at your health club.  

Think about it.  When was the last time you received a thank you card for shopping somewhere?  It doesn’t happen often.  So be the health club that thanks members and they will thank you in return for your thoughtfulness.  Let’s take a look at my Top 10 times when you should send a card.

* When they join.  An absolute must!  Begin filling it out the moment they leave.  Put it in the mailbox immediately.  They need to receive this within 48 hours.

* When they sign up for programming.  Boot camps, PT, etc.

* When they’ve been at your gym with you for 6 months.  A halfiversary! Statistics show on average members will stay with you only 7 months…let them know you’re thinking of them at month 6.

* Special occasions & Holidays.  Your club’s anniversary, Christmas is a must, when you host an event, just because.  Let your health club members know you care!

* Events in their lives.  Birthday is a must.  New baby, promotion, marriage, etc.

* Apologize:  When you screw up…if you double bill them, if their favorite machine is broken, if your staff was inattentive, if a particular class was taken off the schedule, etc.  Let them know you’re sorry.  Written words are very meaningful!

* When they refer a friend to your gym.  Don’t think that just because you gave them their free month that your job is done.  Send them a thank you card with 3 more referral cards for them!

* When they renew their gym membership.  Give them a gift when they make the decision to stick with you.  It’s likely they have many other fitness options in your community and you should be thankful that they decided to stick with you.

* When they cancel.  Though it might seem strange to willingly spend money on someone who just decided not to spend money with you.  By sending a “no hard feelings” card, guess where they’ll come when they decide to join a health club again…

* When they’ve been canceled for 3 months.  As long as they didn’t move out of the area, I recommend sending them a “We want you back” card and a follow up phone call.

This is such an easy strategy to implement, and it gives your front desk staff something to do during their down time!  The power of written word is very powerful.  Begin sending cards and watch your members stay longer and spend more.

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

Is your health club the same color as it was last year?  Do you still have the same gym equipment you had 3 years ago?  Are you bored with your floorplan?  Has your brand lost its “Edge”?  Maybe it’s time for a bit of an upgrade at your health club!

After a while, our image tends to go stale.   You may still be using the same colors, logo and even floor layout you’ve used forever.   While you might feel that consistency is important, it is even more important to remain relevant and important in the mind of your prospects and gym members.

Something as simple as painting your walls, (perhaps just a 5 foot section from the floor) is enough for you to be seen as innovative and exciting in the mind of your members.  Move your gym equipment around a little bit.  Even the slightest changes will be recognized by your members.  It will show that you are not boring and that you are willing to make their experience better.

What three pieces of equipment are rarely, if ever, used at your club?  Still have that Adductor and Abductor machines?  How about that old school stepmaster?  And I know you have a lower back extension machine somewhere.  Think of how much space you could free up by removing these!  Not to mention the fact that you could take the money from selling these and buying a new piece of equipment your members will love!

Are you still using the same logo you had 10 years ago?  It’s time for a change!!  Again, branding and consistency is important, but not as much as you think.  No one is going to drive by and say, “Aw man, XYZ Fitness changed their logo.  I was going to become a member until I saw that”  But think of how fun it would be to announce to your members that you’re making the club a better place, and it could start with the logo!

One of my favorite logo development sites is www.99designs.com. You submit your project and designers actually design your logo for you to view and make recommendations to, before you ever pay!  Youcan have 20 different logos presented to you to choose from before you ever pay for a single one.

The trick is to ask your members what they like. If you get 3 logos you like, send an email to your members.  See which logo they like the best…because believe it or not, it doesn’t matter what you the club owner thinks…only what the members think.  That goes for any changes.  Even if you have your mind set on making a change, at least pretend you are going to consider what the members think, and ask them their opinion.You might be surprised with what you find.  And if not, they at least feel you did your due diligence and will appreciate that you asked their opinion.

It doesn’t matter what you do, but it does matter that you do something at your health club.  It makes for an exciting time when you announce to your members that they’re going to be seeing some changes made around the club.  They notice your hard work, they offer their ideas, and for very little investment, every few years you can have a brand new business.  You can even get free publicity on the local tv and newspapers as well.  It provides you an opportunity to conduct a Grand Re-Opening campaign as well.

Have fun recreating yourself!

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

You’ve heard me preach about how amazing having an autoresponder system is to a business. And perhaps you have signed up for a system like Aweber already, but aren’t sure the best way to utilize it for your health club. Here is how I advise our clients to use Aweber. Utilize some of these, or all of these…either way you are going to benefit your business and develop stronger loyalty with your members.

2. Then you need to set what’s called a Follow Up for the instant they click the confirmation link. It can have an attachment, it can take them automatically to a page on your website with the coupon, or it can simply be text stating “Please print this email and bring it into the club within 48 hours to pick up your membership.” Or similar.

3. I would then set up a Follow Up for the next day to remind them: “Did you have a chance to stop in yesterday to pick up your complimentary membership at XYZ Health Club? Be sure you stop by any time today to pick it up. We’re open Monday-Friday 4am-10pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8am-8pm. Call and let us know if you need a little more time. Our phone number is 555-555-5555. We can’t wait to help you reach your fitness goals!” Or similar.

4. Add a New Follow Up Message, and have 52 separate follow ups on that list, one sent each week. I would write a “fitness tip of the week”. So sit down one weekend and come up with 52 fitness tips…they don’t have to be long or detailed, just something simple. For example, “A great tip to stop those late night cravings is to brush your teeth the moment you are feeling like you need those carbs. If you start thinking about that bag of chips or box of cookies, brush your teeth! Cookies taste horrible after you brush your teeth!”…A Fit Tip from your friends at XYZ Health Club

It took me 30 seconds to write that one. So you could have all 52 written within a couple of hours for sure. I would have all subscribers, members AND prospects receive an automated follow up every seven days from that “Fit Tips” Follow Up List.

5. Your Monthly Newsletter, Announcements, or other miscellaneous things you want to tell your list(s), you will do with what is called a “Broadcast”. This is how my Gym Goldmine newsletter is sent.  You would do the same thing. If you have separate lists for Personal Training clients, and Club Members, and Prospects, etc. Send whatever announcements or news as a Broadcast any time you want to communicate with them. I would make sure to send your monthly newsletter to Prospects as well. At some point they will make the decision to join a club, and since you’re the one nice enough to make them feel like they’ve always belonged, they will join your club without a doubt.

And that is exactly how I would set up my Aweber system. You can even go back in and cross reference those who have joined your email list from your website and the names of new members since that date. If someone hasn’t joined, have one of your salespeople take their email address and send them a personal email to invite them into the club or to ask what it would take to get them in.

**A few bonus tips that work really well**

Always have a P.S. in your message. Many times people are in a hurry. They will read your opening paragraph, scan through any bolded text in your email, and skip to the P.S.  For some reason, people like reading the P.S.

Set aweber so that the person the email is delivered from is your health club name, not your personal name. I know you receive emails from Curtis Mock, but that’s because I want you to remember me until the day you die If I were sending to prospective gym members, it would come from the Gym’s name, so that they will always remember your gym’s name!

When you customize your emails and use someone’s name at the top, use the function {firstname_fix}, not just {firstname} in Aweber. Some of your prospects may have put their first and last name in the field provided, or perhaps they didn’t capitalize thier first initial. Aweber will “fix” it for you and use only the first name and make sure it is capitalized.

Never add people to your list that have not asked to be on your list. This is very important. If you get caught doing this, your Internet Service Provider can have you shut down. It’s no joke.

Even though no one really likes them, it is a good idea to put a pop up form on your website. Aweber calls these “Web Forms”. But make sure you set it only to appear once per day or once per visitor. You don’t want this thing popping up every time they go to a new page on your website. Again, Aweber makes this very simple for you.

Remember, I can’t even spell html. So Aweber uses a WYSIWYG editor. That stands for What You See Is What You Get. Meaning even us dumb jocks can use Aweber successfully!

That’s it for today. Hopefully this answered a lot of your questions!

Dedicated to your Success…
Curtis Mock

The Las Vegas Sun recently conducted a study of the effect the Recession is having on prostitutes.  Those who charge between $200-$300 per session are doing as well or better than they typically do.  Those who charge premium prices of $1,000 or more per session have not noticed a change in their revenues.  Whereas those who charge between $600-$700 have experience a 50% decline in business.

So how does this relate to your health club business?

Think about the pricing models of health clubs today.  You have your low cost competitors such as Planet Fitness and Fitness for 10.  Then your mid-level box clubs ranging from $29-$49 per month.  Then finally you have your high end, private clubs and spas who charge premium pricing.

We already see in our health club industry a shaking out of the mid-level clubs.  These health clubs are dying faster than any other pricing model in our industry.  These are the clubs that compete with one another, with the same amenities, and at the same prices as several of the competitors in their market.  Some have adjusted their models in response to heightened competition and the recession, but most continue doing the same thing, offering mid-level value for mid-level pricing.  These health clubs are by far losing the most during the recession.

High end clubs are also maintaining.  It seems they are not growing, but for the most part they are not losing either.  They maintain a high level of value and a strong focus on the customer.  Many of the members of these clubs will give up their second home or their boat before they give up their social status as a member of these clubs.

Everyone knows the low-price model is a home run right now.  It’s not for everyone though.  If you are a 5,000 square foot club in a competitive market, you could never survive at those prices.  But the larger clubs in the ideal markets are making an absolute killing right now.  I did a recent interview with Steve Main, owner of Fitness for 10 (www.fitnessfor10.com) and he has blown his own projections out of the water.

Isn’t it interesting to see the similarities of two COMPLETELY unrelated industries?  So my advice is to either be the cheap prostitute or the high end prostitute, never the mid-level prostitute.  Who knew we could learn business lessons from these “entrepreneurs”?

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

How many things are on your to do list tomorrow?

How many of those things will you complete?

A good way to know where you’re going is to take a look at where you have been.  How many things remain on your to do list that you’ve been reminding yourself to do?

• Do you have health club prospects to follow up with?
• Are there member concerns you have yet to deal with?
• Are there cancellations you have pushed to the side?
• Is your health club accumulating dust bunnies under the treadmills?
• Are your bills getting paid late?
• Are you behind on getting taxes prepared?
• Have you been meaning to train your gym staff?

It’s funny how easy it is for us to procrastinate, but then all we do is complain about being behind on our responsibilities.  The list keeps getting bigger and we get more and more stressed.

If something is on your list, and it is an “A” priority project, just get it done.  If it is a large project, break it into manageable chunks.

Pat Rigsby convinced me to begin making my to do list every night before I go to bed so that I can hit the ground running first thing in the morning.  If I haven’t completed something on that day’s list, I write it at the top of the to do list the following day.

My friend Thom Plummer advocates a notecard system.  Determine 5 things that you need to do that day, write them on 5 separate notecards and carry them in your pocket all day.  Do not go home or call it a day until you complete all 5 things on the list.

One of my favorite anti-procrastination tools is to plan a block of time during the day that I turn off the cell phone, close my email, close the door, and focus on finishing X number of tasks in a specified amount of time.  For example, I would block off 2pm-4pm to write a newsletter and write a new article for GymSuccess.com.

I set a digital kitchen timer because I, like most of you type A personalities out there, work better under pressure.  Remember those exams in college?  I didn’t even start studying until the night before the exam, I would stay up all night with my coffee at Denny’s, and I would go in and Ace the test.  Same goes for daily tasks.  If I know I only have an hour to complete a task, I bust my tail to make sure it is done.

Whatever you find is your secret to productivity and avoiding procrastination, use it and use it often.  Do not put off until tomorrow those things you can do today.  No one likes post it notes and pending files to pile up on your desk.  Just find a system that works for you, and never put it off.  You will drive yourself crazy and your health club business will suffer.

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

P.S.  Don’t forget to focus first on the things that will make you money or improve your club.  Learn to prioritize, always putting tasks relatedyour members and your revenues first on the list.

I could actually list 100 reasons why they’re so successful, but everything comes back to 3 basic principles:

Marketing

Systems

Action

These three things are the foundation for the success of these clients.

1.  Utilize many marketing strategies all at once

Marketing is not an event, it is an ongoing process.  Many health clubs make the mistake of trying one marketing strategy after another.  Worse yet, many more club owners try a marketing strategy, only to get mediocre results and decide not to spend money on marketing for a while.

What you need to be doing is utilizing a dozen or more marketing strategies all at once.  You’ve heard me say this tons of times, but I’ll say it again…There is not one strategy in my repertoire that used alone can generate 100 memberships.  But I know 100 strategies that can each generate one membership.

And by utilizing these strategies all at the same time, your results will be exponential.  If your prospects see your message several different ways over the course of a week, a little bell is going to go off in their head and if they’re even remotely interested in improving their fitness, seeing your message over and over is going to resonate with them.  They are much more likely to take action if they see your message in a variety of places in a short amount of time than if they see your message once per month.

And the MOST important thing to remember is that your competitors aren’t spending money right now.  You can dominate the health club market because they are likely of the majority and sitting on their money, sitting idly hoping the recession passes soon and hoping they come out of it alive.  If you promote your club, through paid and unpaid marketing strategies, you can very rapidly become the market leader.

2.  Make sure your systems are solid and you are organized

I can’t stress this enough.  Whether it’s a recession or not, if you plan to grow your business, you must have solid systems in place.  Would you build your house on a weak foundation?  Of course not.  You know the foundation is everything.  Your foundation is in your systems.

This includes your sales systems, your operations systems, your management and marketing systems.  Everything at your club needs to be done systematically.  Cleaning the club, following up with prospects AND current members, staff training, scheduling of classes, personal training, selling a membership, upselling other profit centers, partnering with local businesses, the list goes on and on.

You need to have a list of how everything at your health club is done, you need to delegate the tasks to your staff, and you need to be able to step away and work ON your business and not continually working IN your business.  Another way to think about it is, “If I were to hand the keys to my health club to a new owner, could they hit the ground running RIGHT NOW?”  If not, you need to put the systems in place to make that happen.  Not necessarily because you’re going to sell your club, but because you want to automate everything to make your career and your life much more enjoyable.

3.  Above all else you must take ACTION

Our clients are Doers.  They are not thinkers, nor are the planners.  Yes thoughts and planning are important, but if you get too caught up in these things, you will be slow to act.  Simply taking action is going to take you closer to your goal.  Instead of “Ready, Aim, Fire”, you need to focus on “Ready, Fire, Aim”.  Meaning instead of taking so much time to get everything perfect, go ahead and take action immediately.  You’ll quickly learn what actions are producing the best results and you can then make the necessary changes to maximize your efforts.  Then you fire again…and again…and again.

This sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised.  The majority of health club owners are scared to spend money right now.  They refuse to invest in anything, much less advancing their own knowledge.  And many are simply paralyzed with confusion…not knowing what to do first so they end up doing nothing.  You have to be marketing, all the time.  You must be implementing the systems.  You must be training your staff, calling on members, implementing in house loyalty programs, and making sure you are generating as much money per member as possible.

Remember, the recession is a time when money is transferred to a new group of people.  But you can’t do that if you don’t act now!

Don’t those three strategies sound simple?

If you do these three things.  If you utilize a variety of marketing strategies, build solid systems, and take action, I promise you will be successful.  But if you hang onto your money and don’t invest in marketing, you don’t work tirelessly to make sure your foundation is gap-free and your systems are solid, and you sit there and do nothing (or worse, spinning your wheels thinking you’re taking action but really you’re just busy), then you are going to struggle.

Thriving during the recession is very possible.  It’s all about Marketing, Systems, and Action.

Dedicated to your success…

Curtis Mock