How would you answer these 3 questions…

1. What are the benefits of becoming a member of your health club?

2. What makes a membership at your health club better than the health club up the road?

3. What unique benefits will I get with you that I won’t get from another fitness business in the area?

For most club owners, answering these 3 questions can be very difficult.

To be honest, it’s difficult for almost all small businesses to tell their prospects what makes them unique and why they should be chosen over the other available options.

Have you heard of an elevator pitch?  It means in approximately the same amount of time you would spend with someone on an elevator, you should be able to tell them about your business and what makes you unique.

What is your elevator pitch?

If you say a word about the equipment you have or that you have good customer service, I might just jump through this blog post and slap you.  No one cares about your equipment…everyone has equipment.

No one is impressed that you offer good customer service…they expect it!

So what you need to focus on is WIIFM.  That stands for “What’s in it for me?”  In other words, focus only on what a membership at your gym will do for THEM.

What are the benefits of joining your facility?

Why choose you over a competitor?

Focus on results, focus on past performance and how others just like them have succeeded with your help, focus on convenience, focus on accountability, focus on personal attention, focus on their happiness and a better life for them.

We are not in the gym business or the fitness business.  We are in the Helping you Live a Better Life Business.  Period.

How can you help people live a better life?

When you answer that question, you have your elevator pitch.  And you will be able to answer the three questions above.

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

So…what is your elevator pitch?

2009 is two days away! 

Do you know what numbers you need to have a successful January for your health club?  You’d better figure it out soon!  Total revenues, new members, referrals, PT clients, add on sales…you need to have a specific goal for each of these and you need measurable objectives to help you reach these goals.

It has been proven many many times over that whatever goal you set for yourself, you are likely to reach it.  That sounds simple enough, but what exactly does that mean?  If you set a goal for your gym to sell 125 memberships in January, you will probably sell 125 memberships.  You probably won’t sell 150.  BUT, if you would have set a goal of 150 new members, you will probably sell 150.  It is amazing how we work toward our goals, but only to meet them and not to exceed them.

So your goals in all areas of your gym should be high, but not so high you have no faith in reaching those goals.  How many memberships do you feel you can sell during January?  80?  So if you firmly believe you can sell 80, do you believe that 100 is attainable?  Probably so.  What about 120?  Hmmm, maybe.  Set your goal for 120 in this case, share your goal with your entire team, and be amazed at how close you actually come to 120!  I promise you, if your goal is 80, you will likely come very close to that number, whereas if your goal is 120, you will come equally close.

This is not one of those “if you believe it, you can achieve it” feel-good kind of things.  It is just how we as human beings are wired.  A more believable example would be…If I know I have 8 hours to complete a project, it will probably take me the full 8 hours to complete it.  But if I tell myself I only have 2 hours to complete the project, guess what?  It will take me 2 hours to complete the project.  When you tell yourself you must reach a goal or a deadline, you will come very close to whatever goal you set for yourself.  It amazes me all of the time to see this work over and over again, every time, without exception.

So set lofty goals for all areas of your health club in January.  Share those goals with your staff.  Break goals down to daily and weekly goals to help make them seem more achievable.  It sounds much more achievable to your staff to average 30 memberships a week or 5 memberships per day than if you were to tell them they need 120 this month.  If you have 20 members participating in your PT programs, shoot for another 20 members in January.  So if your membership goal is 120, you need to sign up one out of every six new members on a PT program.

Do 200 members check in at your front desk every day?  Challenge your staff to sell one drink or protein bar to 40 people each day, or 1 out of every 5 exercisers.  Have a solid inventory of protein and meal replacement supplements.  Your new members are sponges for information on how to get the best results in the shortest time.  Every other member should purchase a nutritional product.  They are motivated to help themselves reach their goals.  Sell something to every other health club member.

Setting goals is important…you know this.  But don’t settle for simply reaching a believable goal!  Push yourself and push your staff to maximize all sales in all areas.  Set specific and slightly out-of-reach goals, and you will find that you will come very close to those goals, and will likely exceed those goals.  But don’t take my word for it.  Try it out this next month and watch your January numbers carry you through the entire year!

To your success…

Curtis Mock