Here are 53 random tips that will help you generate more new clients and then get those clients to stay longer, purchase more and refer often.
If you have any tips of your own to share – leave a comment below.
On Developing Marketing Materials
1. A good headline makes or breaks you.
2. The first paragraph has to be great to get the prospect to continue reading in any copy.
3. The P.S. is the next most important component of successful copy.
4. Test, test, test.
5. Marketing materials are most effective when presented to people that already know, like and trust you.
6. Use testimonials with pictures.
7. Have a strong call to action.
8. Recognize that marketing materials are just a means of getting prospects in front of you.
On Forming Strategic Alliances
9. Don’t be afraid to ask.
10. Show how you can help them first.
11. Create a win/win situations at all times.
12. Only work with people that have the right customer / client / patient base, run a business that you feel comfortable associating yourself with and aren’t assholes.
On Referrals
13. Earn the referral by providing great service and an extraordinary experience. 
14. Ask for the referral in multiple ways.
15. Reward the referring action. It’s your job to close.
16. Reward the referral again when the referred prospect buys.
17. Remember how much it would cost to acquire a new client through advertising when rewarding a referrer.
18. Use Transformation Challenges, Walls of Fame, Referral Contests, Bring a Friend Days, Point of Sale Referral Systems, Referral Request Mailings and a variety of other means to keep the referral mindset prominent in your business.
On Conversion Rates – Turning Prospects Into Clients
19. Offer a powerful guarantee. At Minimum – 100% Money Back.
20. Have a powerful USP that appeals to your niche market.
21. Have more than one type of offering – Semi-private, bootcamps and group weight management all can help you convert more prospects – as can different tiers within the same offering.
22. Make it easy to buy – use EFT billing so payments can be spread out.
23. Have plenty of testimonials handy – social proof is crucial
24. Try before you buy – as opposed to what some people think, free sessions are a great idea. If your average package is $1000, wouldn’t you expect someone to want to know what they’re spending a thousand bucks on?
25. Use a sales script. If something works – stick with it.
26. Test different sales presentations – we changed 1 step and increased our average transaction value by $400.
27. Spend more time listening than talking.
28. As Jimmy Labadie says…find their pain.
29. Educate on value, not price.
30. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.
31. Don’t be afraid to ask for a BIG sale.
32. Target better prospects. That doesn’t always mean more affluent prospects. Target prospects that are a better fit for you and your business.
33. Track everything – close rates, avg. deal size, etc.
On Maximizing Lifetime Client Value
34. Give better service. Every day you need to be ‘on.’
35. Underpromise and Overdeliver.
36. Stay in regular contact outside of normal sessions with phone calls, emails, etc.
37. Add complimentary services – nutrition, massage, etc.
38. Add complimentary products – supplements, foam rollers, etc
39. Use longer term contracts.
40. Keep a lot of client data – b-day, anniversary, kids names, hobbies, etc.
41. Schedule the next appt. today if you are running a 1 on 1 or semi-private business.
42. Send a weekly e-mail newsletter.
43. Send Greeting Cards – Birthdays, Holidays and cards for reaching goals – or cards to just say ‘thanks.’
44. Post-purchase reassurance – make calls, send cards and make sure the client continues to be happy they chose you.
45. Have new special offers each month. Make sure that every client is presented with these offers.
46. Run Transformation Challenges and offer a special upgraded package for the duration.
47. Sell consumables – supplements need to be re-purchased again – DVD’s and foam rollers don’t.
48. Raise your prices. You can do it in small increments too. A $2 or $3 increase per session will get no resistance from clients but add a lot to your bottom line over the year.
49. Have a scripted up-sell at the initial point of sale.
50. Have scripted up-sells at specific point during each client’s program.
51. Use automated billing.
52. Suggest your most expensive program first.
53. Treat everyone like you want to be treated.
Dedicated to your success,
Pat Rigsby
Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.
Thanks Pat. I appreciate you. Good stuff!
Best in Health & Success
Great tips on business growth. Let’s add one which is consistency. This is important in everything you chose to do. Without it your plans for grow will flop.
Great points – definitely some new ones to integrate there – thanks!
http://www.markpt.wordpress.com
These are some great tips and excellent reminders when we get wrapped up in the big picture and lose sight of the small things that keep our clients happy. Thanks for all the great work!
54. Always open emails from Pat, Nick, and Jim
55. Constantly strive to be better at what you do.
Great tips Pat. I love everything here but the Forming Strategic Alliances section really got my attention – those tips are money makers that have the potential to help a lot of people.
It’s pretty fair to say that 90% of my business has come from those tips alone.
Donovan Owens
The Boot Camp Godfather
Great post, Pat! I have particularly found #4, #12, #13, #25, and #34 to be high ROI practices over the years. Great stuff!
41, 43 and 53 are just a few that we implement in our training studio. Great tips! looking forward to seeing which others we can add!
Great stuff guys! Its amazing how far these tips can go! Its the little stuff thats gonna take u to the top…
#56-Insteading of always send out text emails, record yourself just as if u were talking to them in person and send it to them. It makes clients and even prospects feel so much more special.
—RB—
Bootcamp 365
Great stuff as always. Will study and implement these ideas in a new project in a different field than fitness.
Thanks again
Mike
Needed this shot in the arm … I’ve been grinding a lot in multiple ddirections that I’ve got a way from growing from my biz for about a 14 days … THANK YOU … I ave very pleased to be apart of this network!
#56 Host happy hour on Friday’s out in front of your facility. People walk/drive past and see this and want to be part of your family.
Pat, this post was a monster – a paragraph on each point would probably lead to the hardest hitting product this industry has ever seen.
Thanks Pat for these tips. Keep bringing your best stuff everyday!
Does anybody know of any free or paid website/software where I can plug in a boot campers birthday info and I get notifications in my inbox as a reminder?
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