Fit Business Insider

The other day I made a post about what was working for some of the top fitness business owners in the industry based on some of the things they shared at Bootcamp Bootcamp.

I decided to take it a step further and have some of our Elite Mastermind members offer up 3 things that are currently having a big impact on their businesses.  Here you go:

B.J. & Kori Bliffert

1. Implementing a scripted new member orientation before our two-week tryout, rather than winging it.  Every member gets the same message at every orientation: they learn all the rules, what’s expected of them and the cost of the camp should they be invited.

2. Systematized and scripted closing process.  Again, no more winging it, same close every time = a predictable outcome.

3. 1-1 Scripted goal setting meetings after closing the new member.  Though we’re still working on this one to get more Prograde sales, it has created personal relationships and a stronger sense of "we want you to succeed as much as you do" attitude with our members.

BJ & Kori Bliffert own Full Throttle Fitness Systems, a warehouse gym in Frisco, TX specializing in Fitness Boot Camps, Kettlebell Training and Small Group Team Training.

Wil Fleming

1. Incentivizing referrals. By simply adding the gift of a free t-shirt we have successfully turned every one new client into at least 4-5 new leads. No longer do we have to hit the pavement for new athletes we just had to hand out shirts! The only caveat to this is to make sure you ask for all the info you need to capitalize on the referral. For athletes – that needs to include parents’ names, home phone, and sports played. This is significantly different than what is needed for adults.

2. Focus on high return activities. When doing assessments, consults or conducting sessions is what pays the bills – why spend time on activities like updating your Facebook with your "killer" workout of the day? Does it really bring in clients? 

3. Be involved and be seen. As a coach of athletes it is of the highest importance to be out in the community at athletic events supporting Athletic Revolution athletes. Be seen and interact with parents everywhere you go. Offer to do fundraisers for the local youth teams and high schools. Oh, and don’t be a dope and forget to collect contact info anyplace you can!  

Wil Fleming is the owner and director of performance at Athletic Revolution Bloomington / Force Fitness and Performance in Bloomington, IN. Wil is a member and contributor to the IYCA. He has trained over 25 division I athletes in the last calendar year alone and his Athletic Revolution works with nearly 200 athletes on a weekly basis.

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This weekend we hosted the second ever Bootcamp Bootcamp Weekend and it was incredible.

Over 100 of the most successful bootcamp owners from around the globe (Travis Sawyer was the attendee who traveled the farthest – from Perth, Australia) all dialed in on building their businesses and networking with fellow fitness entrepreneurs.

Great stuff…

One of the things we do at our events is ask the people having success to share what’s working for them.  We put them on the spot without scripted presentations or time to prepare– heck, they often don’t know they’re even going to be called on to contribute.

I wanted to give you a distilled overview of what the camp owners that are enjoying the most business success offered up that they are all doing.

So while there are differences in some of what they do – there are a few key concepts that they *all* do.

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Tonight we’ll have some of the most successful fitness pros in the industry getting into Louisville for this weekend’s Bootcamp Bootcamp event.  If you’re not going to be one of the folks in attendance – no sweat – I wanted to give you some surefire tips that will have your business rockin’ in no time.  Here you go:

1. Be Great At What You Do – If you’re a sh&tty trainer or coach – all the marketing advice in the world won’t make up for it.  Think about seeing a great ad for a restaurant.  It might get up in the door for one meal, but if your meal was bad, would any amount of advertising ever get you back?

2. Joint Ventures – Have you ever taken the time to find out how many businesses are there in your area who serve you potential clientele? You should.

   Build a relationship with them so you can eventually have them as a referral source.  Start by being nice, offering free training to the owners and at least steep discounts to the staff.  Send them some referrals.  Eventually you will be able to get referrals in return and more structured lead generation activities like endorsed mailings or emails.

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In general, people are willing to pay more for anything just to give in to their convenience.

The old Chinese Proverb goes like this:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

But most people don’t want to learn to fish.

They want you to catch the fish, clean it, cook it and serve it.

The more you do for them – the happier they are.

They don’t want to make decisions.  They are busy. They’re bombarded with information and choices, so the simpler you make it and the more you do for them – the better your business will be.

Done For You can be as small as Lunchables at the grocery store or as big as a franchise like Athletic Revolution.

But the one thing in common is that it’s designed to make things easier for the customer or client.

So how can you integrate Done For You into your personal training business for more profits?

Here are a few ideas:

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I wanted to share something with you that hopefully will remind you of the possibilities that are out there if you’re willing to thing big and take action.

I’ve told the story of attending the first Ryan Lee Bootcamp and leaving having changed my mind (actually Nick and I both decided on the spot) about how we were going to grow our business.

Instead of being a local business that would expand by adding a few new locations, we were going to expand globally through a variety of different channels.

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Are you creating a success that you’re going to enjoy?

I know it sounds strange to ask if you’re going to enjoy success – but bear with me for a few minutes and you’ll see what I’m getting at.

Over the weekend Nick and I went to Perform Better in Providence, Rhode Island.  We got to see lots of friends and colleagues – plus we got to head down to Pembroke, Massachusetts to visit Athletic Revolution franchisees Dave & Andrea Gleason.

Hanging out with guys like Pat Beith, Eric Cressey, Mike Boyle and Alwyn Cosgrove is not only a great time but always thought provoking.

One of the things Alwyn and I were chatting about was how much traveling he was doing and how it was wearing on him a bit. He’s one of the most in demand speakers in the industry (If you’ve ever heard him talk, you know why – he’s awesome) – but his speaking schedule has expanded so much that he’s getting on a plane about every 8 days on average.

He’s basically become so successful at this that so much travel is making it less enjoyable.

So right now Alwyn is developing his plan to make this part of what he does serve him better.

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But these are not the only ways to grow your business.  Here are 7 hidden fitness marketing tactics that will help you grow your business in a hurry.

1.  Have a ‘Carrot’- One of the best hidden fitness marketing tactics I know is to build ‘carrots’ into your business.  Martial arts does this with the belt system. Most MLM companies have this with different tiers you can ascend through by reaching certain performance benchmarks.    We’ve even developed a system for this in Athletic Revolution.

The easiest way to build a carrot into your business is to run Transformation Contests so your clients have a short term deadline to shoot for.  But don’t limit yourself to this. There are plenty of other ways that you can set intermediate goals for your clients so they can reach certain benchmarks to reinforce their successful behavior.

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If you want to generate new business now – what would you do?

I don’t mean new clients next week or next month.  I mean you need new clients immediately to pay the bills.

Would you sit at home and submit articles and press releases?

Would you make blog posts or phone calls?

There are dozens of things you could do if you had to generate new clients, but which ones would pay off fastest?

With that in mind I created a simple Hierarchy of Client Getting Activities to get you started.

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By now you may know that Nick and I, along with Brian Grasso and Sara Nylander, launched a youth fitness & athletic development franchise called Athletic Revolution.

We’ve been very deliberate with our expansion (we have 7 locations so far) because we are committed to building the premier youth fitness & athletic development franchise in the world – and we can’t do that haphazardly

Because we spend a lot of time focusing on building Athletic Revolution the right way, we put a lot of thought into what goes into a successful fitness business. While I can’t share the details of everything we’ve uncovered as some of it is proprietary and exclusive to AR franchisees – I can share the key components that go into any successful fitness business.

To build a successful business, you need:

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There are a lot of mistakes personal trainers and coaches make that hold them back from reaching their business goals. Here are 12 of the most common:

Mistake #1 – Thinking that aggressive marketing will make up for a mediocre service. The bottom line is this: you can generate a lot of leads with a strong marketing push – but you won’t keep those clients if you’re all sizzle and no steak.  You have to deliver great results and you have to create an environment that your clients love being in.

I don’t know of any great personal training business that doesn’t get a lot of their clients from referrals. Obviously, you can’t generate referrals with a run of the mill service.

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