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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Recently I’ve been getting a number of questions regarding fitness sales, so the follow up on my recent blog post sharing 3 sales tips I wanted to go ahead and share a small sales manual that I provided to our training staff. You can download it below (click on the image or the link):

Click Here to Download

Enjoy the manual and be sure to tell me all about those deals that your closing!

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.

Friday I sent out an email titled “I Can Make You Successful In Two Sentences” and it got a lot of positive responses.  Basically, I said that the only two things you need to focus on for business success are:

1. Doing an extraordinary job.
2. Making sure a lot of people know about it.

I think it’s really odd that none of the marketing ‘gurus’ pay much attention to #1.

Actually – until I really brought some attention to it they didn’t mention it at all.

But think about it – could all the marketing in the world get you to go back to a restaurant that served you an awful meal?

Zappos is one of the most prominent online retailers in the world – do you know how much of their business comes from repeat buyers?

Over 74%.

And they’ve become the gold standard for doing an extraordinary job.

It’s not a coincidence.

So I’m going to keep sharing a ton of ways you ‘make sure a lot of people know about you’ – but this week I’m going to have three of the indsutry’s most respected pros – Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey do a couple of guest posts to help insure that you’re doing an extraordinary job.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the role doing an extraordinary job plays in your success below.

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.

I love stories.

That’s a big part of why I prefer to meet with people in person or talk on the phone over sending emails.

It’s easier to share stories.

Sharing stories are one of the easiest ways to get to know someone – and if you’re selling, they’re one of the easiest ways to build rapport.

This weekend at the IYCA Summit I shared my personal story with the audience so they could better understand where I was coming from when I offered business advice.

Based on the feedback I received, it was the best thing I could have possibly done.

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Following up on the previous post “What’s Wrong With The Fitness Industry”, I wanted to share my thoughts since so many of you we’re good enough to share your take on the problems our industry has.

First off, I think there are a variety of problems, not just one or two.  So here’s my list:

A Focus On Everything But Results – If you go to the mechanic, you go to get your car fixed…not just worked on, right? It’s pretty much that way for any service.

If I drop my clothes of at the dry cleaner, it’s because I want them clean and pressed.

In fact, if my car isn’t fixed or my clothes aren’t cleaned – the service provider didn’t do their job.

The fitness industry’s job is to get people results.  Not just ‘work them out’.

These are far from perfect analogies because they deal with objects like cars and clothes – not people – but the point remains.

If gyms and trainers were graded on the outcomes they deliver to their clients – most would get an ‘F.’

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The fitness industry is broken.

Plain and simple.

Only about 16% of people belong to a fitness facility or program in the U.S.

Of the ones that belong to health clubs, only about 30% are active users.

The average personal trainer makes under $30,000 per year.

Most people who enter the personal training profession depart soon after to get a ‘real job.’

I’ve got my own opinions on why things are the way they are – opinions about the consumers, the commercial clubs and the personal trainers.

I suspect you do too.

I’ll share mine soon enough – but tell me yours first.
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Some people prefer to run their businesses far away from their customers or clients.

They opt for as little contact with others as they can get away with.

While I understand that some people prefer their privacy, I have always felt like relationships were at the core of the best businesses.

And relationships are my favorite part of our businesses.

I prefer live meetings over phone calls.

I prefer phone calls over email.

That’s just me.

But even as much as I treasure relationships, I’m far from perfect when it comes from cultivating the ones I have and building new ones.

But I do make a sincere effort and I look for ways to keep improving at it.

Here’s a strategy I think will benefit you as you build your network – give everyone in your phonebook an A, B, C, D, or F.

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Predictions are popular this time of year.  I’ve given mine the past few years and most other people with a blog do the same. I think you’ll be interested in where I think the fitness industry is headed and what that means to you. Bottom line – there will be changes and those who are on the front end of them will be the ones to reap the rewards, so here’s what I think you can expect:

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Yesterday we generated 48 new leads for our health club without any expensive newspaper or radio ads, without a member appreciation event or even a referral contest.

We got 48 new leads for around 8 T-Shirts. (Might have been 9…I’m not sure.)

But let me back up a second.

About a week ago I was talking with our Club Manager, Lisa (who is awesome, I might add), and we were trying to decide the best approach to ask our current members for referrals.

We run a variety of referral systems, all with success, but the most effective is when we simply ask our new members to give us the names of friends and family members we can offer a free trial to. So we decided to try to do the same with existing members, but we needed a ‘hook’ to get them to give us the names.

Enter the T-Shirts.

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Everyone is always complaining about what is wrong with the fitness industry but what about everything that is right with the fitness industry?

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