Fitness Business Client Getting Hierarchy

 

Fitness Business Priorities. A Post By pat Rigsby

 

If you want to generate clients for your fitness 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 for your fitness business Activities to get you started.

Level One Activities – If you need new clients TODAY, these should be the focal point of your marketing efforts.

• Talking to members of your network face to face
• Doing public speaking
• Meeting new people through networking events and personal networking activities
• Visiting local businesses and marketing to employees or creating JV’s
• Asking for referrals

As you probably noticed, these all involve face-to-face contact.

Level Two Activities – These activities are almost as effective as Level One Activities, however they are a little less effective as nothing is as powerful as ‘Belly to Belly’ marketing.

• Personally calling members of your network
• Making business – to – business calls
• Sending press releases to the local media
• Personally E-mailing members of your network
• Asking for referrals via mailings to your clients
• Doing reactivation calls

Why are these not as effective as Level One activities? First off, a significant percentage of the time phone calls end up as voicemails and messages and emails get lost in the volume of other calls and emails the recipient receives.  Secondly – it’s much harder to say ‘no’ in person.

Level Three Activities – These activities are valuable, but often take a while to pay off or need to be done in volume to yield big results. However, once they hit critical mass they can drive a business.

• Submitting SEO Press Releases
• Submitting articles
• Blogging
• Doing direct mailings to your network
• Sending an email newsletter
• Doing reactivation mailings
• Lead Bowls or Boxes
• Craigslist ads
• Facebook Groups & Fan Pages
• Door hangers

These are all great activities that are low cost and potentially can have a huge impact on your fitness business, but if you’re running a bootcamp with 5 campers and are looking to reach 25 campers within the next 30 days – it’s unlikely that these activities will get you there.

If you can outsource these and ramp them up fast that will almost always be the best approach you can take because you can focus on Levels 1 & 2 but not miss out on the benefits of Level 3.

Level Four Activities – Only do these activities after you’ve really worked the first three levels.

• Newspaper ads
• Radio ads
• Direct mail to cold lists
• Billboards
• TV ads

These can be effective – in fact we’ve used them all for our businesses at one time or another, but they’re expensive and not going to provide you with your best ROI.

So are you getting the idea yet?

When we have coaching clients that aren’t generating enough new business, 98% of the time it’s because they’ve gotten comfortable working on Level Three activities and ignoring the Level One and Two activities.

Let me try to drive this home with an analogy for you:

If you needed someone to lend you $1000, which would you do:

A. Post a request on your blog?

B. Send someone an email to ask?

C. Send someone a letter to ask?

D. Call them and personally ask?

E. Visit them face to face and ask?

OK – that’s not a perfect analogy – but you get the picture.  The most powerful way to persuade someone is to do it ‘in person’ or as close to ‘in person’ as you possibly can.

So spend 30 minutes evaluating what percentage of your marketing time is spent on Level One and Level Two activities.  Then make an effort to increase it by at least 50%.  Then send me a testimonial telling me about all the new business you generated

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.

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