Most gyms offer some sort of discount for veterans and other service personal, such as 10 percent off for military folks, police officers and firefighters. If you don’t, you should.
But that’s where your discounts should stop. When it comes to businesses in your town, I never recommend offering a discount on monthly dues. Why not? Well, I don’t want you to devalue your membership.
The freedom fighter discount is different and all people in your community understand and appreciate you offering that discount. But just because you work for Acme Electric, that doesn’t mean you should get a discount. And please don’t get into the game of, “If you get 10 people to join, the price is discounted to X amount.”
Use your enrollment fee as leverage instead: This is both a discount, but more importantly, if the employee or new member quits, retires or gets let go, you don’t have to worry about changing monthly dues. Email me at jason@jasonlinse.com with “enrollment fee” in the subject line and I will get you back important information on what you should be charging.
“We keep our monthly dues consistent, but would love to provide FREE enrollment to your employees, a savings of $49. All we ask is that you send out one email blast every three months, and let us come onsite twice per year and bring everybody lunch.”
Okay, here is how it works:
- Set a goal for how many onsite visits you want. I recommend a goal of one onsite per week for big markets and one per month for smaller towns.
- Talk to the owner of the closest Subway restaurant. He or she should be willing to sell you basic foot-long sandwiches for $4.00 to $5.00. Don’t do party subs. Get the footers and ask them to cut them into fourths.
- Get a list of companies. Start with the organizations that have 50 to 150 employees.
- Call and ask for the person who handles “employee health programs.”
- “Hi, my name is Jason. I am with Awesome Blossom Fitness. We would like to talk to you about discounts on membership for your employees. Also, we would like to come over sometime soon and bring lunch for everybody. Can I take up to 15 minutes of your time in person to show you what I am talking about?” Your goal is to get face to face for a few minutes. This is when you can explain the free enrollment and how the lunch day will work.
- Bring one foot-long sandwich for every three to four people. For example, if the company has 100 employees, you will be bringing 25 to 30 sandwiches at a cost of around $150.
When you show up, try to do an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., over lunchtime frame. Ideally, you will have one salesperson and one coach present. You need a fish bowl for a free membership drawing, some 3 inch by 5 inch passes, and yes, bring paper contracts.
While your end goal is to sell these employees memberships, your first goal is lead generation. In order to maximize leads, and therefore sales, you need to do the following:
— Have high energy people who will take the initiative to engage the company’s employees in conversation, making sure to say to everyone, “Hey be sure to fill out a slip because we are drawing one name for a free three-month membership.”
— Don’t, I repeat, don’t stand behind your table. Stand in front and interact with as many people as possible.
Companies will almost always say yes if you are bringing food. And for $100 in sandwiches and a couple of hours of time, you should have no problem getting 20 new leads (from a company of 100) and converting three to five to new members.
Keep changing lives.
