Over the many years that I have been involved in the health promotion profession, I have had the good fortune of being in settings where I have the opportunity to meet and talk with a very large number of health promotion professionals. The variety of those settings include university classrooms, major conferences, trade shows, speaking and consulting engagements, as well as one-on-one working relationships with clients in many parts of the world in the process of advancing high quality health promotion and weight management products and programs. Further, the diversity of those settings has led to discussions with a variety of wellseasoned health club owners or managers, personal trainers, dieticians, corporate wellness professionals, physicians and, of course, many students who are in their early stages of pursuing careers in the health and fitness industry. However, regardless of where or who they are, (geographically or professionally), there seems to be almost 100 percent unanimity in the response I get from these individuals when I ask them the following basic question -“What do your members (or prospective members) tell you when you ask them, ‘Why do you want to join a fitness club?'” And, the answer is? You know it, and it comes in one of two forms. They either say, “I want to lose weight and tone up,” or “I want to tone up and lose weight.” And, while we surely know there are many other valid reasons for joining a health and fitness facility, many of the membership sales systems that are in place in most facilities are designed to “close” a sale based on that response coming from a prospective member.
Knowing that, I often ask a followup question – “Okay, now that your members (prospective, new, or old) have just told you what they want, please tell me what you are offering to specifically respond to each of those requests.” The answers to this question almost always elicit a detailed description of the kinds of strength equipment and specific exercise programs that are offered in a facility, and in some cases, the boosting of a staff member’s credentials as an award-winning exercise instructor. In some cases, I have even learned how much money was spent on the most recent renovation or extension of the existing facility. However, while I usually find all of these kinds of things interesting, I am continually amazed at the lack of precise information in those responses with respect to specifically addressing the members explicitly stated desire to “lose weight.” In spite of the fact that your members (prospective, new, or old) will tell you, or have told you, that they want to “lose weight,” the reality is that most programs (and, with that, facilities, staff, and equipment), are designed to deal with the “tone up” part of the members’ stated desires. And, as a result, most of a club’s after-sales services are designed to effectively deal with only one aspect of the members’ requests. Stated differently, in most cases, over 90 percent of a facility’s design, operational focus, and costs only serve, at best, 50 percent of the specifically requested needs and wants of the members!! And, then we wonder why the industry has a problem with retention!
Sure, there is a link between the strength and aerobic equipment in a facility and a member losing weight, but without a systematic, safe, highly personalized, and well- designed dietary program, that “link” is at best marginal. For it is well established that it is very difficult to lose weight by exercise alone and that the very best approach to weight management (losing, maintaining, or gaining) is to combine sound nutrition with safe exercise (with a particular emphasis on strength training).
You may want to ask yourself these same basic questions. And, you may be surprised at your answers. The good news is that if you are looking for a way to respond to the “other half” of your members’ requests, there are a few options to choose from. However, in determining the program to offer your members, make sure the program you choose is reputable (adheres to high quality professional standards), safe, proven (valid pre-post data) and highly customizable to each member’s personal likes and needs. And, one small last point to help in the process – while such programs can be very beneficial for your members, they can also be very profitable for you!
Robert C. Karch, Ed.D. is the Chairman of Biometrics Nutrition & Fitness. He can be contacted at 866.246.1922, or by email at bob@biometricshealth.com.
