Consider that everything that happens regarding your club’s sales, happens because of a conversation. Put another way, have you ever had a potential customer walk into your club, greet everyone, fill out a questionnaire, give themselves a tour, consider how the benefits of your club support their exercise goals, fill out a contract, swipe their own credit card, and file the paperwork neatly in your back office? Probably not!
Somewhere during the sales process there must be a conversation between the customer and your staff to generate a sale. So your club’s ability to generate sales, or your sales capacity, is directly proportional to how well you manage your sales conversations. While training people to be highly effective at selling fitness, I focus a great deal of attention on each participant’s ability to increase their personal sales capacity by dividing their time and presentation structure into three categories:
1. Types of conversations
2. Quantity of conversations
3. Quality of conversations.
1. Types of Conversations
Most clubs have the same types of sales conversations: new membership, renewal membership, new and renewing personal training, and referrals. It is vital to understand that each of these conversations is distinct and must be handled differently. New members, who have no history with the club, require a different sales conversation than renewing members who may need to have the value of their exercise program re-addressed from a concern that has developed over the course of their membership. People who have already achieved great results with a trainer will require a different sales conversation to renew their package (i.e. cost may become prohibitive over long periods), than someone who has never purchased personal training.
2. Quantity of Conversations
Once the types of conversations for your club have been distinguished, it is important to determine how many sales conversations are required in each category to reach your club’s revenue target. A reasonable goal can be set by quickly analyzing the number of conversations you are currently having against the revenue you are producing and factoring in the new number for your sales goals. For instance, if your goal is to sell 40 new memberships for the month, and your closing percentage is 67%, you will need to have 60 closing conversations to reach your goal. Furthermore, if only one out of every two people who visit your club on a trial membership actually reach the point of a closing conversation, then your staff will need to have a total of 120 new membership conversations to hit their monthly target of 40 new sales (or about 4 per day).
3. Quality of Conversations
Once your club’s sales conversation types are distinguished and you are sure how many conversations you need to have in each area to hit your goal, managing how well your staff delivers their presentation for each of the conversation types is where your club’s sales capacity can increase exponentially. This is most often achieved through diligent practice and repetition. Using the example above, for a club whose closing percentage is 67%, increasing a salesperson’s effectiveness at closing conversations could lead to a 70% closing ratio. Additionally, increasing your staff’s ability to create more trial memberships, causing a decrease in the total number of conversations needed to generate 60 closing opportunities from 120 down to 105, can affect your revenue drastically when combined with a 3% closing ratio increase.
Take the following steps to increase your club’s sales capacity right away:
1. Distinguish all of the types of sales conversations that are possible in your club. I’ve already mentioned a few, but you may have others (massage, juice bar, etc.).
2. On paper, write down the number of sales you expect to have over a given time period, then work backwards. If you need 40 sales in an area, then you may need 60 closing conversations. If you need 60 closing conversations, then you may need to talk to 120 people.
3. Review the sales presentation your staff is using for each conversation type. Are they trying to sell renewals the same way they sell personal training? Do they ask for referrals far too long after a member has joined?
4. Experiment and try something new every now and then. Every club’s clientele is different, but over time you will probably find new things that are more effective than what you are currently doing. You’ll be surprised!
Chris Mikulka is the President of Sellfitness.com. He can be contacted at 866.864.4572, or by email at chris@sellfitness.com, or visit www.sellfitness.com
