As a club owner or personal training manager it is of up-most importance you teach the fitness professionals who make up your personal training staff the skills necessary to increase revenues. Many fitness professionals have a heck of a hard time even saying the word sales. And if your trainers can’t sell you can say goodbye to the serious dollars that personal training brings in.
A great deal, myself included, are not sales people by nature. It’s our instinct to help people, not sell people. But closing sales isn’t nearly as difficult as we often make it out to be. Using the following tips will make the process as simple, and painless, as possible.
1. Ask your prospect if they are committed to obtaining the results they seek. If they are, then ask them about the consequences of their failure to follow through on that commitment. There’s no better way to get your prospect emotional than this.
2. Talk about money only after you have established what those consequences are. It will be much easier to close your sale and deal with any possible objections they may have.
3. Create a list of what your prospect wants help with by asking them. Only add things to the list your prospect thinks they need help with. People buy for their reasons not yours, so you will sell them what they want and give them what they need after they have hired you.
4. Reassure your prospect you can help them with everything on their list just before you talk about money. Then remind them of what they told you would be the consequences of their failure to take action. It will make them even more emotional and help you close your sale very easily.
5. Ask your prospect if they are 100% certain they are willing to do the work to become a “walking billboard” for you and your services. Successful clients are your best form of advertising. Emphasizing to your prospect you won’t accept their money if you don’t believe they are capable of doing so will make them more than eager to prove they can and will.
6. Emphasize everything your prospect has stated they want when telling them how much they will need to invest. If a prospect feels they are paying extra for things, such as “value-added” features, they do not want they may start haggling over the price. At the moment they only need to think they are paying for what they asked for when they made their list.
7. Remind yourself that selling your services is easy when you remember people buy for emotional reasons, not logical ones. Because your prospect is now thinking emotionally it will be much easier to close your sale.
8. Advise your prospect how much time and money they will need to invest in your solution to their problem. Presenting a variety of packages for your prospect to choose from abdicates your expertise and makes it seem as if you have no idea what is best for them. You are the fitness expert so you need to decide for them.
9. Explain the solution as an “investment” as opposed to a “cost.” The word investment helps validate the purchase in your prospect’s mind as being a wise decision which will yield a positive return.
10. Discuss less expensive options only if your prospect simply cannot afford the solution you are recommending. Remember, you are not proposing the most expensive option because it will benefit you the most. Only do so if it will benefit the prospect the most.
11. Handle any objections your prospect might have by repeating their own words back to them. Remind them of the emotional reasons they want to achieve their stated goals and the consequences of their failure to take action.
12. Reassure your prospect you can help them with everything on their list. So long as there is nothing else they want to add to it, now is the time to talk about money.
13. Accept their payment before going any further with your sales appointment. Remember, it is only a sale until you have the money in your hand.
Jim Labadie is a fitness entrepreneur, sales expert and speaker. You can download a FREE copy of his new e-book “63 Must-Have Sales Tips for Personal Trainers” at: http://www.ptsalestips.com.
