Q: Recently we have had several competitor facilities open in our area. Do you have any advice on how we can differentiate ourselves? – Ty and Cindi Fickers, Owners of Body Concepts in Largo, Fla.
A: Having competition move in is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it means your facility is in a prime location and also because with all the new competition, more people are going to be reminded to rethink their health and fitness goals. And, of course you already know why it’s considered a curse.
Here are a few ideas to help set you apart:
Establish a new Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Simply stated, you need to determine what you offer that your competition does not. Then, you need to tell the entire world about it. You can differentiate yourself in a number of ways.
Personal Training, Group Training, Bootcamps
You absolutely must offer more than just a membership at your health club. In fact, membership dues should make up no more than 70 percent of your club’s total revenue. It has been shown that your members who pay more for other programming have lower attrition rates than those that only invest in the monthly membership.
Personal training is the obvious profit center to implement or improve at your club, but there are many others as well. You can implement group personal training, leveraging your trainer’s time and reducing the overall cost for your members. Now, bootcamps are being considered the ultimate leveraged profit center, as a single trainer can train a larger class, while your campers enjoy cheaper per-session prices.
Weight Loss Programs
Nearly all of your members include as part of their overall fitness goals, the goal of losing weight. Some are just a few pounds away from where they want to be, whereas others have tens or hundreds of pounds to lose. Selling them a membership and sending them to direct themselves almost always leads to a disappointing outcome. This creates a perfect opportunity for you to offer an organized weight-loss program and also a perfect segue to sell more nutritional supplements.
Upsells and downsells
No matter what additional programming or membership options you offer, remember that just because someone isn’t interested in the program you initially present, there is likely something you can offer that would interest them.
If a member cannot afford personal training, be prepared to present your bootcamp program. If they don’t care for the commitment of a bootcamp, be prepared to offer your coaching program. If they invest in a large personal training package, you can offer a nutritional supplement upsell or quarterly personal training checkups, or a once-per-week bootcamp to help mix up their workouts. If someone buys something, they will typically buy something else. If someone says no to one offer, it simply means you didn’t offer them something interesting.
Offer a guarantee
Joining a health club for the first time can be a nervous experience for many people. Even those who have been a member elsewhere, may have had an unfulfilling experience and are skeptical. Offering a guarantee gives your prospect the confidence that you care about their results and that you stand behind your product.
You can offer a conditional guaranteed (member must work out X times per month), an unconditional guarantee, a money back guarantee or any other combination. The point is, by offering any type of guarantee your prospect will have more confidence to invest in your health club. In nearly all cases, the benefit of offering a guarantee outweighs the risk of abuse of this system. This is due to the fact that far more people will sign up because of the guarantee than the number of members taking advantage of the guarantee.
Whatever you decide to offer, your first step is to determine what will differentiate you from your competitor. Then implement that program and make it a core part of your overall mission statement. Stay ahead of your competition by offering services they don’t, and you will compete more successfully. -CS
