Action Steps To Improve Sales

It is never enough to tell a sales team or personal training manager to “improve sales” without knowing the areas in which they aren’t excelling. Sales of anything requires a “success formula” consisting of generating leads, turning them into qualified prospects, closing and hopefully turning new members into more leads.

An example of a success formula could be: 10 leads, used to get two qualified prospects, to get one sale. If the previous example is the norm, but it takes your salesperson 50 leads to get five qualified prospects to get one sale — everything is broken! Let’s discuss how to fix each aspect.

Generating Leads: Some responsibility for generating leads falls directly on the owner or manager of the fitness center. Are you spending money and time to ensure that quality ads (print, mailers, media, etc.) with a professional appearance and “call to action” are causing people to inquire? Does your club management software track, in detail, to show which ads or types of marketing are working?

As far as managing the team, there is plenty they can do to generate leads on their own. Are they networking (web, chamber meetings, in the facility) and servicing members to deserve referrals? Are they going after former members and e-mailing or calling them to get them back in? Are they providing feedback on which marketing sources are bringing in the most prospects?

Turning Leads into Qualified Prospects: A lead is just a name with contact information. The key is to turn it into a qualified prospect with what you are selling. Do you know the script that your sales staff is using on the phone? Are they being assumptive in setting up a presentation? Are they putting in the work (e-mailing/phone calls) necessary to schedule a tour?

A combination of effort and skilled communication is necessary to turn a lead into a prospect. Does your club management software have reporting to track the daily efforts and logs as to what transpired during the communication so coaching employees to improve their efforts is easier?

Closing the Qualified Prospects: Once a presentation is scheduled and the prospect shows, are your employees giving a quality presentation? Does your club management software track closing percentages? All sales presentations should minimally:
• Build rapport
• Find what the prospect’s goals are
• Find an emotional reason to purchase
• Pre-handle objections

Sit in on a presentation or have a “secret shopper” come in to see how employees are presenting. Are they finding common ground with the prospect? Are they using empathy? Are they building the value of the product (membership, personal training, swimming lessons, etc.) with testimonials and success stories?

Try to pre-handle objections such as no time, too much money, need to think about it, need to ask my wife, need to check out other gyms or personal trainers with pre-handling techniques. Are they asking questions to get as much detail about the client’s goals and emotional reasons to purchase so they can sell them on the emotion? For example, if someone wants to “lose 50 pounds” that isn’t as emotional as why they want to lose the 50 pounds.

Another way to improve sales is by making it easier for a prospect to purchase your product on their own through “online joining” and “online personal training purchasing” via your website.

It is imperative to find what aspects in the success formula are lacking, and then concentrate on improving those as well as looking into how technology can enhance your ability to sell. Without doing those steps, chances are sales will never improve regardless of how many times you say they must!

Len Bell is the assistant sales manager for Twin Oaks Software. he can be contacted by e-mail at lbell@TOSD.com, or visit www.TOSD.com.