Imagine you just opened a new business and you are the only employee. The business currently has no cash, no income and NO CUSTOMERS! What would you do? Where would you begin? How would you pay the bills? How would you survive? As a sales person, you do own your own business. You are the owner, CEO, and most importantly, the prospecting manager for your business. Too often we rely on the health club to provide our potential customers. Walk-ins, info calls, marketing and advertising are nice, and even needed to get future customers. However, the most successful sales people are the ones who can create their own leads through referrals and prospecting. Yet, it’s the most common activity to get shoved aside when your day gets busy and you have distractions. Here are four steps to help you plan for success and a list of daily prospecting activities. You should always HAVE FUN when you prospect. Remember, your community needs you because you can have a tremendous impact on their lives.
1. Set a Plan for the Day to ensure that you are working on the most important activities. This should take about five to 10 minutes. Before turning on your computer, sit down with a blank piece of paper and decide what will make this day highly successful. What can you realistically accomplish that will allow you to further your goals and allow you to leave at the end of the day feeling successful? Write them down!
2. Then, plan the day, taking those items and scheduling them into time slots in your planner. Always put the most important things at the beginning of the day.
3. Recommit one minute of every hour. Set your watch or computer to ring every hour. When it does, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively. Recommit to how you are going to use the next hour. Manage the day hour by hour for best results.
4. Review the day in the last five minutes. Shut off the computer and review your day. What worked? Where did you lose focus? What did you learn that will allow you to be more productive tomorrow?
A typical day of calls for prospecting:
- Call 15 missed guests
- 15 referral calls from Point Of Sale referrals
- Call 15 no shows (info calls and web leads that never showed)
- Contact 10 current members: ask for conversions and family add-ons
- Make 3 corporate calls
- To current corporations
- Seeking a new corporate partner
- Make 15 lead box calls
- Walk the exercise floor
- Let your members see you
- Help those that need help
- Engage in their interests and results
- Member calls: all should start with WIIFT (what’s in it for them)
- First focus on their usage, fitness goals, results or what is happening at the club
- Ask for testimonials if appropriate
- Ask for referrals
Shawn Stewart is the Operations Manager at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center. Contact him at shawns@ghfc.com
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
