Sometimes certain activities give great results, but eventually they get stale and fizzle out. You have to be continuously finding new avenues to reach people. Your club probably has a marketing department that runs specials each month based upon the yearly calendar. For example December will be holiday gifts, January will be New Year’s resolutions, and March will be St. Patrick’s Day, etc. Your marketing department’s efforts have nothing to do with your sales teams efforts. They are separate. So the answer to the question of how much is enough? There is never enough.
We never can guarantee results, we must continue to prospect, but a great idea is to go back and see what worked two years ago and bring it back. Often running an ad campaign too many times in a row will create stale results — the enthusiasm will be reduced and therefore your sales results will diminish. That does not mean you throw the idea away, it means you put it on the shelf and bring it back later on down the road. If it worked once, it will work again. Challenge yourself or the sales team to create a marketing calendar. Any effort in addition to the current company marketing effort should go above and beyond your club’s expectations. Often in expected down months the dual effort will keep expectations very high and your club will not miss a beat.
For example, we ran a campaign within our sales department. It had nothing to do with the marketing department. Our sales team targeted 12 different industries. We targeted realtors, teachers, banks and hair salons, etc. Each month we targeted one industry for the entire month. We went to every related company within that industry and gave each employee a free one-month pass. We gave out thousands of passes, and it resulted in many new memberships, but also enhanced our referral base over the next several months. The cool vibe from this was that the sales team created this effort. It was their baby, they had total buy in, and they made sure all details were covered. The effort combined with the marketing department kept sales volume high. We also enhanced each department within the club, because every new member is an opportunity for all other business within the club.
So have forward thinking on prospecting, but don’t be afraid to go back as well. I believe that sales reps should be working on at least 10 marketing things at once. There is nothing wrong with major activity, and there is nothing wrong with being tired at the end of a day. Keep thinking, keep working, keep having fun and I guarantee significant returns on your time and energy. Each day ask how many three-day passes? How many corporate letters? How many e-mails? How many referral presentations? How many community outreach contacts? The list can go on and on. Just stay busy, because there is no right answer, we simply have to do what we need to do to reach our goals.
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs.
