Expectation of success usually starts with sales expectations. Every club has a profit plan and the centerpiece of that profit plan is number of sales for the year. When a member joins your facility they commit to monthly dues. If you took all of your members and divided them into your EFT dues, you would get average dues per member. What is your club’s average membership dues? Do you know? Make sure you find out after reading this blog about growth and sales.
After a person becomes a member they will continue to spend money in other areas of the club. They may purchase coffee or smoothies in the café; they may buy swim lessons or personal training; they may put their children in day camps or sports programs. Now you need to divide the number of members into the total revenue, and you will see the average spending per member, per month. Now you can subtract non-dues revenue and divide by number of members, and you will see average non-dues per member, per month.
You need to focus on growing revenue in non-sales categories. You need to treat each department as a business. Make sure each department has its own profit and loss statement. You have to create incentives for each department head and inspect what you expect on a daily basis. Create stretch goals for you department heads and make sure they understand what profit is. Now that we have started the process of developing some revenue goals, here are a few quick tips.
Make sure the marketing team and sales team work together. Create offers that inspire others to call and come into your club. Make sure each department head is aware of number of sales daily. We have to bridge the new member into each of these departments. We want each new member to be exposed to other club departments and programs immediately. So let’s talk about how.
Create a form to be given out at the point of sale. This form will ask; what are your current interests? Or, what are the types of things that you may be interested in? Make it a quick checklist and make it easy for a member to respond by simply checking a box. Have your sales people enthusiastically explain the interest sheet and how valuable it is to allow new members to get quickly acclimated to the club. Explain that by getting this interest directly to department heads, that an e-mail will be coming explaining the departments’ programs with schedules.
Within 24 hours your new member is receiving information about their personal interests. They will love the great customer service. The departments will get to meet the interested prospect almost immediately. The time gap between new member and club activities will be reduced and revenue from a new member will grow. Your club does have limited growth, but I would suspect that most clubs are nowhere near reaching maximum returns on each new membership. If you make this a focus you will discover your non-dues revenue growing without a whole lot of effort being utilized from the sales team or department head. Getting people together in a timely manner will create powerful results.
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
