Integrity has always been extremely important to me. In sales, I have always struggled with my feelings on clubs discounting their dues on a weekly or monthly basis. One week the membership is $59.00 a month, and the next week it’s $39.00 per month. I could never understand how employees of these clubs could look members in the eye every day. How would you feel if the person on the same exercise bike next to you had the same membership but was paying $20.00 less for the same services? I am sure that would not sit well with you, and I know it does not sit well with me.
Clubs have a right to market and create sales. I personally believe it’s better to give away time and services, but to not touch price. I think it’s okay to reduce an initiation fee, but not to touch the monthly dues. I think it’s okay to offer things like personal training, free tanning, two months free and no enrollment, because after the initial reward is given or accepted, the monthly dues remain the same, and every member is on even par.
I am not sure I stand in the majority on this matter, but I am telling you I can sleep well knowing that I am treating every member equally. I know that I can look each person in the eye and know that each of them is paying the same price for monthly use of the club. I have stuck to my guns throughout the years on this, and we believe that this philosophy has served us well.
There are many ways to create excitement and even using ridiculous one-day offers is okay, but utilize everything except the monthly bill. Soon summer will be here, and you may decide to have a built up one-day offer. It may look like this — “join today only and you will get the summer free.”
This type of offer works great on a long-term commitment. The member pays an initiation fee, gets a few months of no payment, but is still committed to a term after the free offer. Doing this on a one-day basis will allow you to clean up all prospects on the books. We all have to market and we have to do it continuously, but we want an approach that is consistent and serves the community within the culture of your club. You don’t want to be known as a club that gives away memberships or as a discount center. You want people to know that your club stands for value.
Remember, regardless of your price structure or your marketing efforts, you want to always sell on the benefits of exercise. You want to put people in a position that they can see and feel what they would look like in 90 days. You want to give people a plan of action and you want to develop relationships by following up and being a constant resource. Selling fitness is not about the discount or the deal of the day, it’s about having passion for quality of life. It’s about expressing how great life is when we take care of our bodies. So stay true to your core values, make fitness the reason for the visit and don’t ever make it about money. Selling based upon price is for amateurs, selling based upon value is for professionals.
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs. He can be reached at chall@bigvanilla.com.
