Often, in my sales training, I have heard seminar teachers talk about the art of closing, or selling at the end of the sales process. Closing means that you have overcome any objections at the end, convinced the prospect to make a decision on the spot, and signed the agreement. Each of these actions has a negative connotation.
However, I am not going to focus on the entire sales process. Just the first two minutes.
No matter how sophisticated software gets, nothing is better than the eye-to-eye, belly-to-belly contact of getting to know your member, seeing and hearing what they have to say, and assuring them that you can meet their needs.
When you meet your prospect, it should be done with a great “hello,” a super “welcome to the club,” and a strong professional handshake. It all sounds simple, right?
You would be amazed how often this doesn’t happen; I’ve seen it when I’m shopping for clubs.
Instead, look someone in the eye and say “hello,” welcome them to your facility and shake their hand. Work on a professional thumb-to-thumb handshake. Each of these details, if done poorly, sends a ringing message to the prospect. If any of these things is done incorrectly, the prospect is sitting there thinking that you didn’t say “hello” or welcome them, or shake their hand correctly, and are not listening to what you have to say.
Take five minutes and practice saying “hello,” a warm welcome, and giving a handshake. It will be time well-spent. After you master the first 10 seconds, you will be ready for the next 10: a magic question of interest.
And, that question is, “What brings you to the club?”
This will lead to several different answers, including “I drive by every day,” “I have friends here,” “I live in the neighborhood,” “I work across the street,” etc. The answer will tell you what to engage on.
In your answer, you can see a path of how the conversation will travel. The prospect’s answer can give you early buying signals; however, you still have to go through the entire enrollment process. You can’t cut corners, but as you can see, the first minute is crucial.
I believe that if the first minute is unprofessional, or the above steps aren’t followed, it won’t matter if you can close; you have already lost the prospect.
So, please stop looking for “closers” and start practicing your openings. I am going to write the entire sales process down into a series of blogs. I will break each part of the process down, so see you the next time!
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs. He can be reached at Chuck@bigvanilla.com.
