Far too often we confuse training and lecturing. It’s an easy mistake to make. It’s common for owners and managers to tell our sales team what its deficiencies are. We then continue to show the team the measurable proof that it is off, and then tell sales people what work is needed to improve their poor results. Often times, we will even include consequences for those that do not comply. We end the meeting by gaining commitment and everyone leaves on the same page and on a mission to make the necessary changes. Sounds like it should work, but far too often our team slips back into old routines and the problem is still there.
Telling Isn’t Selling
We teach our sales teams to not do all of the talking while on a tour, and to engage guests. We need to practice what we preach! When doing sales training there are four very important steps:
1. Tell your team what you are going to tell them
2. Tell them
3. Tell them what you told them
4. Role-play
Tell Them What You’re Going to Tell Them
I mentioned in my previous blog, “You’re Only As Strong as Your Weakest Link,” that your team members needs to be fully aware of where they stand and their deficiencies pointed out with pure data and fact-based points. If done correctly, there will be no emotion or defensiveness and only openness to solving their issues.
Tell Them
Break down the behaviors you are changing into steps. This will allow your sales team to retain the information, and this also assists you later when following up on execution. Make it a win, win, win. You must then connect the win for the sales person (what’s in it for me), win for the member, and the win for the club.
Tell Them What You Told Them
Before reviewing the information that was just discussed, have your sales staff give you their key takeaways and gain their commitments to the current changes.
Role-play
Your team has now been enlightened on its deficiencies through data and fact-based conversations; staff were educated on what needs to be implemented and clear on their next steps. Now the most important part in sales training is actually doing it. You are not sales training if you aren’t role-playing. Role-playing will allow your team to not only hear first hand how you want them delivering your message, but to also make sure that their first mistakes are with you and not with their next guest or lead.
Role-playing is a learned skill that can only be developed through repetition for both the sales person and the manager. Far too often I see managers interrupt several times throughout the role-play to give coaching and feedback. This throws off the sales person’s rhythm and doesn’t maximize the training. Wait for the role-play to finish before giving coaching, and always be sure to role-play yourself so your team can see how it should sound.
You’ll be amazed with all that can be solved with role-playing. Veterans and rookies alike equally gain value from this type of training. Anyone can give a presentation to an audience that is clueless as to what should be said, but only professionals can give a presentation to others who know exactly how it should sound. Get your team comfortable with role-playing and you’ll notice your sales results climb through the roof!
Ryan Junk is the director of sales for UFC Gym. He can be reached at ryan@ufcgym.com.
I am trying to find stats like per members in a club how many buy training. I am also interested in any other statistics like that that would apply to larger gyms. Is there a source to find information like this? I also just found your magazine. Very informative. Thanks!
12% of member should be buying PT… If your running a good program.
it is not my intention to outdo my welcome,but i wanted to comment on the topic of personal training in a membership based gym. You will generally not find,in a typical conversation about p/t,a talk that attempts to distinguish between a gym that trains clients by appointment only,and a gym that has a paying membership,but also offers p/t as an extra service,which can turn out to be a decent profit center. The million dollar question/consideration IS: does a gym owner/manager REALIZE that combining p/t services in the very same floorspace with those who are members exercising on their own, not paying for p/t…can create confusing,chaotic,uncomfortable,intrusive and disorganized situations. It is well known among experienced exercisers, that a vast majority of gyms,that have this “combined services” environment,try and fail, or encounter problems with continuity,when trying to run a gym smoothly;but these logistical issues go mostly ignored or unnoticed most of the time;and gym management becomes increasingly UNinterested in bringing meaningful fixes or improvements to the p/t process;i have personally witnessed a range of behavior that dramatically shortchanges the client,where the session becomes a social event (sometimes total inactivity),while including “exercise” movements that do little or nothing to help the client and even put them in danger.
So, to finish my point,its terrific to have some numbers that give a sense of what to shoot for in running a gym,but it may be a wiser consideration to have a deeper understanding of the specifics of a gym layout and machine flow and how to best serve all customers.
I think it is fair to say that it would be hard to find a single gym which combines services,that makes an adequate effort to address the issues I have raised. And this entire point makes reference to the difference between a gym run by business-centric people,vs a gym run by exercise science professionals- most of which have a very weak understanding of what is proven science and what is a gimmick.
thanks again…
scott
to be completely honest,im not real sure what the ultimate point of this article is; i think its a mostly rhetorical effort to get people who run fitness centers….to communicate.
This effort is all fine and good;the problem is…that the fitness industry is consumed by- and driven in its entirety,to let the almighty buck, navigate its exercise prescription and programming. The onslaught of NON science based modes of training,like core and functional training,TRX,ropes,the absurdity of p90x and basically all the other garbage out there- that has dramatically misled and mis-instructed most of the public- has turned the industry into a circus of incompetence. For every inch that the public is led away from the science and benefits of proper strength training,there is an inch of fraud and incompetence added to the industry. And the reason is simply that its very very difficult to sell (and explain) properly done hard work to people…. and why strength training far more beneficial than any other kind of training;so the industry jumped onto the “lets throw everything out the window if its not easy to sell” Bandwagon,….which puts us exactly where we are at…………..today.
This is written from Brazil.
thanks for listening…to the facts.
Scott CSCS,strength machine design engineer,consultant