If you are managing trainers in the big box, corporate gym environment, you know the struggle: Gain ground selling training packages Monday through Thursday — lose ground Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And then the cycle starts all over again.
So how do you stop the vicious cycle? And how do you gain ground on the weekend?
The first step is staffing. You’re not going to get the sales results that you want if you get the sense that you’re the only one in the building on Sunday, the only one in the building after 10 a.m. on Saturday and the only one in the building after 3 p.m. on Friday.
The challenge is getting your trainers to show up without you mandating it or forcing them to be there. Why? Nothing good comes of forcing your trainers to stay. If they don’t want to be there, their energy will be lousy, so their interactions with members will be poor. If they’d rather be somewhere else and you put them in front of a member for a session, it won’t end in the acquisition of a new client. It will only annoy the trainer and give the member a sub-par experience.
You need to start with some “why behind the what” and while it will seem obvious, you’ll need to spell it out for your trainers.
We’re a retail business. For the most part that seems to be accepted, easy to see and understood. As a result, much like the mall, many clubs see their prime time after members get off of work. Your trainers understand that they’ll make the bulk of their money between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Not a whole lot of debate there.
But do you know when an even more convenient time for your members to workout is (and therefore the best time for trainers to acquire clients)? Saturday and Sunday. You should arguably, being in a retail business, be generating more new business on Saturdays and Sundays than you are Monday through Friday. So you need to help your trainers understand this. Any new trainer, inside three to six months, should be giving you blocks of availability on Saturday and Sunday. Any trainer not meeting expectations (yours or theirs) should be giving you blocks of availability on the weekend.
And you don’t need a trainer’s whole day. What you’re looking for is a solid three to four hours. They can get in, do real work and then go enjoy the rest of the day. If you stagger the trainer’s availability blocks you can end up with some good action and activity happening from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Weekends also present a different opportunity for you to schedule seminars, put on events and organize member challenges that many members wouldn’t be able to attend throughout the week.
Over the past three weekends here’s just a few of the seminars we’ve scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays: Kettlebells, TRX STC-Rip Trainer, Battle Ropes and Nutritional Seminars, as well as a member “Gym Challenge” testing strength and conditioning in a full-on competition. The members registered, received bibs and won trophies.
There’s just not enough floor space and room, let alone man power to execute these events during the week, but they are outstanding value adds that can be excellent ways for your trainers to interact with your members in an environment without undue sales pressure. In addition, the member isn’t rushed to either get to work or to get home to the family.
Put these concepts in play and your trainers will be excited to come to work on Saturday and Sunday because they’ll have something to do, and more importantly to them, you’ll be helping them showcase their skills. Your members will be excited to come to the gym on Saturday and Sunday because you’re giving them something out of the ordinary to get out of bed for.
The outcome you will find is an improved experience for the members, the trainers and for you — leading to increased opportunities for acquiring new clients on the weekends, eliminating the peaks and valleys and stabilizing your weekends.
Donnie Oliver is the director of fitness for UFC Gym in Torrance, California. He can be reached at donnie.oliver@ufcgym.com.
