Implementing a marketing plan with initiatives covering both print and digital is essential for any type of fitness center. Those type of mediums will cost you money, but there is an old school, and now rarely-used method, of marketing that doesn’t cost you anything: cold calling. Well, it will take up some time, albeit not much, and while time is money, most of you know that most membership salespeople have plenty of down time every day. I’m talking about cold calling. Smiling and dialing. Good old-fashioned telemarketing.
There are two ways you can attack cold calling. One is to call folks from the telephone book. The other is to call businesses.
I recommend going with the business-to-business approach. It is more effective and more fun.
Goal: To increase appointments to tour.
Expectations: It’s telemarketing, so it is a numbers game. If it was easy and super effective, everybody would do it. Expect about five to 10 new tours for every 100 dials.
Staff requirements: I recommend that each salesperson make 10 dials per day. This amount will depend on how many salespeople, hours worked and size of town and business list. But 10 dials per day is not a lot, and won’t take much time. The key is consistency. Ten dials per day is 50 per week, and around 200 per month. That could equal 10 to 20 more tours per month and five to 10 more sales.
What to say: Okay, here is where the rubber meets the road. You have your list, you have a quiet room, you have your pen and appointment book handy, and now you just need to pick up the telephone and dial that first number.
“Anderson graphics, this is Julie, how may I help you?”
“Hi, Julie, this is Dalton with Awesome Blossom Fitness. How are you today?”
“I’m good thanks. How can I help you?”
“Julie, I only need a couple seconds of your time. We are selecting a few businesses today in town and offering 10-day memberships, for FREE, to all employees of these businesses. Are you and anybody else interested?”
“Um, maybe. I would have to ask around.”
“No problem. Julie, our phone number is 612-310-1319 (that’s my number, text me ‘script’ and your email address and I will get you a script for calling folks from the phone book). If you or anybody is interested, please pass on that spots are limited and all they need to do to secure a free 10-day membership is to call back today or tomorrow. They don’t have to make it in today, only call so they can take advantage of it in the next week or so.”
“Okay, I will let everybody know.”
“Awesome, thanks Julie. My name is Dalton, and we at Awesome Blossom Fitness hope to hear back from you guys at Anderson graphics. Oh, and Julie, I will call back tomorrow to follow up, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Have a great day, Julie. Bye.”
“Bye.”
That’s a good example for you to get started. The key is action. It is more about doing than thinking.
Call businesses, offer a free 10-day membership, or for training gyms, a free coaching session, be positive, enthusiastic, and excited, and you will make more sales.
Keep changing lives.
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Jason Linse is president and founder of The Business of Fitness, a consulting company. He also owns a personality assessment company called People Plus+ Fitness. Contact him at jason@jasonlinse.com or 612-310-1319 for resources on scheduling more tours and personality assessments, or visit www.jasonlinse.com.
Cold calling seems like a good thing for employees to do when they are sitting around waiting for calls to come in. Call centers are the perfect place to do cold calling to find more potential customers. The idea of calling a business and offering free passes to your business or discounted products is a great idea and a great way to be able to find new customers.