Online Leads: How to Quickly Qualify

Online leads have become the bread and butter of the fitness industry, and with the help of SEO and CRM companies, our leads have become plentiful.

At the Newtown Athletic Club, we use two outside resources to manage and earn leads: The first is SEO to drive people to our websites; and the second is HubSpot, to track lead interests and direction to the “activate your three-day trial” form. Asking the right questions on the landing page can help your sales team to quickly qualify (QQ) your leads.

We require the prospect to fill out six fields: name, email, phone number, age, zip code, and answer the question, “How did you hear about us?” The first three questions are basic, but it is the latter three that help paint the picture and get closer to QQ.

First, a zip code can be revealing and help uncover how far the prospect lives from the club. This information is important in single-location facilities like ours, and can affect the likelihood of the join. Local zip codes are “hot leads.” For the out-of-area zip codes, we alter the conversation to make residency one of our first matters of discussion. “Are you relocating or visiting?”

The prospect’s age is key, as our pricing is age based. Knowing this in advance can help navigate the content of the initial conversation, allowing us to customize our presentation to that age demographic.

When asking, “How did you hear about us?” the lead is prompted to choose from one of several options: Former member, NAC member and Google/search. By choosing “former member” we can see past information and approach the initial call with a “welcome back” intention. Choosing “NAC member” suggests a member referral and is easiest to QQ. These conversations are more relaxed, ending with the highest rate of booking a tour.

Our goal is to pre-qualify prospects within a few short minutes. All potential leads are viable, but we utilize the given data to maximize our efforts. Having this information in advance helps us “read between the lines” and QQ.

Denise Watkins is the membership director of Newtown Athletic Club. Email her at dwatkins@newtownathletic.com.