Are You Checking Your Vital Signs?

The process of managing your sales department really comes down to a few basic categories. I have seen software that can measure every statistical number you can imagine. I suppose each category is helpful, but there are maybe three or four categories that you must check daily, and the results will guide you through how production is really going for the month.

1. How many guests are coming into the building?

If 20 guests came in on Monday, you clearly need to know how many sales were made from these prospects. You also could break down the demographics of your guests. What are their ages, where did they come from, how many were self-generated verses walk-ins or marketing? You could have a field day with statistics and I always want to know who we are attracting, where they are coming from and how they got here. At the end of the day, what I really want to know is how many guests came in and how many we signed up. So if I only had two minutes, and I was about to board an airplane, that would be my first question.

2. How many new appointments did we make?

I always think of sales and prospecting as a popcorn machine. If we put kernels in the machine and we turn up the heat, the kernels will pop. Let’s just think of appointments as the kernels, let’s think of phone calls and e-mails as the heat and let’s think of a new sale as the popcorn. It really is that simple — how many new appointments did we make today? If I know that each sales rep made five new appointments I know that my future days are set up well and no one is relying on walk-ins.

3. How many of my new members are coming from referrals?

When your club is being built on referral marketing, than I can assure you many good things are happening on a daily basis within your sales department. That means your sales team is building relationships, they are committing good customer service, they are following up with members, they are being a valid resource for all members’ needs. The simple rule has always been service begets obligation, meaning that if I do great things for you, you are more likely to reciprocate. Teach your sales team to build relationships, follow up and be available, and you will see your referral numbers increase dramatically. The biggest mistake young sales people make is simply not asking for the order, so teach everyone to ask for referrals.

If I called into the club and I know how many guests came in today, how many sales we made, how many new appointments we made and how many referrals were recorded, I could have a pretty good idea of how the whole day went for the entire club. And if the positive numbers keep showing up, it will be pretty easy to predict the future outcome of the next several weeks or several months. Don’t get confused by to many numbers, but master the basic ones.

Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs.