One of the last steps in giving a gym tour is to sit down and present the membership options. This is a seemingly easy step, but if not done correctly, can mess up a sale.
Before you get to the table, make sure you follow the first three steps correctly.
Step one: Meet and greet. This is the critical first part of the tour. Shake hands, introduce yourself, capture their name, explain what will happen over the next few minutes and get permission from them to do it.
“Hi, I’m Jason, and you are?”
“I’m Heather.”
“Hi Heather. Nice to meet you. How can I help you?”
“Umm … I just came by to check out the gym.”
“Great. Well, Heather, first I would like to sit down and learn about what you are looking for in a fitness center. That will take only a few minutes. Then we will take a tour, and I will show you all of our amenities, focusing on what you are most interested in. After the tour, if you are still interested, we will sit down and go over membership options. How does that sound?”
“That sounds good.”
Step two: Qualifying. This is when you ask a lot of open-ended questions, making sure to hit the three big ones: “What are your fitness goals?” “Why are those goals important to you?” and “How are you planning to reach those goals?”
The first question allows you to help steer the tour to what the prospect is most interested in. It could be weight loss, endurance, or strength training. Or something else. The second question helps you get the prospect to open up about the real reason that they are standing in front of you. The third question allows you to get a better understanding of their knowledge of what it will take to reach their goals.
Step three: Build value. While walking around, focus on the benefits to all of your features. Are you 24 hours? If so, don’t just simply say, “And we’re open 24 hours.” Say, “We are open 24 hours so you can workout on your schedule and not have to worry about the gym closing.”
Step four: Price presentation. Be sure to wait until the tour is complete before you discuss prices. The presentation of membership options should be done sitting down, not in an office with a closed door, but in the open sitting adjacent to the prospect. The price sheets should be neatly printed. Do not write the prices on a blank sheet of paper.
For each membership option (single, joint, family, etc.) have a separate sheet.
It is very important to not change demeanors or personalities from the tour to the table. You will make more sales if you take a breath, and slow down the process.
“Heather, let’s have a seat and I will show you our membership options.”
“Okay.”
“Heather, you told me that this membership is just for you, correct?”
“Yes, just me.”
“Great, (flip to the single membership page) we have two options for single, simple access memberships. We have a no commitment option. It is only $49 per month with a one-time enrollment fee of $49. You pay monthly and can cancel anytime with a 30-day notice. The other option, which is our most popular membership, is only $39 per month with a one-time enrollment fee of $49. The discount is for agreeing to a 12-month commitment. Heather, which one of these memberships is best for you?”
“Um, I think I like the 12 month for $39.”
“Great, would you like to join today?”
“Yes.”
Practice makes perfect, so role play the price presentation often as it only takes a few minutes.
Keep changing lives.
Perfect!
Let me just add that maybe there are a few potential clients that might not want to seat for a negotiation and the salespeople should also be able to deal with them!
Good morning Leo,
There will always be “one offs” such as future members that won’t sit sp we can better explain the option best suited for their fitness goals but in my 15+ years of using this formula 98% go thru this with little to no hassle.
The biggest challenge in our business in 2015 is most sales reps don’t run this play unfortunately so we haven’t even gotten to “overcoming objections”