A few months ago I had a chance to meet with an executive roundtable featuring owners of the top health clubs and chains from around the world. While the discussions were fascinating and the ideas great, it reminded me of the first IHRSA conference I attended 14 years ago.
The challenge then was, “How to increase retention rates, how to increase market penetration and how to get more people to refer.” The discussions last week remained the same. In the 16 years I’ve been in the industry, no one has seemed to conquer these challenges. We have tried numerous activities only to produce minimal changes. Yet, as an industry we keep trying the same recycled ideas and expecting different results.
A few days after the meeting I was watching a show about Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. That’s when I thought to myself, “What would Steve Jobs do if he ran a health club?” Would Steve Jobs be satisfied with tiny, incremental changes in the numbers that define our industry the most?
Joe Cirulli, the owner of Gainesville Health and Fitness Centers, when asked what his retention goal was, responded “100 percent.” When his peers laughed and said what is it really, his reply was, “100 percent! We just haven’t figured out how to keep people from moving out of Gainesville.”
That way of thinking is what will get the health club industry out of the middle ages and into the age of Apple. Average market penetration is about 14 percent. We need to ask the question, “How do we get the other 86 percent?” Pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV and you will clearly see the need for fitness. In a recent poll, 94 percent of people said they could benefit from exercise, yet we only get 14 percent.
So, how do we think like Steve Jobs? How do we create systems that challenge the status quo? How do we create systems that exponentially improve the way we do business like Steve Jobs exponentially improved phones, computers and MP3 players over the last 10 years?
Simon Sinek, a marketing consultant most known for devising “The Golden Circle,” said, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” If you don’t know why you do what you do and people respond to why you do what you do, how do you create loyalty and want to be a part of what you do?
It begins with having the right people in your company. The goal is not to hire people who need a job; it is to hire people who believe what you believe. If you hire people because they can do the job, they will work for your money. If you hire people who believe what you believe, they will work with blood, sweat and tears to get the job done.
Is your hiring system designed to find great people who share the same core values as your company and believe in your mission? What kind of results are you getting asking the same questions and hearing the same rehearsed responses? Hiring can be a guessing game at best. Having a hiring system centered on your core values and by retrieving as much information as possible on applicants, you can ensure that you get the right people working in your club.
