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Hey,

Joshua here, and I have a very special post for you today.

See, I’m so busy helping health clubs nationwide with their marketing, that I have to hire outside help for marketing my own business! To do this, I looked no further than expert marketers Louisa (Lou) Levit and David Tendrich.

They are complete experts when it comes to making your website a profitable, client-grabbing machine. And they’ve agreed to share some of their secrets right here.

Make sure you read to the end for a special free offer from them (it’s really cool)…

So, without further interruption, here they are:

Hey there,

We’re Lou Levit and David Tendrich, and we’re here today to talk to you about 5 key things that make a website successful. And by successful we mean that it brings you clients day and night – even when you’re on vacation. Pretty cool, right?

*Note: the word ‘copy’ is used quite a bit throughout this article. If you’re not familiar with copywriting, here’s a definition for you: it’s the art of writing words that make people want to take action. So copy is what copywriters write.

So let’s get started…

1. Research

Knowing what to put on your website isn’t guesswork. It comes down to finding out what your customers want, and giving it to them.

Talk to your ideal customers (you know, the kind you want more of) and find out in their own words what they’re getting out of being a member, why they joined,  what problems they’ve resolves, and how this impacts various areas of their lives (work, personal, etc.). Also find out what objections or fears they had before joining.

Write down or record everything they tell you. These are gold mines. When you write copy for your site, include the most common points you’ve gathered from all the conversations and use the same phrases and terms your members used. It only makes sense that to get more people like your ideal customers you’d use the same language they use when they speak.

When you do your research, also pay attention to your clients’ personalities. Are they mostly girly girls? Athletes? Moms?  Ask them what colors they like, what kind of things appeal to them, etc. Copy and design for house moms, for example, will be very different from copy and design for male athletes. Take these things into consideration when deciding what your site will look like and what you say on it.

Remember – find out what your customers want, and give it to them.

2. Clear focus / message

A lot of sites fall short because they have so much going on. Keep it simple – decide on one clear goal for your site, and make sure every page you add contributes to that goal. For health clubs that goal is usually to get more customers.

Take, for example, the about page. Prospects don’t want to know that you’ve been in business for 30 years – they want to know what they will get out of that. They don’t want to know how many certifications you have – they want to know why that benefits them.

If you mainly offer one service, we’ve found that, especially for fitness professionals, long copy sales pages work significantly better than regular websites. If you’re not familiar with what a long copy sales page is, you can take a look at one here. Basically, they’re those long pages, without navigation, that keep you scrolling down until you reach an ‘add to cart’ button or sign up option at the bottom.

Now, you may be thinking “who’s going to read all that?” – but when done right, these pages are extremely powerful since they draw the reader in, without distractions, and lead them to signing up.

To sum it up – always keep your goal in mind.

3. Attention grabbing headlines

When someone first opens your home page, you want to capture their attention and start making the sale right away. The most powerful way to do this is with an attention-grabbing headline that shows them the benefits they’ll get from joining your club, and tell them what makes your club so unique.

To make sure it gets noticed write it in big, bold letters at the top of your home page, and infuse it with benefits, excitement, and personality.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

“How this New York health club is helping people lose up to 12 pounds every month!”

“How this Atlanta health club can help you instantly boost your energy so you’re awake and alert all day long…”

“It’s not just the incredible fat loss you’ll get that makes this Detroit health club so powerful…”

As you can see, all three headlines describe the benefits someone will get from joining in an excited and energetic way. They really get your prospects pumped up about the changes they can start seeing in their lives, and give you a perfect lead-in to talk about all of the awesome features of your club like your equipment, supportive staff, friendly members who encourage each other and become friends, etc.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are an absolute requirement. It’s good to have them on a testimonials page, but also make sure you include them on other areas of your site. The home page is a great place for that, since it’s your first contact with your prospects, and it’s where you make that first impression.

If you look on our website you’ll see that we have testimonials practically on every page. That’s because when people read what our clients took upon themselves to write about us, they’re much more likely to want to do business with us.

You want to feature testimonials that:

• Show quantity (i.e. lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks).
• Describe the environment. (i.e. everyone was supportive and friendly)
• Counter objections (i.e. I never thought I could lose the weight, but… I never thought a gym environment was for me, but…)
• Validate the price (i.e. this was a great deal considering how much it changed my life)

If you don’t have any testimonials yet, getting great ones is as easy as asking your favorite customers. You can also offer a free training session or a free month of membership, give something else away, or enter them in a raffle in exchange.

5. Call to Action

Earlier in this post we talked about having a single, clear focus/goal for your site, and making sure all of your copy and design lead to that goal. Your call to action is the last thing between you and your visitors - this is the goal your entire website is building up to.

A call to action is extremely simple to write. That’s probably why it’s so often done wrong! All you need to do is tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do next – in clear, concise language. That’s it.

For example… a lot of people will just have their phone number placed throughout their site, or say “call now 1.800.111.2222″. But we want to get a bit more specific. We want to give people a good reason to call too.
Here’s an example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!”

As you can see there’s a free offer in that call to action. If you don’t already, we highly recommend having a free trial period for your club: it lowers the barrier of entry into doing business with you. You want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to become members, so ask yourself this question: what makes joining this health club a no-brainer? Free or one dollar trials definitely answer that question.
Now, here’s another cool tip…

Take your call to action a step further. For example, tell people what will happen when they call you. See, sometimes people subconsciously fear what will happen when they call. In the back of their heads they think that somehow they’ll be charged for something, sold something, dragged into a long conversation.. etc. By letting them know what will happen you dissolve this fear.

For example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!

“Our wonderful receptionist, Martha, will answer the phone, take down your name, and set up a time for you to get a tour of the club.

“Then you can come on in, and start getting in shape as early as today!”

See how inviting and approachable that is? It completely takes the mystery out of the picture. People know what to expect – so they feel safer about calling.

So there you have it!

We hope these tips help bring you even more business, and see even greater success. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

Lou and David are the founders of an advertising and marketing firm in Atlanta, GA called Unexpected Ways LLC. In the past year they’ve helped literally dozens of fitness professionals all over the world achieve results they once thought impossible – both in online and offline marketing.

You can find out more about them, and get in touch with them personally, by visiting their website: http://www.unexpectedways.net.

One more thing!

Lou and David have been kind enough to offer a FREE 10 min. website critique for the first 10 people who contact them at support@unexpectedways.net.

Make sure you mention my blog to get your FREE critique.

Have a great one,

Joshua

PS. I have a GREAT new tool that I will be telling you about on the next post so make sure you opt-in to receive my “Sales Sniper Newsletter NOW“

In this new era of the fitness industry, it’s not good enough to have new equipment and freshly painted walls, and you can forget about things being like they used to be. So what do we do as fitness business owners? How do we stay afloat, or better yet, how do we flourish in an atmosphere that is hostile to the growth of a fitness business?

Well …. we have been busy finding the solutions you need. Over the next few weeks and months, we are going to be doing a complete redesign of this website, our business model and our approach to helping fitness business owners like you. If your not part of our Sales Sniper Newsletter, Click Here to enroll to receive future updates.

Here are a few topics that we will be discussing in the coming weeks and months:

1. We will be revealing our “Membership Dominator” program – This program is a done for you marketing and promotion service that will drive in a ton of new members, increase your draft, give you thousands in new cash deposits, and supply your club with up to $30,000 in free advertising. All with no risk and no out of pocket expense for you. Plus, while our staff is on site running our “Membership Dominator” program, we will train your staff to be membership sales experts, just like we are.

2. We will be revealing our “Club Boss” program- This is the solution that successful gym owners have been looking for. If you have been trying to figure out how you can work less hours, make more money, reduce expenses and headaches, all without having to pay a butt load of money out for general manager salaries, and consulting firms, then “Club Boss” is your solution. We will give you an experienced management team, complete management, marketing, sales systems manuals, designs, and much more. We will take you from being a successful club to being the strongest gym in your area. All while giving you, the owner, less responsibilities and more free time.

3. We will be revealing our “Low Price Ninja” program - Fact: if a low price model club opens in your area, i.e. a Planet Fitness or similar type of model, it’s only a matter of time before your club and all the other clubs in your area begin to struggle, go out of business and fail. With our “Low Price Ninja” program, you can now convert your club to the low price model without any fear of it affecting your future business in a negative way. If you would like to add 200-500 new members month after month, year after year, reduce monthly expenses and grow your draft beyond your wildest dreams, than the “Low Price Ninja” is your solution. If you have been considering paying $25,000 to get a Planet Fitness franchise to compete in the highly competitive fitness industry…DON’T! If you have been thinking about simply lowering your price and calling yourself a low price club….DON’T…it’s more complicated than that. Fitness360 is the only company in the industry today offering a program like this. So we will only be opening this program up to a select number of clubs per year and the clubs we do accept into the program, have to meet certain qualifications. If this program is something you’re interested in getting more information about, stay tuned to our site updates for more information or contact us at 888-434-8360.

4. We will be revealing our done for you fitness consulting programs, built around diet and nutrition, ladies only gyms, group fitness programs, fitness boot camps, personal training studios, and many others.

As you can see we have a lot of things we have been working on and I can not wait to reveal to you, our clients, all the new tactics and strategies we have been developing. So if your not part of our Sales Sniper Newsletter, join now by Clicking Here.

And as always, feel free to contact us at 888-434-8360 for any questions about our products or services.

Look what we did at City Fitness in Lynn MA. We converted them to the “low price” model to compete against the 3 Planet Fitness that opened up near them. People can’t help but to love the low price promise. Our fitness sales team in only 4 weeks brought in 180 new sales, $28k gross and increased the eft by $2,200 per month. Fitness360 is the best fitness marketing company in the world! And to prove it we will give you a money back guarantee. Wait! I forgot. You don’t have to spend any money. We front everything!

What are you waiting for ?

Give us a call to see if your Fitness Center qualifies.

Call 888.434.8360

A good marketing strategy provides specific goals and can include:
o a description of the key target buyer/end user
o competitive market segments the fitness center will compete in
o distribution channels
o the unique positioning of the club and its products versus the competition
o the reasons why it is unique or compelling to buyers
o price strategy versus competition
o marketing spending strategy with advertising and promotion
o possible research and development
o market research expenditure strategies.

An overall fitness marketing strategy should also:
o define the fitness center
o position the club as a leader, challenger, follower, or niche player in the category
o define the brand or club personality or image that is desired in the minds of buyers and end users
o define life cycle influences, if applicable

Strategy statement tests. If the statements in your strategy are measurable and actionable and work to differentiate your company and products apart from the competition, congratulations! If they are not measurable and actionable and do not differentiate your company from the competition, revise them until they are.

A good working marketing strategy should not be changed every year. It should not be revised until company objectives (financial, marketing, and overall company goals) have been achieved or the competitive situation has changed significantly, e.g., a new competitor comes into the category or significantly different or new products emerge from existing competitors.
While a comprehensive marketing plan can be a vital component to any business plan, it’s often neglected by small business owners, online business owners and webmasters, and independent or creative professionals, for a few reasons:

o They simply don’t want to put the effort into writing a full marketing plan.
o They’re too short on time to write a comprehensive marketing plan.
o They don’t know how to write a marketing plan, and are flustered by the process.

A one page marketing plan can, in these cases, be a viable alternative to a full marketing plan, while still touching on important marketing strategy areas. This sample includes a variety of marketing areas that should be addressed.

A one page marketing plan can, in these cases, be a viable alternative to a full marketing plan, while still touching on important marketing strategy areas. This sample includes a variety of marketing areas that should be addressed. Use the following guide to help you fill out your one page marketing plan:

Marketing strategy checklist
o define what your company is
o identify the products or services that your company provides
o identify your target buyers/end users
o establish the marketing category (e.g., fast food purveyor, high-end audio equipment sales, etc.)
o determine whether your company will be a market category leader, follower, challenger, or niche player
o describe the unique characteristics of your products or services that distinguish them from the competition.
o define whether your pricing will be above, below, or at parity with your competitors and establish whether you will lead, follow, or ignore changes in competitors’ pricing
o identify the distribution channels through which your products/services will be made available to the target market/end users
o describe how advertising and promotions will convey the unique characteristics of your products or services
o describe any research and development activities or market research plans that are unique to your business
o describe the image or personality of your company and its products or services

Target Market - Briefly mention your target market for your company, website, product, etc., including any important demographics.
o Industry Trends - Are there any industry trends that would affect your marketing strategy (such as major growth or decline in your specific industry within certain markets)?
o Goal(s) – What is the goal of your marketing efforts? What do you want to accomplish? Make your goals specific and measureable.
o Strategies - In a general sense, how do you plan to reach your goals? These shouldn’t be specific tactics (like send a weekly newsletter), but should be broad in nature (such as increasing repeat visitor traffic, if your goal were to grow to 100,000 page views per day while marketing your website).
o Yearly Marketing Budget – Simply include your predetermined marketing budget, so you know what you have to work with when planning out your marketing tactics.
o Marketing Mix – Here’s where you’ll tackle the 4 Ps of Marketing.
o Product (or service) – Simply mention what your product / service is. What is it that you’re marketing? A tool? A professional service? Information?
o Price – How will the pricing model of your products/services factor into your marketing? Will you sell with a low price on a value principle? A high price to target a luxury market?
o Placement (also referred to as distribution) – Placement means where you will physically or figuratively “place” your products or services, to make them visible to your target market. Will you sell through special in-store displays? What kind of stores? Will you sell through a catalog? Your own website? Online through affiliates? etc.
o Promotion – Give a very general overview of how you intend to promote your products or services. How will you build your brand?
o Top 3 Competitors – Who are the top three competitors that you need to position yourself against? For example, if you’re an online book seller focusing on a niche of selling mysteries, Amazon.com won’t be one of your top three competitors. You’ll need to position yourself against other online booksellers in your specific niche before trying to go after the “big guys”. Keep things as realistic as possible. Who’s competing against you in the most direct sense?
o Your Strengths – What are your particular strengths which might help you position yourself against your competitors?
o Your Weaknesses – What are your weaknesses, or potential barriers to positioning yourself against your competitors? (Everyone has them.) For example, are you new to the industry? Do you have a smaller product line? etc.

Monthly Tactics – Using the rest of your one page marketing plan as a guide, determine where your chosen marketing tactics should fit into your yearly plan. For example, using the book-selling scenario again, if there were a specific week or month focused nationally or internationally on reading or your specific niche, you might want to focus certain marketing efforts around that time (like a sale, having online chat sessions set up with select authors, etc.).

So I hope this article helps you understand the importance of developing a marketing strategy for 2010.  If you would like your free copy of the one page business plan mentioned in this article, please send your request to info@fitness360online.com.  Please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 888-434-8360 for any other questions you may have.  I hope you have a great new year.  God bless!

Joshua Fleming

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of consulting with club owners in regards to club management. This is one in particular that I’m very passionate about, mainly because that’s where I got my start in the fitness industry. It really drives me bananas when I walk into a health club and there are no systems in place. I can only imagine how aggravating it must be for the members and employees to be part of a chaotic environment. So that being said let me stop venting and give you a couple of tips that will help you on the road to developing in house marketing, sales and management systems.

First things first, let’s look at marketing.

A few rules to remember when marketing for new gym members.

1. Sale Solutions – When a member joins a fitness center they could care less about how fancy your equipment is. Planet Fitness has proved this. If you walk into any Planet Fitness you will find the same boring cookie cutter equipment. So why are they so successful? The answer is because they are selling a solution. The solution is an environment that anybody can feel comfortable in. That’s there brand and that’s the secret to their success. A good marketing piece we’ll sale a solution. Here are a few examples of the solutions people are looking for when they buy a gym membership: low price, weight loss, risk free money back guarantee, great social scene, no pressure environment, etc.

2. Go Big or Go Home – A fitness center’s marketing budget should be a minimum of 10% of your current draft per month. You may be asking yourself, “How can I afford to spend that much on marketing every month?” A better question would be, “How can you not afford to spend that much money on marketing?” I know some great and inexpensive ways to market your health club that I will go into in a different post. The main thing I want to get in your head is that you have to spend money to make money. And your marketing should be both proactive and reactive.

3. Budget, Budget, Budget – Setting up a marketing budget is the key to successful marketing campaigns. So you ask, how should I go about setting up a marketing budget? Well, I already gave you one key: spend at least 10% of your monthly draft on marketing. There’s a lot more to creating a marketing budget for your gym, so feel free to shoot me an e-mail or give us a call and I can give you a few more free tips.

Next we’ll look at sales.

While in Texas last week I met with three different health clubs’ staff and I was shocked to find out that there were no goals set in place. No weekly sales goals, No monthly sales goals, no goals, period. I thought I was being Punked! I thought any minute now Ashton Kutcher was going to jump out from behind a wall with a big camera and I would be completely embarrassed and have to say, “Hi, this is Joshua with Fitness360 and I’ve been punked!” But to my surprise, it wasn’t a joke. To top it off these were big 20,000 square feet health clubs that were all doing well just because of their sheer size and quality of equipment. This is the exception, not the rule. Normally, if I consult with a club in those conditions, they are taking huge loses and on the verge of going out of business.

So my number one rule for managing a productive sales team is “MBO”, (Management by Objective). In a nutshell managing by objective promises to help the club manager and a sales manager improve communication and leadership by setting specific goals with club personnel at all levels. “MBO” allows the manager and his personnel to identify common goals and define each person’s area of responsibility and return of results expected of them or standards of performance. “MBO” focuses directly on results. That is the fitness consultant will be responsible for keeping a specific set of goals that are unique to him. He will not be compared to another consultant when these goals are defined.

Here is a brief description of the six steps in implementing the “Management by Objective” system:

1. Have daily, weekly and monthly meetings between management and fitness consultants. At these meetings you’ll go over daily appointment quota, daily prospecting quota, presentation quota, sales ratio goals, sales goals, etc.

2. Make the goals specific and easily understood. And the most important part is make those goals achievable.

3. Make a plan of attack with your staff. The last step was, “What to do”, and this next step is, “How to do it”. Make a road map and follow it. Set out verbally and on paper your marketing strategies and goals so everybody on the team has a clear understanding moving forward.

4. At this point both management and consultants need to make a commitment verbally to do whatever it takes to meet the expectations set forth. The thing to keep in mind is that the commitment from your fitness consultants need to be supported by a commitment by the managers. It takes everyone involved to achieve goals, and if someone isn’t pulling their weight or following through, the whole team will suffer.

5. This is the most important step of all. Your job as a manager is more clearly defined with the title of a coach. When your fitness consultants do good praise them. When they do bad correct and motivate. Never compare fitness consultants to each other or correct them in front of other staff or members. If you do your throwing a wrench in your own machine, trust me. The performance of your team will be directly related on how well you accomplish this step.

6. After completing the goals set forth your fitness consultants by nature are going to be looking for a reward. Their paycheck is not necessarily a reward, that’s compensation for doing their job. A type of a reward that you should consider could be a gift card to a restaurant, movie tickets, a cruise for two to the Bahamas, etc. The size and nature of the reward is very important. Can you imagine if you gave your top salesman for the month a trip for two to the Bahamas and then told the staff that whoever makes salesman of the next month is going to get something even better. You would have a team of headhunters out there doing whatever they could to attract new members and to exceed the goals set forth by management.

So “MBO” sets goals and expectations, gives a map on how to achieve those goals, coaches the team through the hurdles they may face, and then rewards for achieving those goals.

So this last thing I want to talk about is health club management. As I stated before, management is the same as coaching. Most health club owners believe that to be a good manager you have to be a dictator and nothing could be farther from the truth. Leaders learn to understand people first of all. They’re obvious good communicators and have an incredible ability to find individual needs in people and create an environment for those people’s needs to be met. Thus a manager is able to get more productive work accomplished in less time, while his employees enjoy doing it. Leadership is a learned skill, and can be developed by study and practical experience. Below are two factors involving an effective leadership:

* Expert Power -This is associated with the managers expertise, special skills, and general knowledge. These qualities gain respect and cooperation of peers and subordinates. This form of leadership can be acquired and developed.

* Referent Power – This is associated with intangible personal qualities that attract followers who admire these qualities and wish to be associated with them. This type of leadership power, often called “charisma” is more likely to be inherent, however, can still be acquired and developed through hard work, and persistence.

Great coaches are also excellent leaders. By focusing your efforts on club productivity, profitability, and discipline yourself to always doing the most productive thing possible, like staying on the front line, working your proposed schedules, training your employees, scheduling and attending meetings, praising and reprimanding employees, and creating an environment which is productive for career and personal growth are attributes of great club managers. By doing these things your staff will respect and will in return follow your direction enthusiastically.

In closing I would like to remind everyone that Fitness360 is a full service health club marketing and management company. Our reputation in the industry is second to none. If you’re a club owner looking to step away from the day to day operations or would just like to become more profitable, we have solutions that meet every need. With our strategic partnerships and “out of the box” thinking, we are currently managing hundreds of clubs around the U.S. We’re also rated #1 in the industry in converting clubs to the low price model. A conversion to the low price model is not as easy as just lowering your prices. We have developed a complete package for health club management, low price conversions, gorilla marketing, etc. We also have the teams and personnel to implement those systems into your health club if you so desire. Feel free to contact us today to see if your club qualifies for our club management program or low price conversion model. I think you would be shocked to find out how profitable your club could be if managed correctly.

Also feel free to leave a comment on this article. Anyone that leaves a comment, positive or otherwise, will receive a one hour free phone consultation for your health club.

Here’s to your success…

God bless

Joshua

If I told you that Fitness360 can help your gym I would be telling you the truth. But when it comes to marketing fitness centers & gyms the proof is in pudding. They say,”A picture is worth a 1000 words.” I say a phone call could be worth $1,000′s.

Fitness Sales systems by Fitness360 brings the thunder!

Fill out a “club profile” or call 888.4.Fit360 right now!

We may be able to help you in your time of need.

WARNING!- I would like you to read the following paragraphs with the utmost care. What I’m about to say is not only a warning, but is also a friendly suggestion from a fellow professional in the health club industry.

If you need help, don’t wait, call today!

I have talked with several club owners in the past few months that are on the verge of destruction. The one thing that these health club owners have in common is a fear of change. The gym business as we know it is changing. Gone are the days of beating the competition by having the best instructor in town or the new Hammer Strength equipment. There is no such thing as “better” in the gym business, there is just “different.”

Let me explain what I am talking about. If you think your club is better because your equipment is new – you’re wrong! If you think your club is better because you have great group fitness instructors – you’re wrong! If you think you have the best health club in town because you have the cheapest memberships – you’re wrong! If you think that infrared sauna that your so proud of is the reason that you’re the best club in town – you’re wrong! Remember there is no such thing as “better,” only “different.”

GO TO HOLLYWOOD – Like it or not we are in the entertainment business. Just like those liberal nuts out in Hollywood, we need to attract an audience in order to make money. Now I don’t suggest doing anything as controversial as Hollywood does now-a- days, but if done correctly you can give your members and potential clients a sense of lights, camera, action – just like the pros do. Now there are many ways to do this, I am going to give you one example. We teach a system called “Manic Monday.” Monday is the busiest days in gyms all across the nation. It gives you the biggest audience to entertain. This is how it works: every Monday, pick a theme and run with it. Do giveaways (a 1 year free membership, tanning, personal training, Harley Davidson, sky diving, cruise, etc. MUST BRING A GUEST TO QUALIFY FOR GIVEAWAY), free food (wings from Hooters with the Hooters girls, pasta and meatballs from Olive Garden with staff, etc.), and entertainment (celebrity look-a-likes, blue grass band, Muppets with Big Bird, the crew of Jack Ass, etc.). Monday should be a day that catapults the rest of the week into high sales numbers and new guest visits. Also, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but your staff needs to look like they are in the fitness business. If they are severely overweight, smell like cigarettes, not groomed, or all pierced and tatted up on their face or neck – you are probably not conveying the image that you are a business that promotes health and fitness. Uniforms should be uniform. If it’s athletic gear, it all needs to match. In other words if you wear Nike shoes, you wear Nike shorts. And the shirt should always have your club logo on it. Higher end clubs are going to want to stay with the classic black on black or black and khaki.

BE GOOD AT A LOT OR PERFECT AT A LITTLE – Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, find something that you’re passionate about in your health club and build on that. Example: if you love the personal training aspect of your business, focus 99.9% of your energy at being perfect at personal training. That means from marketing and attracting clients, to training them, to follow through. If I drove into your city tomorrow and asked someone at GNC where I could get the best personal training at in this area, your club should be the first thing that comes to their mind. The way you control a market is not in big chunks, but in small specialized niches. Once you have dominated one niche, now you have the freedom and capital to move onto other things you are passionate about.

PULL THE TRIGGER – I talk to club owners all the time that are going out of business as we speak. Six thousand new gyms open up every year, and about the same close every year. Listen very closely, if your club is taking a hit because of the economy, new competition, poor management – YOU HAVE TO PULL THE TRIGGER! The old saying is, “If you want to learn how to skin a cat, call a cat skinner.” Fitness360 is the dominate company in health club marketing and club management for a reason. I can brag to you about all the money we could make you, but in my experience, knowledge is power. If we teach you the right way of doing things, then in the future you will be able to do it by yourself. Like the saying goes, “If I take you fishing I can feed you for a day, if I teach you how to fish, you can eat for life.” I talked to a club owner just yesterday and he told me that he was considering using a health club marketing company a year ago, but thought he would just try to do it by himself. A year later, he is closing his doors and having to say good bye, to not only his life’s savings, but also the thing he is passionate about. So as your friend and consultant, I’m asking you to pull the trigger and contact us if you are in need of help. We give one hour of free consultation over the phone, no strings attached. All you need to do is call 888-434-8360 and ask for Joshua. I’m the owner of the company and enjoy what I do and since nobody knows everything about everything, I think both you and I will be able to learn a lot in that short one hour conversation. We have the solutions to your problems, be it: club management (where we take over every aspect of running your club), or health club promotions (where we come in with our sales team and sale high price memberships at the rate of $29, $200, $360 per month), to consulting (where we will tell you how to do exactly what you need to do to be a winner in this industry, and not a loser). PULL THE TRIGGER today!

Remember Insanity is defined as follows:

“Doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result.”

In closing, if you’ve made the decision to just try to do it by yourself and figure it out, you’re crazy by definition. Remember doing the exact same thing and expecting different results is insanity!

Thank you and God Bless,

Fitness Sales is very easy if you understand a few key facts.

OK so let’s look at this for a minute. For this example my name is John. I walk into your health club expecting to get some pricing on how much memberships cost. Now I’ve never been a member of a health club in the past, but my doctors tell me that I need to start exercising if I want to live a little longer and increase my sex drive. So, reluctantly, I drive down to my local gym and now find myself standing at your front counter. The conversation will go something like this:

Joe Gym Owner:
Hey, how can I help you today?

John:
I would like to know what your rates are.

Joe Gym Owner:
Well, we have several rates. What exactly are you looking for?

John:
I have no idea. My doctor just told me I need to start exercising. So here I am.

Joe Gym Owner:
No problem. You can take a look at this rate sheet here, as you can see we have several plans.

John:
Okay well thank you very much. Do you mind if I take a look around?

Joe Jim owner:
No problem, help yourself.

Now I’m no rocket scientist but I’m pretty sure that John won’t be signing up at “Joe’s Gym.”

All John is thinking is:

You want me to pay you money to make me sweat? You must be joking!

I want to give you 3 keys to increase fitness sales. Each one of these keys depends on the next, if you take one of them away, the system won’t work. One of the best things about training someone to do fitness sales is that they’re learning curve is very small, and with proper training anybody can sell more fitness memberships. So let’s get right into.

Step 1 – Become a Puppy
If you’ve ever owned a dog then you know how excited they can be when you get home. Their little tail is wagging and they have a big smile on their face, they couldn’t be happier to see. After a long hard day of work, nothing can feel better than coming into an environment where you feel welcome and appreciated. Based on our conversation above, Joe missed this first step by a mile and Fitness Sales is made a lot harder. Matter of fact, Joe never even asked John what his name was. So the goal of this first step is to make the person feel safe and comfortable. The two things I would recommend you not doing in this first step is licking their face or chewing on their shoes, it’s too early for the shenanigans.

Step 2 – Get a Fingerprint
This is one of the most overlooked steps in the Fitness Sales process and yet the most important. I can’t tell you how many health clubs I’ve taken tours in across the country as an undercover customer. I love going in and seeing what it feels like from the customer’s point of view. I think sometimes when it comes to Fitness Sales, we forget how scary it can be to walk into an environment like a gym. The first thing that Joe should have done, after greeting John, was to get him to sign in on the guest registry and then get him to fill out a guest profile. This does two things: It allows Joe to collect important information about the customer to help sell a gym membership today or possibly down the road sometime & it makes the customer invest a little bit of their valuable time and gain the information they desire. I’ve consulted with hundreds of club owners on Fitness Sales, and them and the owners that are not doing this, will justify it by saying something to the effect of, “no one wants to give you all that information” or “that’s just a waste of time.” To those health club owners, I gently say, “are you kidding me?” If you walk into any of the top health clubs in the nation you will see this is a crucial part of the sales process. So the goal of step two is to get the customers “unique fingerprint,” or name, address, phone number and fitness/ health goals in their history. Fitness Sales can not be done correctly without a fitness profile, trust me.

Step 3 – Benefits VS Features
When Joe asked John what he was looking for John’s response was, “I don’t know.” Most of the people that walk into health clubs understand benefits and not features. Let me give you an example. When someone asked Joe what his gym offers and Joe were to respond with something like, “We have cardio, free weights, and circuit training.” You will find that someone that does not live a healthy lifestyle and has never worked out before, this is just a bunch of noise. You’re a gym, you should have those things. If I walked into a hotel and asked them what they offered, they wouldn’t tell me they have beds, TVs and towels. It’s a hotel, it’s expected that they have these things. The smart play is to sell benefits, not features. Let me give you an example: Instead of saying, “We have cardio,” say something like, “The cardio area we have will help you burn fat, lower your blood pressure, reduce stress, etc.” Fitness Sales, works best sharing benefits, not features.

Fitness sales is not rocket science. It’s simple the act of attracting, retaining and delivering the services your health club offers.

Our fitness marketing kit comes with a step by step training system that will increase your closing percentages and give you new and creative ways to attract new members, retain current members, and deliver the results that people in your fitness center are looking for. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope God continues to bless your business.