Without a selling system it is a bit like turning the key in the ignition and waiting or the car to start, without an engine. Whilst you may have a key to a business, without a system for generating sales you are going to find it difficult to keep moving forward at any pace. For long jeopardy in business you need to have a system for generating leads to your business to convert to sales. The problem with most health and fitness businesses is the owner is the technician, administrator, cleaner, accountant, client liaison officer and sales person while still trying to practice what they preach and live a healthy, well balanced life.
If you can place a selling system in your business it will help the all-important part of sales and revenue. So when you turn the key each morning it will go from a concerning clunking sound, with fear of moving forward to something firing like a V8 that can get you to your destination in record time.
The selling system we teach has a six-step process. Use all six and you get a desired outcome. Each one requires the other to work at capacity. Without one or two of these you are only firing on four cylinders as the cliché goes.
So lets get started on the six-step process.
1. psychology When I say the word sales what words come to mind? ‘Evil’, ‘hard’, ‘yuck’, ‘terrifying’ and ‘difficult’ all have negative connotations. However ‘conversations’, ‘money’, ‘new clients’, ‘freedom’ and ‘holidays’ have a positive spin to the word. Consider your relationship with the word sales and chances are a negative interpretation of sales will land you poor results. Alternatively you may just enjoy the whole process and your business is showing the positive outcomes of a great relationship with sales. Understanding the fate of your business is decided by revenue. Too much revenue rarely creates the intense painful headaches that not enough revenue creates, assuming you are managing your expenses. So awareness around the psychology of selling is the place to start to create change in your business.
But why don’t I like sales?
Any event in life is a neutral event. What determines if an event is good or bad is your previous experience to that event. So, if you have had a bad experience with boyfriends (males) in your life your self-protection mechanism tells you to stay away from ones that look like previous boyfriends. It is the same with sales. You may have been ripped off, bought something you regret, have a perception about sales people that give the whole psychology a negative spin. Sales are not good or bad but purely a neutral event in your business life. Consider the influencing factors in your experience with sales.
You will need to deal with the psychology part of the process if you want a V8 business system. Sales are not good or bad just a neutral and normal event in any business. Decide to make it ‘good’ and it will serve you better.
2. lead generation How exciting is business when you have a whole heap of fresh leads. New prospects considering your products or services are a revelation. It is very energizing and refreshing meeting new people. So lead generation consists of three key areas.
Traditional Our industry is strong in the traditional space of generating leads. So traditional marketing models follow brochures, free sessions, meetings, discounted memberships, radio, advertisements and many of the hard copy marketing techniques. These are ideal and the secret is to measure what works for you and your clientele.
Online Online techniques include a blog, website, social networking and search engine optimization as significant ways to open up opportunities in the www world of business. As an industry we are terrible in this space and miss a lot of opportunity by being slow to catch on to the new age technology and techniques.
Brand Brand is everything. If you want long jeopardy in your business you need to develop a trustworthy, proven, recognizable and consistent brand. This takes place over time, however start small in your local community, build to a region and then based on your business goals you can take it to bigger places. Brand is everything from answering the phone, to your website, how you dress, the kind of articles you write are all part of the brand and need to be considered.
3. booking a meeting Having leads is a great thing for business. Converting those leads to a meeting helps to qualify the commitment of the enquiry. I am surprised at the amount of guys who really struggle to get people in front of their great brand and business at this stage of booking a meeting. There are three ways to book in a meeting.
They are email, phone or face-to-face.
You need to be strong in all three. If you follow the selling system in order to get more business and pursue the ideal outcome of conducting a meeting. Chances are if you get you in front of most people you will sell them something. I assume they are qualified and ready to invest in their health and you are passionate about health, fitness and your services. So get good at booking in a meeting so that you can then conduct a meeting and give yourself a chance of getting more people into your business.
4. conducting a meeting When you get in a face-to-face situation, understanding that the prospect has turned up on time, likes what they have heard so far and have made the time and effort to sit down and talk about their health then you are 90% of the way there. Here is a proven format to help take the sell out of selling when conducting a meeting.
Build a rapport Get to know the person rather than dive into health conversations. What are their interests, family life, job?
Ask questions The guy who best sums up this lesson is Alan Pease in his great book ‘Questions are the answers’. Simply buy the book by becoming a member on our book and audio program.
Show value If you can identify with the person during the build rapport stage and ask open-ended questions chances are you can then show value-based products on what the person has told you they need. Showing value is not just about your service but the bells and whistles, guarantees, terms and conditions and other inclusions that are involved in working with you and your service or product. Rather than discount and cut prices look to show value as a better way to make a sale.
Identify obstacles So what will stop you? Are there any roadblocks?
These are the key questions to ask in identifying obstacles. So many fitness people never ask clients “is there anything that has stopped you in the past” is a great question when identifying potential barriers. This open conversation early will put you in the hot seat as a guru. If you don’t ask it in the meeting phase chances are the same obstacle that has been holding the person back will appear in week 2, 3 or 4 of your great program.
Confirm the sale Once you have confirmed the best program, package and price for your client then confirm that verbally. If you have followed the earlier steps then they have told you all of this and all you need to do is repeat the process a second time and confirm the sale. A sale is a sale when you have them signing the dotted line.
Stay in touch This fits in with point six of our selling system and should the meeting go pear shaped and terrible at least ask permission to stay in touch. Alternatively you may have an energy vampire or someone you don’t think you want to hang around for a few hours per week and then you can show them some other alternatives. It is impossible to get along with everyone so it is fine to come up with a plan B. Maybe send them off to your competitor!
5. sales tools So many fitness dudes and dudettes rely on showing clients how many courses they have completed or the letters after their name, years in the industry, their gold medal from a body building competition etc. You have just disengaged the client. The sales process is not about you it’s about the prospect. Serve their needs. Here are some sales tools that will help you buy credibility rather than talk about yourself. Articles, blogs, a health model, questionnaires, diagnostics, website, chat rooms, downloads, DVD’s, CD’s.
6. follow up Whilst a ‘no’ is never a ‘no’ until you get a ‘no’ there is a fine line between being a stalker and letting people walk away to make a decision. Consider the process of follow up with people especially if you have put your valuable time into the system outlined earlier. In having a good sales system you should convert 80-90% of people if you follow the suggested system we discuss here. However for the 10-20% who need more time or are not quite ready, then consider what you do to keep them in your ‘circle of trust’ as highlighted in the great movie ‘Meet the Fockers’. Some simple techniques are to:
a. put them on your database and send them your regular newsletter
b. give them a casual call every month and talk about everything other than selling them your services
c. send them one of our sales tools like an article, download or CD every once in a while with a
personalized hand written note to stay in touch
Finally learn that this should be fun. If you are chasing the good old dollar and want to rip people off than you are doomed. If you honestly believe you can help people and are passionate about what you do than you are on track. Like anything in life this is just a skill. Do your first five and really suck and fail at it. Do a thousand and it will become something that is natural and comfortable. Most importantly is having a system and reviewing your performance. Leave it with you!
Scott K
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