a selling system

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!

setting up your own studio

The dream for many personal trainers is to one day have their own studio business. There are many options and considerations in going through the process of the set up stage. A studio can be a highly leveraged and income producing business or it can be a time-consuming, poorly paid job. Having been at both ends of the spectrum, the highly leveraged business is much more enjoyable. Here are some of the pitfalls when setting up your own studio:

1. You don’t have a proper business plan of bank approval status - The step up from a corporate job or personal training into running a studio is quite significant. The varied skills required to make the business successful require a team of people to make it happen. Sticking to a set of proven plans and tactics is fundamental to long jeopardy. “Flying by the seat of your pants” does not work in this environment.

2. You plan to do more than 10 hours of PT and basically be a PT under a very expensive rent - Don’t even consider doing more than 10 hours of PT a week otherwise you will set yourself up for failure. This ‘heads down’ approach is very limiting in building a business and likened to a job. Create leverage via a team.

3. You don’t have a line of credit, capital or available cash - “Without a good chunk of money behind you to manage the initial start up costs, you will end up chasing your tail from day 1” says Jeni from Sullivan Dewing Accountants. “ A lack of cash flow is what kills most start up businesses”

4. Failure to invest in staff or team - Should you plan to wear the hat of administration, sales, marketing, accountant, head trainer, customer care officer and cleaner then you are making the common mistake of the rookie studio owner. It is impossible to complete these tasks and have a life outside of your business. The unbalanced nature of living this way will take you down the path of burnout, stress and fatigue.

5. Proper well qualified advice and a support structure - Having a support structure to guide you, give you qualified advice as well as support during the critical first 12 months is key to studio success. On your team of professionals you need an accountant, solicitor, financial adviser and business coach. Your team needs a manager, head trainer, sales person and administration person and of course the best asset in the business is you.

6. You believe location and equipment are the critical things to owning a studio - I recently read a marketing brochure of a poorly run studio and it mentioned “brand new equipment, experienced trainers and great location”. Now if I want to lose weight do I really care about any of the above? My problem is that I am overweight, a brand new treadmill is not the solution, either is the location. So much profit is consumed by expensive rents and key locations which means you need to work harder and longer to make more money all because of the common misconception about location.


7. An agreed formal lease put together with all legal considerations - Understanding that 90% of your clients will be in a 6-12 minute radius of the location you want to ensure some stray clause or a poorly worded lease doesn’t come back to bite you following the building of the business. Ensure you tick the boxes on structuring a formal lease agreement with the landlord.