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Should You Discount Family Memberships?

Curtis Mock — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:19:24 +0000

Offering discounts to family members has been common practice throughout the history of the fitness industry. Nearly all gyms offer a discount for additional family members, but it is very important to determine just how much of a discount to offer.

When you think about it, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to discount memberships for family members. Your local movie theater wouldn’t offer you a discount for buying an additional movie ticket for your spouse. Nor would your local Starbucks give you a discount on your second beverage because you say it’s for your mother.

One might also argue that by offering a discount, you are decreasing the perceived value of your memberships. Why is one member entitled to a discount simply because they are married? These are all reasonable considerations. Why then would we offer a family discount in health clubs?

Well the simplest explanation is because it’s the way it’s always been done and it is now
While it’s not always best to continue decade-long habits in the fitness industry, the practice of offering a discount to family members still makes sense. But the key is to not get carried away and offer too much of a discount. Some gyms will have a price of $39 for the first person and discount a second family member to as low as $15 and additional family members for $5-10. This is a bit extreme.universally expected. It is likely that your fitness business offers very similar amenities and services as one of your competitors. If a prospect and spouse are considering your facility and a competing facility…and your competitor offers a family discount but you do not; chances are good they will join your competitor. This is especially true if they have teenage children who want to join as well.

As always, you should test your prices to find out what your market is willing to pay, but a good rule of thumb would be to offer no more than a 40% discount for additional family members. Based on the example above, you wouldn’t want to discount more than $15-16 on a $40 per month membership. Your members will be appreciative of any discount you offer. Don’t decrease the amount you earn per member more than you have to!

And if you allow teenage children of members to join, it is ultimately up to you to offer an additional discount for a third family member, but no more than a $5 discount would be a good rule of thumb for all additional family members.

If you operate a discount-membership club, with rates of $19 or less per month, you should not offer a family discount. There are some club chains now offering primary memberships for $10/month. Can you imagine offering a spouse’s membership for $5?

Alternatively, if you operate a high end health club, you should consider having a limit on the total amount you charge for a family membership. If the primary member is charged $89/month and a spouse is charged $59/month, they’re already paying a lot for their membership. Consider allowing their eligible children to join for free.

If you feel you are currently offering too dramatic of a discount for add-on memberships, that problem is easy to fix. You can allow all of your current members to maintain their current rates, but all new add-on memberships can be sold at a slightly higher price point. Your new members will not know that your prices have historically been lower than what they were offered. Rather, they will be thrilled that you offer a discount at all.

A discount for family members is always a nice gesture. You don’t want to be the only one in your community unwilling to be family friendly. But you also don’t want to discount too heavily and you always want to test and retest to determine the best prices for both primary and secondary members. Recognize that no matter what, your prospects will be appreciative of any discount you offer their family.

Do you offer a family discount? Do you agree or disagree with me? Comment below…

How to Give an Effective Tour

Curtis Mock — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:56:11 +0000

The tour is the perfect opportunity to convince a prospect to become a member of your club. Unfortunately, when done incorrectly, it’s also a great way to lose a sale.

I want to begin by saying that there is no “perfect” tour. However, based on my experience, here are some tips that will give you the greatest opportunity to close more sales.

First of all, the tour strategies mentioned below require a proper tour setup, consisting of a strong greeting and prequalification. Your greeting should make the prospect feel that they are the most important person in the world at that moment. In addition, a prequalification form should be used every time, without exception. By filling out a prequalification form, not only will it help provide you ammunition to overcome any objections they have, it also allows you some conversation points to get them to know you, like you, and trust you.

I like to start each tour by letting the prospect know that when the tour is finished, you have a special opportunity for them. This lets them know that you will be asking them to join today, eliminating any surprise when you do.

Don’t give the same tour to every prospect. Based on their prequalification form, you’ll know what interests them the most. If they say they’re interested in getting stronger, don’t start by showing them the cardio equipment. If they say they’re interested in classed, don’t take them to the free weights. Every tour should start in the area in which they will be most interested. If you don’t, they won’t be able to focus on the other great aspects of your facility because they’ll be waiting to see the amenities they are looking for most.

Ask a lot of questions that stimulate a YES response. Questions like “It’s a nice facility isn’t it?”, and “We have lots of classes, don’t we?”, and “I assume your spouse supports your decision to improve your health?”. The idea is to get them to say yes as many times as possible so that you create a pattern of positive responses, causing them to say yes when you present prices as well. Always remember that telling is not selling. You need to stimulate the prospect’s thought process and get them to tell you the reasons they are at your facility. If you tell them, it won’t influence their decision. But when they decide for themselves and verbalize it to you, your chance of selling to them increases exponentially.

After you have finished touring the facility, you will ask one final commitment question, which will provide the perfect transition to the price presentation. This question will allow you to gain a final commitment that will remain fresh in their mind before you present prices. Ask questions such as, “You’re going to like it here, don’t you think?”, or “You can picture yourself working out here, can’t you?”, or “The facility has everything you need to meet your goals doesn’t it?”

You want to make them feel as if they have already made a commitment to a membership. If they do have any concerns or questions, pause on the floor and address all questions before presenting prices. Once all objections are satisfied, ask them to have a seat so you can help them decide which membership option is best for them.

The tour is typically the area where a sale is won or lost. By controlling the conversation and asking a series of questions, your tour can easily take half an hour. No matter the size of your facility, a tour should never take less than 10 minutes. They have likely toured other facilities, so make sure your tour is the most memorable. They need to feel that your club is the answer to all of their problems.

Remember, there is no perfect tour process, but if you implement these strategies and are genuine in your approach, you will find that the sale will be made long before you present prices.

Does anyone ride the “be back” bus?

Curtis Mock — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:50:13 +0000

If you’ve been in this business for a while you’ve probably heard the old adage: “The be-back bus doesn’t come back” or some other variation. The clichés were based on the fact that most times if a sale isn’t made on the first day, the missed guest seldom returns.

Consumers are too smart these days to fall for strongarm tactics or smarmy sales pitches. So there are many times, no matter how good you are, that you will miss sales. Combine that with the fact that there are a dozen other fitness options awaiting your missed guest, and you certainly want to believe in the be back bus.

Too many salespeople are focused on the next sale, rarely taking the time to effectively follow up with any missed guests, simply because they believe the be back bus doesn’t come back. Well, the be back bus DOES come back if you follow a few simple rules to get them to know you, like you, and trust you.

Send a handwritten note or thank you card, expressing your appreciation for them taking the time out of their day to come see you. If you didn’t provide a trial membership pass or gift card before they left your facility, make sure you provide one inside the envelope. If you did provide them a trial pass or gift card, include an extra one for them to give to a friend.

Send an email or text message the same day they visit your facility, thanking them for their time and reminding them of their fitness goals they shared with you

Call them within 48 hours. I would just say, “Hi John, its Curtis from Anytime Fitness. I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was meeting you the other day and to see if there were any other questions about how we can help you with ________(fitness goals).

If you get their voicemail, leave same message but bait the hook with some type of mystery reason to call you back: “Call me back because I just found out about something that you’ll find really cool”.

The calls can continue frequently for a few weeks, and more sporadically over time. You only remove them from your call list if they have asked you to stop calling.. Remember, you don’t know what is going on in their life right now and you might just call in a moment of need.

Invite them to any event you are hosting. A member appreciation event, a month end closeout, a seminar, etc. You can also always call to extend their trial pass that has expired. Or you can call and let them know that the club is going to pay for them to meet with a personal trainer.

If you follow this system diligently, you will find that there are more people than you thought who are willing to get on the be back bus. A missed opportunity to sell on a first visit doesn’t necessarily mean the sale is lost forever. The decision to join a gym is a big decision and there are some people who just need more time to think. Get these people to know you, like you, and trust that you have their best interests in mind, and you will be surprised at how many make their way back through your doors.

Where in the World is Fitness Business Television?

Curtis Mock — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:28:43 +0000

Techical difficulties suck for me, but you benefit from it! Since I’m late on the show this week, here’s a special gift. It’s my Inner Circle print newsletter from a few months ago. It is titled:

“A Powerful Collection of Sales Techniques to Help You Overcome Objections and Close More Sales Than Ever Before”

Click the title above to download your special gift.

Expect the new show to go out over the weekend!! Who knows, maybe you’ll have more time to watch it…could be a good test

Curtis

Episode 23 – Fitness Business Television

Curtis Mock — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:08:55 +0000

In this week’s episode I share with you a special tribute to #23 Michael Jordan! I also discuss whether offering a satisfaction guarantee is a good idea, I’ve got a Killer Resource where you can buy thousands of random services for $5… I’m completely addicted to it now. And I’m going to discuss with you my most effective closing strategy that allowed me to sell 2-3 times more memberships than any other salesperson back in the day.

Websites and Resources Mentioned in the Show:

www.HealthClubProfile.com (A special application for a limited opportunity for the right gym)
www.GymMarketing.com (Fitness Marketing Group corporate website for health club consulting and campaigns)
www.Fiverr.com (one of the coolest Killer Resources ever. Prepare to be addicted)
Health Club Marketing with GymSuccess.com, the most complete resource center for gyms

Link to Downloadable Prequalification Form

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A special tribute to his Airness, Michael Air Jordan. Love that man.

Satisfaction guarantees and especially money back guarantees on health club memberships or personal training clients can be a little unnerving for many fitness business owners. But it shouldn’t be. I explain why the positives of this system far outweigh the negatives.

One of the coolest Killer Resources ever. What are people willing to do for $5. Crazy stuff, business stuff, it will blow your mind how many cool things a cool Lincoln will buy you.

How do I sell so many health club memberships? Easy. Want to know how easy? Watch the show. You can thank me later.

As always your thoughts are appreciated. Please leave a comment below that will benefit the other viewers AND will get you noticed by Google. Enjoy the show!

Michael Jordan is the man,

#1 Secret to maintaining profits at your fitness business

Curtis Mock — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:59:34 +0000

So the number one secret to continuous profits is…drumroll please…

Set Daily Goals

Aw come on Curtis, I wanted a real strategy not a boring generic one. Well guess what, if you skip this strategy, you might as well skip all of the strategies I share because this is the foundation for profits each month.

And it’s so easy I can show you how to do it in two steps…

1. Determine how much you want to make each month

The way I do this is to add 5% to whatever our sales were in the same month last year.

2. Divide this number by the number of working days that month

So if you did 20,000 in sales last June. This June you’ll set a monthly goal of (20,000 x 1.05) = $21,000. That is your monthly goal. Then you’ll divide that by the number of working days in June (21,000 / 26) = $807

So your daily goal for sales is $807 in this scenario.

Each day you will recalculate. So let’s say on “day one” you gross $1,400. That means at the end of the day you will subtract 1,400 from $21,000 which leaves you with $19,600 remaining to reach your goal for June.

Then divide 19,600 by the number of remaining working days in June (25)

(19,600 / 25) = $784

So now your daily goal for the remainder of the month is $784

You can write this on a board in the office so everyone knows the number that has to be reached.

I promise you this is the number one way to always make sure your goals are reached each and every month. By keeping this number fresh in your mind each day, it keeps you focused on that goal throughout the day.

Your entire team needs to understand that something needs to be sold every day, and they must be reminded how their actions are helping the overall mission of the business.

Make this week amazing…

Curtis Mock

Episode 10 – Fitness Business Television

Curtis Mock — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:43:01 +0000

In this week’s episode I share with you how much you should be discounting for additional family members, I’ve got a killer resource that can help you find thousands of fitness enthusiasts in your area with Twitter, and I’m going to teach you how I overcome the dreaded “I want to Think about it” objection that many prospects have.

Websites and Resources Mentioned in the Show:

www.twitter.com (Make sure you set up your Twitter account asap)
www.FitBizOnTwitter.com (Make sure you follow Fitness Business Television on Twitter!)
www.ClubSolutionsMagazine.com (A fantastic, and free, health club magazine)
Health Club Marketing with GymSuccess.com (In my completely biased opinion, the most complete resource center for gyms)
www.Twellow.com (A killer resource that lets you find people in your market who are using Twitter)

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You’re pretty sure you should be discounting memberships for family members, but how much should you discount? Should you discount at all? I go over a few scenarios for you that will help you determine the best pricing for your additional family members who join.

Twitter is the new hotness. Whether you love it or hate it, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t stand Twitter to be perfectly honest with you, but I know that fitness professionals are using it. For you the fitness business owner, you have thousands of people in your market who use Twitter every day. You need to find these people and get them to listen to what you have to say with this week’s Killer Resource.

Overcoming objections can sometimes be tough, but the worst of all is “I want to think about it”. No one likes to hear that objection. But it’s not as difficult to overcome as you might believe. Follow my instructions and you will certainly help your chances of increasing the close rate on prospects with this objection.

Don’t forget to leave a helpful comment for other viewers. Not only will Google notice your website URL you put in the space provided below, you will also receive the book from my library mentioned on the show!

Enjoy!

And always remember…What would Curtis do?

Episode 9 – Fitness Business Television

Curtis Mock — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:37:08 +0000

In this week’s episode I share with you my thoughts on how you can compete with a low cost competitor, I’ve got a killer resource that shows you what keywords people in your city are Googling to find you, and the only 5 words you’ll need to begin closing more sales.

Websites and Resources Mentioned in the Show:

www.FitBizOnFacebook.com (Fit Biz TV’s Fan Page on Facebook…JOIN or suffer the consequences)
www.HelpMyBusiness.com (Andrew Lock’s web TV show: “arguably” the best TV show on the Internet
Google Keyword Tool (This baby will definitely help you understand what your prospects are searching for)
Health Club Marketing with GymSuccess.com (In my completely biased opinion, the most complete resource center for gyms)

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Welcome to a Special Valentine’s Day Episode of Fitness Business Television! Make sure you watch until the end because my video editor Victoria put together a special Valentines Day wish for you

Low cost competitors…sigh…it sucks that they’re lowering the value of a gym membership…but man they’re smart. I’m not sure why it’s taken this long for someone to come in with the Walmart model for gyms, but it’s here, and it’s profitable. But as a mid-level multipurpose gym, how do you compete?? Learn my thoughts in this week’s Ask Curtis Segment of the show.

What are people in your city searching for on Google in order to find your fitness business? Are they searching for gyms, fitness centers, health clubs, personal trainers? All of them? With this week’s Killer Resource, you’ll be able to know exactly what people are searching for…AND what keywords you should optimize your website for.

You know the feeling. You present prices after touring a prospect and you get that nervous feeling wondering what kind of close you’re going to have to use on them. Well I have good news for you! I have successfully used one close, 5 simple words, throughout my sales career…and I’ll have you know I had a helluva sales career. Start using these 5 words after presenting prices and you’ll find your closing percentage increase exponentially.

Enjoy!

I am 100% Dedicated to Your Success…

Episode 5 – Fitness Business Television

Curtis Mock — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:15:31 +0000

In this week’s episode I share with you what to say to a prospect who asks why they should choose you over a low cost competitor, how I’m able to get twice as much accomplished at work, and a great way to increase the retention and loyalty of your gym members. (Oh yeah, and a dancing Yeti)

Websites and Resources Mentioned in the Show:

Health club marketing with GymSuccess.com
HP W2408H 24-inch Widescreen LCD MonitorDual Monitor 1 (This is the exact monitor I have on my desk)
HP W2338H 23-Inch Widescreen MonitorDual Monitor 2 (This is a much more affordable monitor, very similar to mine)

This weather sucks

I don’t care where you are in the country, you’re likely experiencing some inclement weather. And hopefully you’re enjoying it more than me. I grew up in the cold midwest, but I have become a bit soft since moving to Florida. But this cold is likely leading to more sales for your fitness business, so I’ll stop complaining.

With all of the low cost fitness competitors popping up, sometimes it’s tough to explain why a prospect should choose you over one of the low cost options. Showing off success stories is a great way to Show…not Tell.

I get a lot accomplished in any given day. Though I never feel like I get enough accomplished, I do know that I get more accomplished than most people. I attribute a great deal of this productivity to having a couple of computer monitors. Join me on a tour of my office to see how I have this set up and how it will benefit you to do the same.

A Bragging rights wall is one of the best fitness sales tools you could implement. This thing sells for you! Whether you own a personal training studio or are busy selling at a health club, this tool will definitely help you sell more personal training and health club memberships.

Don’t forget to leave a helpful comment and you will receive the book I present on the show!

Enjoy the show!

Dedicated to Your Success…

Episode 4 – Fitness Business Television

Curtis Mock — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:20:07 +0000

An overview of some some interesting research on a new way to present your prices, how to promote a unique fitness business model, a killer resource that allows you to actually WATCH a video of what your visitors do at your website, and a few ways Google can make your life much much easier

Websites and Resources Mentioned in the Show:

www.ask500people.com (A website that allows you to conduct surveys from random unbiased people)
www.ProgradeClub.com (A nutritional supplement line created by fitness professionals, for fitness professionals)
www.TemplateMonster.com (Inexpensive and high quality website templates)
Health club marketing with GymSuccess.com
www.TryClicktale.com (an amazing resource that lets you watch your web visitors in action)
www.Gmail.com (the best damn email program in the land)

I’m giving away my personal library!

I bought a Kindle to replace my massive amount of books at my house. And I thought I’d give away a gift to my amazing viewers each week. So the person who posts the most helpful, thought provoking, or just plain interesting comment below, I will send you a book from my library!

Selling memberships is getting more and more difficult each year. Increased competition, price wars, down economy, etc. haven’t help our cause much. So instead of trying the same methods, lets mix up our fitness sales strategies a bit. You’ll find in this episode a very cool way (backed by “loads” of research) to sell more at your fitness business.

Not all fitness businesses are created equal. Some require a little different fitness marketing approach as well as an overall different approach to running the business as a whole. A spa and fitness center combo can be tricky…hopefully not anymore!

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sit and watch over the shoulder of all of your fitness website visitors? Well now you can! This week’s killer resource takes voyeurism to a whole new level.

Gmail is to my life as a strip club is to my uncle. I just can’t get enough of it. There are so many unbelievable features (talking about Gmail, not the stripper) available in Gmail. You just wait until you experience the power of a real email system. It will blow your mind.

I finish this show in a fun mood. It’s the New Year and I had on my dancing shoes….and I have been known to cut a little rug in my day, albeit a really awkward rug. So enjoy my New Years dancing, dedicated to you. I wish you the most amazing 2010.

Don’t forget to leave a helpful comment and you will receive the book I present on the show!

Enjoy the show!

Dedicated to Your Success…