What Fitness Professionals Can Learn From Heroin Dealers and Pick-Up Artists About Marketing

I heard an awesome interview the other day with the late, great Gary Halbert.  Gary is one of the best marketers of all time and he turned out some pretty wild copy.  I was listening to an interview that Michel Fortin did with him.

Gary asked the listeners to pretend that they were at a night club with an extremely beautiful woman in it, and every single guy in the club was trying to pick her up.

You had the rich guys trying to pick up on her, the famous guys, the young guys with the ripped abdominals, the alpha males, the funny guys, the pick-up artists and everyone in between all trying to pick up on this young, beautiful woman.

But, what all these guys didn't know was her secret.  Her secret was that she was a heroin addict and that she was going through withdrawals and that the only thing that would make her feel better would be a dose of heroin.

Now, if you happened to be a heroin dealer in that night club and you went over to her and told her you just picked up a load of scag and asked her if she wanted to do some, she would definitely be leaving with you that night instead of any of the other guys.  As a matter of fact, she probably didn't hear a word those other guys said.

Think of your prospects like this.  All they want to do is relieve their pain or fix their problem, and they could not give a damn about you, how great you are, how many certifications or education you have, what you look like or anything like that.  All they care about is if you can alleviate their pain.

Be like the heroin dealer in the night club instead of the guy who is trying to walk over and impress the young female heroin addict with his good looks, money or abdominals. Now I'm not saying to be a scum sucker who prospers off the misery of others, and I'm not suggesting you kill off your client base either. I'm just talking from a marketing perspective here.

What you really need to do is have a solution to her pain. You need to speak to that pain and let the prospect know that you're the one who can alleviate it. That's what good fitness marketing is all about. Finding the problem your prospect wants fixed and then positioning yourself as the one who can solve their problem. If you try to talk about yourself you could talk until you're blue in the face, but if you can get them to trust that you're the one who can solve their problem, they will come to YOU, instead of you having to sell yourself to THEM.

Thank you Gary.  You are missed.

Make More and Work Less!

Chris McCombs

Specializing in Marketing Strategies for Personal Trainers