Make Your Prospects Feel Understood

In ALL of your fitness marketing efforts it's important to make your prospects feel understood… and here's why…

People want to buy from other people… not so much from a companies… but from people… and they want to buy from people that they like and trust. Play up your personality in your marketing and play down any "company" or "corporate" aspect. Many of us have been ripped off by so many different companies over the years that we're naturally skeptical, and the more "corporate" a business looks, the more skeptical we are. You could say we have a general mistrust and dislike of most "companies" that are trying to sell us something.

I see far too many fitness business owners making the mistake of trying to make their little business have the appearance that they're some huge company. A lot of the time this has to do with ego or thinking that one must appear mega-professional and powerful to attract a lot of business.

What happens is the business owner will go out and get a corporate looking logo, a corporate looking website and a bunch or professional looking business cards with hip, slick and cool graphics…. all to create the appearance of being a big and powerful company. The sad thing is that more often than not  this actually repels business.

No matter how large or how small your business is, whether it's just you or if you have you fifty employees, dumb it down to keep the appearance of being more of a "mom and pop" type operation… where people can actually buy from a real human being and not just some "company".

Now what's really cool… is as human beings it can be fairly easy for us to create bonds with other human beings.

There's a few way to create and nurture this bond… one is to have some personality and back story in your business, and another is is top create a sense of trust. How do you
create this sense of trust?

It's easy… make your prospect feel understood. As human being one of our biggest desires is to be understood, and whenever we feel that way we immediately feel a deeper bond
and trust for the person who understands us.

Let your prospects know YOU UNDERSTAND and YOU HAVE PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED the same things that they are experiencing right now, and how you have OVERCOME those same challenges.

Put this into your back story about how you started your business or came up with the product or service that you did. Tell your story in a such way that makes your prospect feel like you understand them and have the answer they are looking for on a gut level.

If your prospects see that you are just like them, that you have overcome the same challenges that they themselves are currently experiencing and that you UNDERSTAND exactly where they're at, they are much more likely to buy from you than from other "companies" trying to sell them similar products or services. They're going to see you as hero or trusted mentor who can lead the way.

But just don't go out and tell them that you are just like them…  what you want to do is tell your story in a way that gets them to come to the conclusion that they are just like you. This is opposite of how most people approach this, but this shift in strategy is key to creating that bond.

Right from thge start of your advertising piece you want to enter the conversation that is currently going on in your prospect's mind and address there major 1 -3 hot buttons concerning whatever fear, frustration or desire it is that they are trying to find the answer to.

Talk from your personal experience on an emotional level how you have gone through that same thing, what it felt like, what you did about it, and where you are today. Tell your story in a way that is so compelling they wouldn't stop reading even if had to go pee so bad it hurt.

If you can articulate what somebody is going through better then they themselves can articulate it, they immediately credit you with having the solution to that problem… just by the sheer fact that you are able to better describe the problem than they are (That's a little piece of wisdom I learned from Eben Pagan and it WORKS).

You really want to bond with your prospects on an emotional level and you want them to feel a connection with you, that you understand what they are going through, that you
have gone ahead of them and walked this path yourself.  They are much more likely to trust you, to buy from you, and to keep coming back.

Even though they are your prospect they are also a human being, and you need to communicate with them on that level, one human being to another.

 

Chris McCombs

Health, Fitness and Personal Training Marketing Specialist