A Fitness Sales Guest Post by Adam Toohey

This is a guest post from my friend Adam Toohey… I'll let Adam take it from here…

Not so long ago Chris put up a post on listening to your customers - People (including you) need to feel connected to something or someone and by listening, intently and really being present, you can give this gift to your clients every day.

"We have 2 ears and 1 mouth therefore we can listen twice as much as we speak" - Epictetus

Ask yourself this question… What else can I do to ensure I really connect with my client?

( Hint - The secret lies in the answer…. )

But before I go there… let me share a brief story

A new restaurant had opened up in Melbourne recently and it was said to be THE BEST Steak House Restaurant in the whole city. Local and International celebs were known to dine there and getting a table on any given night is pretty tough. Not one to be discouraged I called the restaurant in advance just to see what my chances were. "Sorry Sir, we are totally booked this evening"

I'll admit I had left it a bit late (I had a date that night and figured the restaurant would impress) and so was as we say in Australia I was "shit outta luck"

I had promised the girl a dinner at this place and I wasn't to be denied… so we went to that very restaurant anyway knowing it was fully booked.

Leaving my friend at the front (to work my magic) I strode in towards the front of house and was presented with a charming and somewhat stressed staff member.

"I wondered if you could help me". "Certainly Sir".

"I called earlier and spoke to your manager who informed me you were fully booked tonight's dinner, and I can see that you are really busy, but I wondered if there was any chance of an early seating now for two… We only need about an hour".

A few minutes later I walked with a certain swagger to grab my date and we were shown to our seats.

Needless to say she was blown away… (Oh and we were given 2 hours)

So was it just coincidence, or was it something more?

A Fitness Marketing Post by Chris McCombs

If you're a long time reader of this blog you might have this one handled, but you'd be amazed that more trainers DON'T have this one handled than DO have it handled.

Lemme explain…

The other night I was out with my wife Sarah at one of our favorite restaurants… Nick's down in Laguna Beach… awesome food.

Anyway, the couple next to us was on their first date, pretty sure they met on the internet… he was a white dude about sixty and she was an Asian woman probably in her mid-forties.

What was awesome was to hear to dude go on and on about how worldly he was, how he's been to this country and that country, and he takes his private boat everywhere he goes, and how owns a high end consulting firm, and how his son from his 2nd marriage is the captain of the football team, and how he's into only the finest of wines and on and on and on… he didn't let her say a thing besides "really" and "oh my"

Guest Post by Zach Hunt

I was talking with one of my long time clients the other day and they were saying how cool it would be if I could send them a weekly motivational text or some type of accountability message to their phone each week…

This got me thinking!

Well, first what is SMS, well I don't even know -let me look it up right now…..pause….okay, it seems it stands for short message service or as I know it as texting.

Now I have to admit, I'm a late adapter to the technology stuff, things like twitter, facebook, myspace, those are all fairly new to me almost as of this year. And texting, don't even get me started.

Guest Post by Dustin Maher

Here's a guest post by fitness professional Dustin Maher about creating exclusivity in your fitness business. He's expanding on a strategy made popular in the fitness business by Jim Labadie and Ryan Lee called Velvet Rope Marketing

When you think of a velvet rope, what do you think of? Do you think of the red carpet at the Oscars, with the body guards at the front door blocking the entrance from those who aren't allowed to go in? Do you picture a bouncer at a hot night club controlling the long line of clubbers who are looking to get into the party?

Now what if I were to tell you that you could have that same kind of experience; the experience where clients are lining up to train with you via, one on one training, small group training, boot camps, or at your gym.

This is what I have been able to create in just the past two years by implementing some simple marketing strategies that get clients to feel like they NEED to train with me, and any other trainer/gym JUST WON'T DO. I don’t possess any magical powers and now it is your turn to experience this!

Here are my top 5 strategies to help you get clients begging, pleading, and bribing you to work with them…

Recently I bought a brand new 2008 Harely Davidson Soft Tail Cross Bones. I can get a little obsessive about my businesses… constantly thinking about ways to improve them… ways to get more clients… ways to make more money. Going for a ride is extremely meditative for me. It's one place I can completely shut off ANY thoughts about my business and be 100% in the moment. It's important for me to mentally escape my businesses once in awhile so when I return to them I'm able to give it everything I've friggin' got. Every time I take my Harley for ride it's like going on a mini vacation… I always return refreshed and in a better mental state.

When I was at the Harley dealer purchasing my new bike it was pretty cool to see some of the sales tactics they used.

No one likes a pushy salesman…

…in fact I'd argue that besides terrorists and child molesters, pushy salesman are one of the most hated species to dwell our earth. I personally avoid them like the plague and cut them off at the very first chance I get… I'll admit, sometimes I can be pretty damned rude to them and it ticks my wife off a little when I tell these guys where they can stick it, but ironically, if you're in the fitness business, you NEED to be good at sales… just not THAT kind of sales.

Let's face if, whenever anyone tries to talk us into something or tries to get us to change our point of view about something it makes us go on the defensive BIG TIME, and the more they push, the more we resist, it's human nature.

We need to keep this at the forefront of our thoughts when were constructing our own personal sales approach. In fact, I suggest an approach that is almost on the complete other end of the spectrum… it's called consultative selling and works like friggin' gang busters when done correctly…

Paul, who are you and what do you do?

Paul Mort, I'm former fat boy, now one of the UK’s leading fat loss experts,  twice young business person of the year, featured in national press and magazines, tv and radio.

When it comes to having a successful training biz, what do you feel are the key factors?

Results- plain and simple Chris, you can have the most qualifications in the world or the best marketing and sales techniques in the world- but if you cant get results for your clients then you have no chance of not only keeping them as clients or of them referring their friends!

Customer care: it really annoys me when I hear trainers or any other service saying here’s a testimonial from one of our ‘satisfied customers’. Imagine making love to your spouse and asking the infamous “how was it for you?” and he-she replied “satisfactory” how would you feel? My sentiments exactly. Don’t strive for satisfied customers, strive for raving fans!

When it comes to customer care, where do most trainers go wrong?

Do you want reliable, stable and predictable income? Sure you do, if you didn't you'd probably be spending your time watching "American Idol" or whatever bubble-gum brain-candy of the week was on the boob tube instead of reading this article and expanding your mind…

Continuity is one of the most sure-fire ways to have a reliable and stable income in the health and fitness industry that I know of.

What you want to do is set your patients, clients or customers up on some kind of automatic billing program and you want that money to just come out of their bank - out of sight, out of mind - so they are just paying you and using your services on a regular basis without them having to think about it.

When I first started out as a personal trainer I used to charge people by cash or check and I would sell sessions, I would sell packages of 10 or 20 or 50 sessions. It was always a weird feeling when I had to ask for more money and I knew the client didn't want to have to pull out their pocketbook and spend more money on my services. It would put this real funky vibe between me and them, hey I just wanted to train, I didn't want to be a bill collector hitting them up for checks all the time

Here's an interview I did with Bedros Keuilian on how to sell personal training and personal training sales techniques. Bedros is the man when it comes to helping personal trainers and coaches create effective fitness marketing and fitness sales systems so they can make more money.

Chris McCombs (CM): Bedros, what is it that you do?

Bedros Keuilian (BK): That’s a good question, Chris. What I do is I bridge the gap of income for personal trainers and fitness business owners. The average trainer today makes about $30,000 a year. I bridge the gap between $30,000 and six and seven figures, through various tools and technology that I’ve created for the industry. And these tools and technology will help personal trainers out market, out sell, and out position their competitors.

Here's a Fitness Sales Interview with Andy Miller on how personal trainers, fitness trainers and fitness professionals can create better selling systems to convert more prospects into clients. After having your fitness marketing systems in place, the next most important piece of the puzzle is to have your fitness sales process in place. When it comes to making sales, Andy is the best around, demanding and getting as much as 15K per day for his one of a kind consulting.

Chris: It’s an honor and a pleasure to bring you the sales wisdom of Andy Miller. Andy is president and CEO of Sales Management Guru. He has been featured on CNN, Sales and Marketing Management, Selling Power, Newsweek, Success and Your Company magazines, and has shared the stage with speaking greats Jay Abraham, Dennis Whitely, Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen and Zig Zigler. Jay Abraham calls him “exceptional and one of the top consulted sales trainers” that he’s ever met.

Chris: Andy, what is it that you do?

Andy: My primary focus is I work with CEOs to help them grow their sales organizations.

Chris: How important is sales if a personal trainer wants to be successful?

Every small business should be able to follow a dollar from the customer's introduction to the business (top of the funnel) all the way to their conversion of becoming a client and to keeping that client and generating referrals. (…)

The principles of selling don't change, no matter what technology comes along. If you understand selling you'll be able to sell no matter what tools, media or technology you use. (…)

By Guest Poster Tiphanie

So, when was the last time any of you went on Craigs list? (who is Craig anyways?) Log on, check out lessons and tutoring, and it'll only take you half a second to figure out that just about every unemployed and/or unemployable individual in the county is in there selling their personal training services; some of them quite poorly. Maybe that was a bit of an unfair statement, granted, there are some of us in there posting that really put some heart, sweat and tears into our work and what we do, and dammit, we do it well! With that said, I want to talk a little bit about effective methods of selling personal training.

The internet is a great tool to use for selling personal training. Devote a little bit of time to come up with a great website. Post videos, testimonials of some of your star students complete with before and after photos. I can write all day about how my training sessions are better than anyone's out there and no one will really buy it, but once there's some visuals for them to go off of, I'll have a much better chance of making my point, and making it well. Also keep a blog running so that you can keep in touch with your existing clients and the potential ones. Letting clients get their feedback about how great their sessions are going is another great way to spread the word.

Running regular promotions for your business will help create awareness of it and make sure that that awareness doesn’t wear off immediately. And although most business owners think that the goal of promotions are only for attracting new clients, other promotions aren’t that straightforward in achieving that goal.

Sure, you can attract new clients by giving away discounts or free memberships. However, the truth of the matter is that, not all people will take the bait that easily. Some people need to be convinced further that you’re fitness club is for them. They need to be assured several times before deciding to choose you. And that’s a process you don’t always achieve by shoving invites down their throats.

So what do you do? You take a more subtle approach at your promotions. I’ll show you some examples that take the subtle approach so you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about.