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THE BEST SALES AND MARKETING
TECHNIQUE – EVER!
BY DAVE WRIGHT
T
here are few members who have cancelled their club memberships because a fi tness pro helped them
get into great shape. In our industry,
where generally 80% of new members come from word of mouth, the best sales and marketing tech- nique that any club can apply is simple: get results for your members. The basic equation for good sales fi g-
ures is when value is greater than cost, sales = 100%. Using this equation, it’s easy to understand that people never buy on price alone. Instead, they buy on value, that is, the emotional reasons for achiev- ing their goals. What is the value of help- ing an obese member lose 50 pounds and avoid serious illness? It’s almost to great to calculate. Marketing on cost alone is always an
error. If you posted a sign outside of your club advertising “free memberships,” would you get a 100% penetration rate rather than the typical 10-15%? It’s unlike- ly. Anyone who operates a club in a lower income part of town will notice that liquor and cigarette sales are always high, despite their high cost. People who smoke a $5 package of
cigarettes each day spend $152 per month, or $1,825 per year on cigarettes. If their goal were to stop smoking and you charged $150 a month to help them achieve this goal, they would likely view this as a very reasonable cost. The addi- tional expense of your fees would be off- set by the former cigarette expense. Do you know how much it costs to join
Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig? “Who cares?” is what many people say. If it gives them results, then they’re willing to pay. This consumer attitude is why many of these “result programs” are so fi nan- cially successful. Put your focus on the root of the
problem. If we can help people get re- sults, they will stay with us longer, tell their friends about us and help our rev- enues soar. People will never complain about price if they are getting the results they want. But no matter what the price – $9 or $150 a month – if people aren’t
reaching their goals, you’ll never keep them in your club. And it there’s no buzz about how you’re transforming people’s lives, you’ll never get the positive buzz in the community that is neces- sary to continuously attract new members.
Dave Wright is the CEO of Creative Fitness Marketing, a company that works with over 200 in- dependent health clubs around the world and gen- erates over 40,000 new members on long term membership agreements every year. Dave has a degree in recreation management and is an inter- national speaker and author. He oversees 160 sales people in eight countries.
Call us at 1.877.454.2285
www.atlantis-fit.com
July/August 2009 Fitness Business Canada 15
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