| IHRSA Report | Club Advisor
Supporting Your Trainers’ Sales Efforts
By Patricia Amend
How keen are your personal trainers about sales? Do they sell with enthusiasm or shy away from a closing? If they hesitate, do you know why? Is it due to a lack of confidence in themselves or in the services they’re offering? Do they need more support and training? If your personal training sales are not what you’d like them to be, following these suggestions may help boost your numbers.
Get good advice. Two years ago, when the Columbia Association in Columbia, Maryland, was producing about $350,000 in personal training revenue from its three locations, Bob Bellamy, director of Columbia’s sports and fitness division, decided to do better. “Some of my trainers were shy about their sales skills, believing that our product was not worth the price,” he recalls. “I brought in Eddie Tock, who is a partner in REX Roundtables for Executives and a specialist in sales. He worked with our trainers as a group and individually. He helped us restructure our rates. He also looked at how much we expected our trainers to sell and ramped that up. Today, we’re producing $600,000 from all three clubs, and our profit has increased from 20% to 30%. I expect the uptrend to continue.”
Make it your focus. “When interviewing personal trainers, we make it clear that they must be willing to learn to sell,” says Pat Laus, owner of The Atlantic Club, which has locations in Red Bank and Mansaquan, New Jersey. “It’s our responsibility to provide them with the training, support, and incentives they need to meet or surpass their goals.” This effort includes sales-training seminars given by
outside experts twice a year and individual coaching. “We also use the Karen Woodward personal training sales programs, we hold weekly leadership meetings, and we measure trainer performance daily, monthly, and annually,” she continues. “Finally, we run quarterly sales contests that are team-based and fun. As a result, 2011 should be a good year. Our total gross personal training revenue was $2,385,269 for 2010; our projected gross revenue for 2011 is $2,437,255.”
Try something new. Last July, when Deirdre Whalen took over as general manager at HealthQuest, a family fitness center in Hunterdon, New Jersey, she decided a new personal training business model was called for. “We now pay newly hired trainers an hourly fee for just 90 days and feed them ‘house appointments’—the three orientations that each new member receives. After that, they’re on 100% commission. To help them sell, they, along with our experienced trainers, attend weekly roundtable training sessions and we shadow them during the sales process. To promote their services, we announce ‘trainer highlights’ in the lobby and in the fitness center, where they do demonstrations. So far, so good; our numbers in February were very strong.”
Hire specialists instead. Conceding that most trainers prefer to train than sell, Don Murphy, regional managing partner of the Hudson Valley Gold’s Gym Organization, which has locations in Newburgh, Fishkill, and LaGrange, New York, hired “fitness coaches” last fall to do the selling. “We recruited good salespeople who do assessments with every new member using the Visual Fitness Planner software program. By the end of the hour, people realize what they can accomplish—with the help of a trainer. At that point, the fitness coach presents our personal training packages and closes the sale.” Murphy says his personal training revenue for 2011
will double, or perhaps even triple, that of 2010. “Our people are doing what they do best—fitness coaches selling and trainers training.” He adds that trainers are responsible for selling training package renewals. “However, we review each client with them to provide training and assistance with the renewal sale.” —|
www.
ihrsa.org | MAY 2011 | Club Business Internat ional 95
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114