by jimthomas | Apr 21, 2020 | direct mail, gym branding, gym business, gym consultant, gym marketing, Gym Marketing Promotion, Gym Sales Help, Member Retention
One of your primary responsibilities as a gym owner or operator is to make sure the door is swinging, the phone is ringing, the email is dinging and the text is pinging.
Do you think your membership sales team could benefit from the expertise of a lead generation company to get things going, but you’re not sure you’re there yet?
Should you wait until membership sales or private training reach a certain level before bringing someone in? Should you just ride this slump out? Like anything in the the gym business, you want to be confident that you will see a return on your investment.
With that in mind, here are 4 telltale signs that you may be ready to bring in the outside help of a proven lead generation company for your gym.
1. Your Membership Sales Have Dipped (and overall traffic is down)
This is the most obvious issue.
Your sales numbers aren’t where you want them to be. However, you’re still confident that you have a strong sales team (including management) in place and you want to ensure that you’re giving them everything they need to succeed.
Bringing in the gym experts can give them a chance to examine your policies and procedures to find any gaps or opportunities, while they can also look at your sales culture and selling capability.
2. You Feel That You’ve Plateaued
Maybe your sales numbers are fine. But they’ve remained “fine” for months and you feel like your team is capable of more.
You may have done an expert job of recruiting and training your current roster of membership sales superstars, but they have gone as far as they can with the resources you have in-house.
Many times a fresh perspective can be invaluable when you’re looking to take your gym to the next level.
3. You’re Chasing Unqualified Leads
Everyone wants a sales funnel that is overflowing with nothing but qualified leads. However, we don’t have to tell you that this is not how the real gym world works.
Unqualified leads remain a major challenge in every gym. In fact, half of surveyed gym owners say that increasing their lead-to-customer conversions is their biggest challenge and their top priority.
A team of lead generation gym experts can help you gain access to more leads and ensure they’re qualified.
4. Your Sales Team is Spending Less Time Selling
Is your full-time sales staff only selling part-time?
This is another major issue that plagues many gyms. The average membership salesperson today is only spending about a third of their time on actual selling (or even less). The rest of the time, they’re performing non-revenue generating activities like prospecting leads or writing/ responding to emails.
Of course, these other tasks are crucial to their ability to sell memberships and do their jobs. But should they really take that much time? Two-thirds is too high. You can do better.
A lead generation company for your gym can help you streamline your processes and get your team back on the phones and selling more memberships.
Too many gym owners will only consider bringing in a lead gen company once their leads have dried up. There is always an opportunity to get help long before you get to that point. If you’re noticing your sales slowing or plateauing, now is the perfect time to seek outside assistance. Or, you can reach out if you simply feel that your sales team needs to spend more time selling.
There is really no wrong time to hire a lead generation company. Don’t wait until it’s too late!
Now, let’s start selling!
An Outsourced CEO and expert witness, Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting, turnaround and brokerage firm specializing in the gym and sports industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars, webinars and workshops across the globe on the practical skills required to successfully to overcome obscurity, improve sales, build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. In addition, his company will buy gym equipment from gyms liquidating or closing. Visit his Web site at:www.fmconsulting.netorwww.jimthomasondemand.com.
by jimthomas | Oct 10, 2018 | DBAT Baseball, direct mail, fitness center business, gym business, gym business plan, gym consultant, Gym Sales Help, New Gym Start Up
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) has released
The 2018 Health Club Consumer Report. This annual publication, based on a nationwide sample of more than 30,000 interviews, provides demographics and health, sports and fitness participation data on America’s health club consumers.
“U.S. health club membership reached an all-time high in 2017, attracting 60.9 million members, an increase of 6.3 percent from 2016,” said Jay Ablondi, IHRSA’s executive vice president of global products. “Another 9.1 million non-members exercised at clubs. In all, nearly one in four Americans use a health club to pursue fitness and wellness goals.”
The report shows how consumers use health clubs to engage in regular activity and pursue fitness goals. “Nearly half of members are core health club users, meaning they visit the club for at least 100 days a year,” said Melissa Rodriguez, IHRSA’s senior research manager. “Considering the variety of programs and services as well as relatively affordable membership fees, full-service health clubs tend to attract a greater share of core members than boutique studios.”
The report shows that 23 percent of health club members belonged to at least one club or studio in 2017. Studio consumers were more likely to be members of multiple facilities in comparison with members of full-service clubs such as fitness-only and multipurpose sport facilities. For example, as many as nine out of 10 members of combat-focused studios belong to more than one facility, while only one out of four members of fitness-only centers belonged to more than one club.
The report guides club operators in how to better understand consumer behavior as as well as leverage demographic trends in efforts to stand out from the competition. The 2018 IHRSA Health Club Consumer Report is organized into the following chapters:
- Chapter 1. U.S. Health/Fitness Club Trends: An analysis of total membership and consumer growth trends;
- Chapter 2. Membership Behavior & Industry Models: Insights on industry segmentation in response to trends in member behavior;
- Chapter 3. Member Demographics and Implications for the Industry: An exploration of gender, household income, age, educational and ethnicity as well as how demographics are influencing the health club industry;
- Chapter 4. Member Attendance & Tenure: Insights on membership tenure and attendance;
- Chapter 5. Member Activity Behavior: An examination of consumer utilization of equipment and participation in group-based training formats;
- Chapter 6. The Price-Value Paradox: An analysis of fees paid overall and per club segment;
- Chapter 7. Personal & Small Group Training: An overview of private and small group training clients;
- Chapter 8. Overarching Insights & Recommendations: Applications for clubs and suppliers gleaned from consumer findings;
- Appendix – 10 Key Findings & Infographic Insights: One-page summary of key data points and infographic highlights of report.
The 2018 IHRSA Health Club Consumer Report is based on an analysis of 30,099 online interviews that were carried out with a nationwide sample of individuals and households in early 2018. The publication is available in PDF format for $99.95 (IHRSA member price) and $199.95 (non-members).
by jimthomas | Oct 5, 2018 | direct mail, gym branding, gym business, gym consultant, gym marketing, Gym Marketing Promotion, Gym Sales Help, gym sales training, Member Retention, New Gym Start Up
Creating a successful direct mail campaign can be a complicated process. There are many factors to be considered that can affect the success of your mail piece. So, before you lock yourself in your basement office and sit down with your favorite piece of outdated “layout” software, here are 5 key points to consider.
1. Communicate a Clear Message.
At some point, we have all heard the old adage, “you can’t be everything to everyone.” So often, I have clients that want to pack their direct mail promotions with multiple messages in fear that if they focus on just one message, they may lose out on prospects who do not identify with it. This is a valid fear. Every business owner wants their direct mail promotion to appeal to as many new prospects as possible, but when a promotion contains multiple messages, what you are often left with is an ineffective piece that does not communicate any points clearly. In addition, overloading your mailer with too many messages can be overwhelming to the reader.
Do not for one second fool yourself into believing that your business is so darn interesting that people who receive your direct mail piece will rejoice and say, “Hey, what a great company! Man, I would like to take some time out of my day and read about these guys!” If that is your perception about how prospects respond to a direct mail piece, then brother, you are lost. Throughout the day, people are bombarded by advertising. Messages come in from every direction and from multiple media outlets. The goal for your Direct Mail Piece should be to cut through the clutter and give the prospect a comfortable place to land, even if only for a few seconds.
So how do you choose a message that won’t greatly limit your ability to appeal to a mass audience? Well, the first step is to know the needs and wants of your client base. If you are a health club, and you are sending out a fall seasonal mailer, what would appeal to your new prospects? What are they going through currently in their daily lives and what void can your company fill? In the fall, family schedules are back in full gear, kids are back to school, and change is in the air. So, if you are in an area with a large middle class, perhaps you do mailer focused on women with the theme of “Now you have the time to get fit”, or “Now you have the time to make a change.”
Perhaps you own a small Karate Studio and you want to send out a mailer in January. Then you need to understand that the New Year is when adults have an overwhelming urge to lose weight and improve their fitness. So that is the perfect time to send the message that your studio is “A one-stop shop where adults and kids can get in shape.”
Choose a message that is current and appropriate for the time you are sending the mailer out and for the core market that you are trying to reach. The key is, once the main theme has been established, and the prospect now interested, then you can begin to communicate some of your additional benefits and amenities without bastardizing the original theme and message.
Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting, turnaround and brokerage firm specializing in the gym and sports industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars, webinars and workshops across the globe on the practical skills required to successfully to overcome obscurity, improve sales, build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. In addition, his company will buy gym equipment from gyms liquidating or closing. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net or www.jimthomasondemand.com.
