How To Create a Successful Weight Loss Program in Your Facility

_How To Create a Successful Amerishape Weight Loss Program in Your
Facility_ (http://www.amerishapeweightloss.com )

Exercise has so many benefits – preventing heart disease, cancer and
diabetes, increasing energy and productivity and enhancing one’s athletic
performance. Still, chances are a large portion of your customers are only
interested in one thing: _Amerishape Weight Loss Programs_
(http://www.amerishape.com) .
If the member achieves their goal, they’ll likely stay longer and that’s
good for business. So that begs the question: How can you help your members
achieve their goals? Understanding what makes the weight loss client “tick.
”

* Lean what weight loss clients really need to be successful.
* Learn the 6 absolutes for client success
* Understand that a weight loss program alone will not ensure
long-term success
* Building a Buzz — Marketing ideas to help the program grow both in
and outside of your facility.
* _www.amerishapecenter.com_ (http://www.amerishapecenter.com)

What Does The President Look for in a Gym?

What was it about the Washington Sports Club brand that prompted Barack Obama to choose to join its clubs over all others when he came to Washington after his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004?

No doubt, the brand, marketing, and advertising relayed an important message to Obama, now the 44th President of the United States: ‘this fitness club has what you need and we can offer it to you in a convenient manner at an acceptable price.’

No need for high pressure sales here. Senator Obama found what he was looking for and signed up.

Wouldn’t you like your branding/marketing/sales effort to be this effective?

Of course! It is hardly an overstatement to say that sales and marketing are the lifeblood of your health and fitness club. To keep your business healthy, you need to keep a constant flow of new members joining to grow your membership while replacing any who leave because they move away or change jobs.

Stephen J. Tharrett and James A. Peterson authors of Fitness Management (Healthy Learning, 2006) estimate that, to be successful, most clubs have to sell between 800 and 1,300 memberships on an annual basis. Larger clubs need to recruit as many as 5,000 new members each year.

Positioning is key
Branding, marketing and advertising help to create and nurture relationships with consumers in your community who are contemplating lifestyle changes, or, like Obama, want to keep up the good work. This is your reservoir of sales leads, people you hope will take the next step—tour your club as a prospective member.

To encourage people to walk through your door, you need to position your business to differentiate it from other clubs with strong branding.

Are you a new, no-frills Planet Fitness franchisor offering a special, one-year, prepaid membership for just $99? Or, is your club part of a well-known mid-range chain, such as the Washington Sports Club, with facilities clustered near home and office. Or, are you, like the Sports Club /LA, known for luxury?

Mere mention of brand names like these and others like Gold’s, Crunch, Lifetime Fitness, East Bank and 24-Hour Fitness communicate to consumers what the club stands for and will deliver for the price of a membership.

Paving the way for sales
Marketing and advertising—whether they utilize print, radio, television, direct mail or the Internet and email—need to be ongoing and relentless to generate the number of leads and prospects you’ll need to meet your sales goals.

As Tharrett and Peterson point out, sales is quite the numbers game. “While the percentages tend to vary from market to market and club to club, the average club can expect to convert 20% to 50% of its leads to prospects, and 20% to 80% of its prospects to actual members.”

It is up to your sales staff to identify what prospects are looking for, and communicate well how your facility, your programs and your staff will satisfy those needs—and close the sale.

Ben Midgely, who once served as team director of corporate sales at 24-Hour Fitness, and is now executive vice president of Planet Fitness, says that hiring sales people with passion is vital.

“You can’t teach passion, you have to find it. Look for people who are committed to fitness, and who care enough to want to spread the good word about its benefits, and help others succeed. If you focus on the member first, rather than the money, the money will follow.”

Q: “What is the standard closing rate of sales in the fitness industry?”

A:

 Closing rates will be different for different sales staff and different clubs. My best sales person closes 73 percent of all prospects. New sales staff with little experience can be lucky to close 30 percent. The average for all staff across all clubs is 53%. Clubs with highly trained sales staff and low staff turnover will maintain closing rates of over 70 percent.

Of course, you also need to look at total monthly sales. A sales person that does very little prospecting and only sees highly qualified walk-ins will tend to have a higher closing rate than a sales person who is actively involved in prospecting. In other words, selling 50 percent of 100 prospects is better than 80 percent of 20 walk-ins.

Also, clubs sometimes pick their closing rates out of the sky. The only way you can get accurate closing rates is if you have a 100 percent fail-safe system of recording all tours, walk-ins, and guests. I once looked at a club claiming 85 percent closing rates but they were not including guest passes. They were getting approximately 140 people on guest passes every month. When these were included their closing rates were only 36 percent.

A:

 A membership consultant’s “hit rate” will never be as good as it could be as long as it is referred to as just that… a “hit rate”. Members aren’t units, points or numbers, they’re people and each has a story and a reason for coming to us and the best consultants assume every single guest has a need to fill and consequently has come to join. We change people lives every day through fitness and as consultants our job is to remove all barriers and causes for hesitation, more often than not in people who have already gone through several stages of consideration before visiting a club.

It’s a competitive world and true to say not everyone who visits will join your club. Many factors will influence their final decision, so the ultimate percentage of those who join can vary from club to club, however globally I can say we at Face2Face aim to average in the high 60’s. I see many clubs claim much higher but often investigation reveals not all guests are counted as “prospects,” skewing their true conversion and indeed limiting their success.

Q: “What is the standard closing rate of sales in the fitness industry?”

A: Closing rates will be different for different sales staff and different clubs. My best sales person closes 73 percent of all prospects. New sales staff with little experience can be lucky to close 30 percent. The average for all staff across all clubs is 53%. Clubs with highly trained sales staff and low staff turnover will maintain closing rates of over 70 percent.

Of course, you also need to look at total monthly sales. A sales person that does very little prospecting and only sees highly qualified walk-ins will tend to have a higher closing rate than a sales person who is actively involved in prospecting. In other words, selling 50 percent of 100 prospects is better than 80 percent of 20 walk-ins.

Also, clubs sometimes pick their closing rates out of the sky. The only way you can get accurate closing rates is if you have a 100 percent fail-safe system of recording all tours, walk-ins, and guests. I once looked at a club claiming 85 percent closing rates but they were not including guest passes. They were getting approximately 140 people on guest passes every month. When these were included their closing rates were only 36 percent.

A: A membership consultant’s “hit rate” will never be as good as it could be as long as it is referred to as just that… a “hit rate”. Members aren’t units, points or numbers, they’re people and each has a story and a reason for coming to us and the best consultants assume every single guest has a need to fill and consequently has come to join. We change people lives every day through fitness and as consultants our job is to remove all barriers and causes for hesitation, more often than not in people who have already gone through several stages of consideration before visiting a club.

It’s a competitive world and true to say not everyone who visits will join your club. Many factors will influence their final decision, so the ultimate percentage of those who join can vary from club to club, however globally I can say we at Face2Face aim to average in the high 60’s. I see many clubs claim much higher but often investigation reveals not all guests are counted as “prospects,” skewing their true conversion and indeed limiting their success.

Paul Brown