Gym Floor Lead Generation, Just How Difficult Is It? By Dan Mitchell
Not many of us enjoy the sales part of our jobs. I often think it’s because we feel like PT is something of a novelty to people, that they don’t value what we do or we don’t want to come across as a douche sales person. I can understand that. When you think about it, nobody likes hard sells anyway do they? Cold callers get the phone slammed down on them. Leaflets thrust in your face in the high street get binned instantly. You get the gist, it often feels that we would be forcing your services on to potential clients, when in reality it really doesn’t have to be that way.
The Leads Are In Front Of You
You see, the best sales strategy you can employ in a gym is simply being nice to people. The leads are right there in front of you, but you’re right, they don’t want the hard sell.
They need to know you exist, they need to see you in the gym, maybe see a display you’ve put up, see you in classes, meet you in inductions, see other people wearing your kit or hear about how great you are from other people. They also need to know something about you as a person. Something that your all singing and all dancing website showing fantastic results can’t convey. By focusing on building a relationship with a person in front of you you have a much better chance of success than if you throw information out into the online world hoping someone sees the light and decides to train with you as a result.
The process is actually not entirely different to purchasing a car really.
Bear with me on this one!
So let’s take German cars, perhaps not Volkswagen at the moment, more so BMW for example. People associate BMW with being extremely well engineered, premium, efficient and well trusted cars. They do hold a slight price premium on this, and for a reason. We KNOW that these cars have the above qualities and we seek them out, hence why they sell so well. BMW have built that relationship with its potential consumers through trust, a fantastic product and building a good relationship with its buyers.
We need to do that too. Personal Trainers not only need to show how good we are to our potential leads, but more importantly get them to like us. To feel comfortable around us. To trust our knowledge, our personalities, our methodologies and see us as the pinnacle of that environment.
A good friend of mine owns a construction company in my local area. His digital presence is non-existent. His business? Flourishing. Word of mouth has him fully booked and taking on staff at a rapid rate. Why can’t this apply to us?
Building relationships and trust is really quite simple, but often quite daunting for a Trainer.
“I don’t like speaking to people”
I hear this a lot and I can relate, I was absolutely petrified when I first worked in a gym. The thoughts that went through my head were, “I don’t look like I lift”, which was true at the time to be honest, “people will think I am stupid and question me” and ”I don’t want to be annoying” amongst other negative thoughts.
That’s fine, its normal to A — not want to sell, and B — feel a bit apprehensive about the process. What we need to remember is that most of these people NEED us. They just don’t know it yet. A simple “Hi, how are you doing” is a great place to get started. Seems a bit silly really, doesn’t it? A lead gen article telling you to introduce yourself. However, that’s the start of any relationship that isn’t on Tinder isn’t it?
Keep Being Nice (There’s a theme developing here)
The next step is to possibly pay a small compliment or ask them how their training is going. New trainers? Cool — tell them they are awesome. Looking like they’ve achieved some weight loss? “Wow you’ve done really well since I last saw you, what have you been doing!” Then it progresses.
WHAT ABOUT FREE STUFF?
Who DOESN’T like free stuff? We’ve all been to BodyPower Expo to get free samples in the past haven’t we? Well, we need to give our leads free stuff. Write a series of articles on a subject that is confusing, such as — NUTRITION. Isn’t that something we could have all done with clarity on all those years ago? Stick your details on and make it look really pretty, show you’ve taken time on it. Then, ask them for their opinion on it. This shows you actually give a monkeys about their input. You care about what they have to say. You want them to benefit. You’ll encourage questions and you’ll be building a relationship far, far greater than if you just simply thrust a free PT session in their faces.
Giving someone a free hour of your time is great, but how would you follow that up? A free session is fine, but ultimately does someone see the value in what you are showing them? I would prefer a free week, or free trial period even. You can give them education within this time, make sure the sessions are fun, hard work, but most of all enjoyable. Get discussions going outside of your sessions with the person/group and make them feel part of something.
You’ve forged a relationship.
Even if they don’t sign up, at the very least they will tell people how nice you’ve been for giving up your spare time for them. Doesn’t that sound awesome? Giving someone the tools to get themselves healthier and happier, the very thing we got in to the industry for in the first place!
Grow your brand/reputation not your income
Think of how you can get yourself noticed rather than how you can get your next £30. With that mindset, you’re more likely to pick up clients.
Dan Mitchell DMF: Evolve
We also have a webinar on offline lead generation as well as downloads to help with getting clients on the gym floor. Find out more about our free trial here.