Tips to Achieving a 90% Close Ratio
Let’s face it, most personal trainers are not great salespeople, and they don’t want to be. I understand that and I’ve been annoyed the same way you have by numerous pushy salespeople. But the truth is if you are meeting new prospective clients and 9 out of 10 are not signing up you’re working really hard but not nearly maximizing your profitability. Trust me one of your competitors may be doing a better job, but you don’t have to let that happen.
Anyone you have met with, are about to meet with or who is currently your customer is much more likely to purchase something else from you than a new person that you haven’t met or is brand new to your list. This is why it’s critical to not let them get away and to ensure you close as many deals as possible. By striving for that 90% consistent close ratio you don’t have to do any more sales than necessary to enjoy the best your business has to offer.
Now rather than write about how to sell I’m specifically going to focus on the situations at the end of the consult where a client either says no, they’re not interested, or they have purchased a much smaller package than you felt they needed or would have licked.
When a client says no…
What this really means is you haven’t earned their trust enough by listening to their fears and reflecting the necessary info to allow them to determine they can overcome their fears with your services. Try reinforcing them with sincere questions; if they don’t do this how will they overcome <insert> fear? If you can keep them connected within this conversation you may then earn the opportunity to present another offer.
The Secondary Pitch…
At some point a client will always say no, if you are able to continue to discuss with them you may get the chance to present a second offer. If not by email, phone or mail a few days later (is not as good as live but) can also be a great opportunity to provide them another offer. The reason this may work is if you have earned their trust they may still have said no because the offer didn’t appear or convince them it contained enough value. These secondary offers need to be quite aggressive and show lot’s of obvious value. Things like: 2 weeks of personal training for $2, 21 day free bootcamp, 1 month of semi-private training for $47, etc. Pour on the value; make it impossible for them to say no. The point is you know once they try your service and feel the difference they are going to say, so what are you willing to do to attract customers? (This is why it’s also important to raise your rates so you can factor in these kind of deep discounts at times, but that’s another post.)
The Add-on…
Another common situation is people come in with an idea in their head about how much your service should cost. You may go through the whole process smoothly to discover what you feel they need to reach your goals costs more than what they were committed to spending. If presented the right way to show the value you may be able to add-on extra items to the package for a few dollars more moving closer to the target you had hoped for. Even beyond the first appointment it’s good to make a few notes of what you feel would be best for the client to reach their goals and after a couple of sessions you may present a couple of package add-ons to them and find them more receptive. Trust and value are the two key limiting items when it comes to purchases. You up both of these and people will respond.
By using secondary offers and add-ons you can easily hit your 90% close ratio, the extra investment you make is easily worth it when you consider how costly and difficult it is to continually attract new fresh targeted leads.
How to instantly earn an extra $5760 a year or more.
Today we had our monthly team meeting. Our discussion had a very important focus for everyone to consider, is it easier to attract new clients or retain the ones you have? You guessed it, keep the ones you have, but have you ever considered the math behind it?
In any given geographical area there are only so many people. Of those people it’s generally accepted that 8-13% of the total population will possibly be looking or using a service like ours. For easy numbers use 10%. Now list out all of your competition, it’s easy to see these numbers dwindle.
Now consider how many people are left for you to draw from and attract as personal training clients. People are going to come and go but the question becomes can you keep them longer? It may not seem like much to lose 1-3 clients a month but when you start to do the mat it can be pretty staggering. Let’s use the average of 2 per month. On average the majority of our clients see us 3 times per week for 30 minute sessions, let’s assume your training rates are the national average of about a $1/min. So each client lost is costing you about $360/month or a grand total of $8640 over the course of the year! ($30X3X2X12)
Now you won’t prevent everyone from quitting but let me tell you, and we know this from tracking within our facility, that only about 1/3 of people quit for reasons other than they are not getting enough value. Sure they may tell they can’t afford it or they are just ready to work on their own but in truth all they are saying is that your services are no longer providing enough value for them to justify the cost. A classic example of this is that thing you want so bad you scrimp, save, cut corners and get it anyways. We all do it, and we will all do it again.
Simple steps to retaining clients:
- Recognize their successes more often. Not just during their sessions, make a point to give them a quick call, send them an email, congratulate them on Facebook or make some kind of simple silly little award.
- Ask yourself can you feel 100% sincere and comfortable and believe that you deserve to mention at the end of every session, “great job today! By the way I am never too busy for referrals, I’d really like to train more people like you.” You might think it weird to say this all the time but in truth you need to because your clients are talking about you or thinking about what they are doing but many won’t actively think to refer if you don’t remind them.
- Deliver over the top service, the next time a client cancels suddenly just take 1/3 of the time you had planned to be with them to call, email, or Facebook them and other clients to tell them how great they are and how much you appreciate them. If you just invested these few precious minutes all the time you will be the busiest trainer in your area in no time.
- As my buddy Steve Hochman says go “APE” shit in every session with your clients. Appreciate them, be Passionate and Enthusiastic.
It’s really that simple, we always make things harder than they are. I see the numbers and the math behind our business every day; I know if you just work on these things and make them habit you will retain more clients longer. After all wouldn’t you like to instantly increase your earnings by $5760 a year? ($8460 less the 1/3 of client cancels for reasons beyond your control.)
The Conversion Pitch
Yes Star Wars is my favorite all time movie!
If you’ve been reading Profitable Personal Trainer at all you know that the fitness marketing strategies I like to employ the most are the ones that revolve around giving over the top value to your prospects. It’s not rocket science, its simple rapport, invest in people and they in turn will invest in you. As Zig Zigler so profoundly says, “the more you help others get what they want the more likely you will get what you want.”
Now it is that simple, and yet it isn’t. If you’ve been planning re-packaged short term free programs to massively attract new leads, if you’ve been offering up blockbuster high value trial packages so it’s a no brainer for people to try your services, don’t forget you still have to ask them or present them with an offer to continue. In other words at some point you still have to sell.
High value marketing systems will continually allow you to create a steady influx of new prospects and will rapidly position you as the good guy expert in your community. But without a conversion plan you will only see about 10-15% of your clients turn over into loyal paying clients with little to no effort.
Each time you execute a high value free program (like a 21 day rapid fat loss bootcamp) at just over the half way mark you should be converting clients. Now here’s the easy steps to making sure 80-90% of your people stay:
1) Make sure your service is over the top, they have to absolutely love what they are doing when they are training with you. (duh)
2) Make sure they get results. Give them all your best stuff and go the extra mile with accountability to ensure rapid results do happen. (duh #2)
3) Present them an irresistible offer. Discount their first month, offer them extra bonuses that cost you nothing. (An Infrared Sauna works so wonderful for this, in Red Deer a sauna drop-in cost like $15, but 10 sessions in the sauna costs me about $1.00 worth of power.) Free bonuses from professional partners. The e-book you recently wrote. The 100 healthy recipes you compiled from all across the internet. It doesn’t take much to really crank up the value.
4) Present everything to them with emotion.
Mrs. Jones you came to me 50 lbs overweight, you are on high blood pressure medication and type II diabetes runs in your family. It’s been just 2 weeks and you have already dropped 11 lbs, and just last week I noticed you were able to complete 40 squats and on day 1 you could only do 2. You mentioned you are sleeping better and your clothes are getting loose. I know you’re not yet done your trial but I am so proud of your results I wanted to give you this…(insert high value offer). There is no pressure at all to continue but man your results are going so good, I really want to see you lose that 50lbs in no time, don’t you agree things are going well?
How can she really say no? The only likely objection might be a financial one which means either the value you are providing isn’t high enough or she can’t afford it.
5) The secret weapon, the downsell. – Some clients may genuinely not be able to afford your most typical program, so offer them something for $97 a month. Even if it’s a nutritional meeting once a week, or a couple of bootcamps and a follow up call. The point is if they’re getting results and having fun they will continue but they are not going to tell you how much they are willing to pay.
Bottom line is you have to close, I see too many trainers lately applying some of the great fitness marketing strategies that have been listed here but they are not booking the sales consults to convert their leads to paying clients. Your goal has to be at least 1 new sales appointment per day.
Are You a Crappy Trainer? (15 Point Self Assessment)
How many of these things are you already doing well?
June and the summer months are some of the toughest months for many personal trainers. I’ve been receiving all kinds of emails from trainers asking what they need to do differently to survive these difficult months. In the main time we’ve had a near record breaking month at One-to-1 Fitness for new business, the formula is simpler than you think. Below is a 15 point checklist, read each one and then ask yourself if you are doing this effectively, if not spend a few minutes jotting down how you might implement this or do it better, commit to this for the next 60 days and by September you will never believe the summer is bad for personal training again.
- Always Build the List. Your most important marketing task for successful anything (in this case personal training) is the campaigns that build your list. The list is king, the bigger it the easier, and more importantly, the more predictable sales/client attraction is.
- Recognize and reward. Every living being on the face of the earth emotionally thrives on recognition and reward; we are hard wired for it. Recognize your clients and your staff as often as possible. Build a cult following by providing reward, this can be as simple as a thank you card or a big gold star.
- Remember that success likes speed. Don’t wait too long on ideas, develop a plan and take immediate action. As one idea or campaign blends to the next the momentum will carry you to massively grow your business.
- Continually ask for testimonials. Social proof will allow you to sell anything. Results are an incredibly powerful tool, share those results with others and your services will sell themselves.
- Get out of your comfort zone. Volunteer, join social clubs, attend networking functions, book free seminar sessions and lunch and learns. Try to talk to at least 10 new people in your community each day. Get out there and get known.
- Deliver, big time. Call your clients, see how they are doing. Email them or send them text messages. Remember you are building a relationship, strong client relationships will keep them with you forever. These little things provide so much additional value your clients will make you the talk of the town.
- Always be asking for referrals. Find subtle and creative ways to ask for referrals and make sure it’s always on your clients minds.
- Use email marketing for constant contact. Email marketing is one of the most powerful cost effective tools available to you (and why your list building is so important.) Keep your list warm by constantly providing them value through killer content. This maintains and elevates your expert status and ensures business longevity.
- Sell the lifestyle not the session. Selling packages of sessions is dead, automated monthly billing (EFT) is the key to success, get it in action immediately, and at first even as simple as post-dated cheques while you work through the steps with your bank.
- Use high value free programs and special repackage offers to quickly attract tonnes of new customers.
- Develop win-win relationships with local businesses and develop a large scale bonus program for clients and prospects. Use these bonuses and special offers to convert new prospects to new EFT agreements.
- Write specific goals. Just like you tell your clients set your own goals and then work backwards week by week to develop your plan to achieve that goal and hold yourself accountable.
- Don’t re-invent the wheel. Use the tools of others, attend conferences, get a coach, look at a franchise.
- Systemize everything. Think of each process like you are going to have to complete it a 100 times or more, develop a system around each action, process, or marketing campaign. Soon situations are just a repeat process and planning becomes what system to engage next. You will soon be able to see weeks and months ahead.
- Most importantly, never give up!
10 Ways to Get More Clients Right Now!
Based on the emails I’ve been getting I know I have a lot of brand new trainers reading my blog each week. That’s awesome because I still remember just how tough it was to get going with my personal training business and all the basic mistakes I made then. If you need more clients here are my top 10 ways as a new or experienced trainer that you can get more clients right now:
1) Be the trainer that everyone wants to hire. This may sound silly but to be honest one of the biggest problems we’ve had hiring trainers in our facility is they don’t come with the energetic personality you need to be super successful on your own. Each day has to be fun, your primary job is to be uplifting to the people around you and inspire them to commit to the practical magic you teach them.
2) Consistently ask for referrals, and offer referral rewards. This business is based on service and good service produces great word of mouth advertising. Be sure to subtly remind your clients that you really appreciate referrals or offer a referral contest 2-3 times per year.
3) Run real value free trial programs. Make people an offer they can’t refuse, commit to giving them 2 weeks for free or for $1. Show people really value and over deliver your enthusiasm and personality to build a raving fan base. These people become paying customers and bring others.
4) Use the Human Billboard program I learned from my good friend Steve Hochman. Offer people a free trial program and ask them to invite their friends, for each paying customer they refer give them more free training time. What could be better than free personal training after all?
5) Repackage your programs into short term rapid solutions for immediate problems. Ie. The 21 day Summer Tummy Solution. Use Kijiji and Facebook advertising to attract new targeted leads to these short term programs.
6) If you are currently training clients, call your old clients and create a special offer just for them. Don’t wait for them to call you, show genuine interest and get in touch. We’ve signed up over 30 clients in the last 30 days with 2 special packages just for previous clients.
7) Get out in the community schedule at least 1-2 speaker sessions a month for any office with more than 10 employees, a service club, a charitable organization, or anywhere you can find 10 or more people.
8) Immediately position yourself as a community expert, contact at least 2-3 complimentary type businesses each week. Offer to add the manager or key employee into one of your group programs. Provide a nice discount for remaining employees and over deliver. Hairstylists talk to 10-20 people a day wouldn’t you like them to be talking about you?
9) Use list builders on Kijiji and Facebook every week to grow your list and apply 2-step marketing methods to your list 1-2 times per month.
10) Use lead boxes in high traffic areas to increase your list even faster and improve response to 2-step marketing emails.
If you made it a priority to totally commit to applying even 4-6 of these points on an ongoing basis there is absolutely no reason you can’t be booked solid as a personal trainer in the next 30-60 days.
4…3…2…1…We Are Go For Launch!
Did you wake up this morning full of passion and desire to succeed in a way that you have never felt before? Did you wake up with ideas and tasks swimming in your head that you absolutely need to attack and complete this coming week? Did you open your notebook to find that you now possess a complete 8 week, step-by-step plan detailing how even as a brand new trainer you can sell $100,000 in personal training and fitness programs in the next 8 weeks?
I know a number of individuals who made the trip to Edmonton, Alberta this past Saturday will be nodding a resounding yes to all of these questions. (That is if they have the time to even read this post.)
The Alberta average wage for a personal trainer in 2009 was just over $22,000, we can do far better than this. Our industry is growing faster and is needed more than ever. One of the biggest road blocks I’ve seen in new personal trainers is first understanding exactly how to improve their skills and acquire many new clients in the easiest, fastest, lowest cost manner possible.
Below is a short video of a discussion we had on this topic at the Personal Trainer Business Ignition ($100k in 8 Weeks) Workshop. Watch the video and adopt the right mindset and if you’re lucky maybe some of the attendees will comment on some of the great things they learned! (Also if you haven’t already go to the form on the right an download Factor 3, this will push you in the right direction to becoming a Profitable Personal Trainer.)
Killer Classifieds and Ad Copy 101
I see so many crappy classifieds it’s unbelievable.
“Hi, I’m Shawn, I am a personal trainer, I will get you in shape, I was Hercules in the TV series for the last 14 years, and I won Mr. Some Obscure Place and was crowned king for a day and I charge $50.00/hr. Contact me here….”
Do your classifieds create a connection?
Does this look and sound familiar? What’s funny is I read this and it makes me think of my bodybuilding days and the stereotype of bodybuilders being these egotistical clowns that never leave the mirror. Anyways not only are these ads me centered they have absolutely no attraction point to your audience and as a result generate little to no response.
In one of the mastermind groups I have participated in the topic of discussion was “Why do people buy?” The following list summarizes the buying action very well:
• They’ll buy when they feel understood.
• They’ll buy when they are referred.
• They’ll buy when they see social proof.
• They’ll buy from people they know, like, or trust.
• They’ll buy from those who are authentic, because authenticity is the NEW currency.
When you are generating ad copy or content of any kind it’s really important to keep these things in mind and try to encompass as many as possible.
Specifically when it comes to writing ad copy the following is a list of criteria I subject pretty much all my copy to as an effort to rate its effectiveness. Writing ad copy is about connection and emotion, without that you got nothing.
What is important to customer?
Meaning, what is their pain? How do they feel about their current situation, being overweight, in danger of heart disease? Your headline and opening sentence should hook their interest based on what is important to them.
What do they need to learn?
Explain why it’s not their fault, it’s because they don’t know…help them understand what it is that they need to learn to achieve the success and good feelings they are looking for.
What are core elements to producing result?
Specifically what things will you teach them and focus on that will achieve the result. This is your spot to share your best knowledge and validate the above while earning their trust.
What do they want to hear? Provide the solution.
Here is where you get to deliver your pitch, explain the solution and specifically how you will provide, ensure or create that solution. It’s important to validate rather than brag, rather demonstrate your success but then show them how it’s absolutely attainable.
Your Personal ‘Stick Rate’ and 5 Critical Elements You NEED to Track
First and most importantly, happy Family Day everyone!
If you’ve never heard the term ‘Stick Rate’ it’s one that you should become familiar with, even if you are a brand new trainer. Stick Rate is something I learned a great deal about from internet information marketers. Most of the most profitable info marketers sell products, or have their affiliates sell their products, but these products then lead to subscription based services that generate recurring revenue. (I would advise you to read that last sentence over and over until you have burned that idea in your mind so strong that you will never forget it. It’s critically important for us all to continue to work toward having multiple income streams of recurring revenue. Anyways, that is not the focus of this article.)
Over time the info marketers learn how long the typical customer maintains their subscription to their services, this average subscription length becomes their personal ‘Stick Rate’. As a personal trainer for many years, long before I even knew what ‘Stick Rate’ was all about I noted my average client stayed with me for 9 months. I knew this was an important somehow but because I didn’t know about the idea of ‘Stick Rate’ planning I had no idea how important it was for my business, or how to use it to grow my business. Now since the opening of One-to-1 Fitness our Stick Rate has increased drastically, the question is why? Simply answered, we now understood how to use Stick Rate to tweak our services (environment and customer experience) to keep our customers longer.
This is very important for the new and experienced trainer. In one of my last columns we discussed differentiation. I believe to be continually successful in this industry and generate the business that will give you the lifestyle you desire; your service as a whole, from day one and ongoing, must maintain strong differentiation from your competitors. A bench mark for this is your Stick Rate.
By now you might be getting the idea of what Stick Rate is all about. Even if you don’t by following the instructions below and tracking these 5 critical elements of your business you will soon, not only understand your personal stick rate but, have a comprehensive platform for planning and evaluating many aspects of your business. Keep the following as a simple spreadsheet each month.
|
Day |
# of leads | # of new clients | Total sales | # of cancelled clients | Total program duration |
|
1 |
3 | 1 | $3000 | 1 | 5 months |
|
2 |
8 | 6 | $16000 | 2 | 3, 14 |
|
etc |
A few important details can be determined from tracking these five elements in your business right from day one.
# of leads – This will help you determine how effective your lead attraction and marketing elements are. Over time you will even be able to identify what your cost per lead is with any given marketing promotion.
# of new clients – This will help you understand and track what percentage of leads become clients (close ratio) and allow for planning of presentations, marketing and services to improve conversion.
Total sales – This will allow you to determine you average sale, the average sales associated with a batch of leads, and of course total sales for budgeting and future goals.
# of cancelled clients – This is very important as over time it will help you plan with razor focus how many leads you need to generate each month to replace clients and grow to achieve or maintain your sales targets.
Total program duration – Track this for your cancelled clients, this will identify your personal stick rate. If you know how long your typical client stays with you it gives you a measurable method of implementing changes to improve or maintain your service. At some point your stick rate will stay pretty constant, at this point you can now fine tune your service to optimize costs generate the best service for your customer while providing the most margin for you.
The Right Way to Begin ‘Selling’ Personal Training
Don't be the used car salesman of fitness.
I’ve seen so many personal trainers just starting out that seem to be very nervous about meeting a potential client for the first time. Maybe rightly so as its next week’s pay check on the line. However I am here to tell you that you are never going to experience a lot of success handing someone a piece of paper that includes your rates for 1, 10 and 25 sessions, even if you give a couple of freebies with the bigger packages. If your potential client has already made up their mind about personal training then they may buy a couple sessions to try you out or they’ll just take your information and, “think about it.” Now you’re in a situation of constantly “re-selling” your clients and will have to constantly be meeting new ones to find those ready to buy. Not a very long term sustainable plan.
The first 10-20 minutes that you meet a new prospective client should never include pricing information at all. (In fact don’t even have it in sight, or in the room, show that you are interested in them, not their money.) This time should be about you showing them that you are genuinely interested in finding out about them, their goals, and that you are a good listener that can ultimately provide a solution to their problem or pain.
When I meet a new potential client for the first time I will begin with a brief introduction and welcome, from there I ask them if they mind if I ask them a few questions. I highly recommend you use a piece of note paper and a pen to write down the highlights from their answers. This shows them you are in fact listening and can address all their concerns as you go.
Questions I like to ask:
- So what has you thinking about personal training? (Ice breaker, summary of their immediate concerns/pain/goals)
- So what have already been doing and for how long to (summarize goals from previous question)? (This creates an emotion within them by reminding them they have not been successful thus far, begins an affirmation that they may need your help.)
- Have you worked with a personal trainer before? (This is incredibly important, if they have and it was negative you know they will be apprehensive to buy again, if it was positive you best find out what they liked to ensure you can provide the same or better level of service.)
- What would you like to see happen in the next 3 to 6 months? (Keep painting the picture of their goals, and now you are conditioning them to commit for an extended timeline.)
There are many more questions you can ask, and it’s important you find your own so that each presentation exhibits your personal sincerity to each person. The more emotionally charged someone becomes toward the things that bother them the higher their belief that you will be able to help them and the more likely they will buy. Once you have gathered information about their goals/concerns it’s time to show them how you are the solution to these problems while using their terms/words to maintain their emotions.
This may sound manipulative from a sales or monetary standpoint but the truth is its just effective coaching. We all know that we can help just about anyone get in shape with basic fitness principles; the underlying factor is their commitment to the necessary changes. Change is difficult but how difficult is directly related to how emotionally charged we are about what we want to change. By asking emotional questions to your potential client right from the get go you will not only experience more sales but also gain clients who make better progress through greater commitment right from day one.
YES! Contact me today to schedule a FREE no obligation consultation and trial workout.