Many health clubs are feeling the economic pinch of the recession. During these tough times, its important to stay positive, and more importantly, revisit strategies on how to keep your sales staff positive and motivated too. A recent article I read reminded me of the importance of continually motivating the sales team and had some great ideas to keep the team motivated.

1. Adjust Your Health Club’s Goals And Incentive Programs
   Define and establish sales goals, give your team the tools to achieve these goals, and monitor progress to hold the team accountable.
   
   
2. Don’t Just Throw Money at The Problem
   Many owners think increasing commissions will increase membership sales. However, increasing commissions without support, training and motivation likely won’t help.
   
   
3. Train, Train And Train Some More
   Take the time to learn the health club sales systems inside and out and pass it along to your staff/ membership reps, to motivate them to be confident to get out there and talk intelligently to members and guests about the health club.
4. Stay Connected At All Times
   Conduct a weekly sales meetings to discuss the prior week’s results, the results of those calls, plans for the week ahead, sales pipeline status and what reps are doing to grow those pipelines.
   
5. Encourage Your Staff To Sell More To Existing Members
   It costs five times as much money to acquire a new member than to service an existing one, so why not take this time to inspire sales staff to sell more product and services to the members they already have?
   
6. Keep ‘Em Informed
   Keep your sales force informed not only about the health club industry, the competition and the selling environment, but also about how the club is doing, as well.
   
7. Inspire Success
   Health club members and guests want more, but they want to pay less for it. The challenges are out there, tell your staff that if they follow your sales scripts, and keep working hard with a winning attitude, they’ll be successful.

Kind Regards,
Kyle Z.

Source: http://www.fitcommerce.com/BLUEPRINT/How-to-Motivate-Your-Health-Club-Sales-Reps-in-Tough-Economic-Times_page.aspx?pageId=860&portalId=2&cid=1515

Connect with your members and let them fan you on Facebook. Facebook has become a great tool to keep your members informed without having to send out a mass email which they might delete. A little reminder in their news feed is sufficient and sometimes more effective as they are “facebooking” for personal and business related matters.

As an inspiration on what you can do to your Facebook page, check out Go Figure’s Facebook page by clicking here.

Get your members email addresses and invite them to your Facebook page today!

Cheers,

Matt Z

Usually we think it is lack of time or money for not joining a health club, but there are more prevalent factors.
Identifying and monitoring these will help you retain more members:

1. Fear of pain
2. Fear of embarrassment
3. Fear of not being able to achieve their goals

Here are some suggestions for successfully addressing these potential roadblocks to membership:

1. Pain. Negative emotions have a greater impact on us. Therefore, we are more likely to run from pain than confront it. A good sales person recognizes this fear factor at membership sign up and he can skillfully educate the prospect that exercise doesn’t need to be a painful experience. Help your members to overcome their reservations by tracking their results. This will not only boost a member’s self esteem, but also establish trust in your club. The iGo Figure Software allows you to easily monitor a member’s progress and gives you tools to demonstrate their results.

2. Embarrassment. As a new member you always feel like everyone is in better shape around you. Remember that especially new members take little steps! Make a member feel special and encourage them to continue by sharing tips, tricks and emotional support. Greet your members with a daily personalized message when they sign in through the iGo Figure Welcome Screen. It really motivates and shows that you care.

3. Goals. The sales and personal training departments must maintain a close relationship and effective communication to assist members in achieving their goals. At the point of sale, the salesperson should have already clearly identified the new member’s goals and explained to her why the club is the ideal choice in helping her achieve the results she desires.

Let us help you achieve your and your members goals!

Cheers,

Kyle Z

Source: http://clubindustry.com/stepbystep/retention/0201-inside-new-member/

Back in 1995 there were approximately 12,500 commercial fitness centers in the United States. Since 2008, there are more than 29,000! One recent authority suggests the following ten ways to recharge your club and set it apart from the competition:

1. Get Fresh. “Store Blindness” is an affliction that besets everyone who lives or works in the same space. After a while, we don’t notice the worn carpets, the tired colors, the clutter behind the front desk, etc. A first-time visitor will notice any of those immediately. Whenever a strong competitor enters the market, it is imperative that clubs undergo a 360-degree examination. Get Fresh with a club makeover!

2. Get Connected. “Connectivity” may be the #1 advantage that existing clubs enjoy over powerful, new entrants into the market. So get started! Connect through the iGo Figure Software by sending a message to a member through your welcome screen, create a Facebook page for your club and/or sign-up for Go Figure’s free Retention Management trial. You will love the results! “Connectivity” is the basic reason why some neighborhood restaurants and coffee shops that may have flawed operations succeed year after year. Get connected with iGo Connect!

3. Get United. Being faced with an imminent threat from a new club allows your club to accelerate in the pursuit of better performance. Whenever a new competitor announces its entry into your market, you have an opportunity to unite your staff in the pursuit of a higher level of performance and excellence across the board.  A motivated and mobilized staff becomes the ultimate asset, the ultimate weapon with which you can win the battle. Get United and show off your team!

For the rest of the list, visit:

http://cms.ihrsa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=17977&nodeID=15

Let’s beat your competition together!

Always happy to help,

Matt Z

Source: http://cms.ihrsa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=17977&nodeID=15

One of the interesting things about being the largest fitness club software company in the world is the information available.

For at least the last 15 months, most owners I spoke with talked about how their numbers have been off and were worried.

This past week was the first time in a while I heard positive reports from clubs around the country and around the world.  Virtually everyone I spoke with reported good numbers in March.  These included clubs in Victoria, BC, Texas, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Greece.

I don’t know if this means the recession is over, but its the first time in a while we’ve received so many positve reports.

An easy way to market yourselves in an uncertain economy is to promote yourself to people you already know – in this case former members.  In the iGo Figure club management software, run an archived member report for members that have cancelled more than 3 to 6 months ago.  You can print mailing labels or otherwise export this list to send invitations to the members asking them to re-join and perhaps to offer a discount on sign up fees if they do.  I know of clubs who have done this and received a better than 10% response rate.

Hope you have great Easter holiday!

Cheers,

Matt