Category Archives: Sales

Top Ten Fitness Trends for 2011

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There might be more than 45 days left till the New Year but the American College of Sports Medicine has released its yearly “Top Ten Fitness Trends for 2011”. I found the article to be quite interesting and you can read about the top ten trends here.

Although I find this interesting it is not shocking. The number one trend for next year is the demand for experienced and educated trainers. Even though we might be in a recession and people are tightening their spending, people realize the value of an experienced and educated personal trainer. Also, a fundamental shift in thinking has occurred as more and more people are realizing that healthcare costs are going to continue to rise, and one way for them to help reduce their costs, is to get healthy. To do this, they need an experienced expert, like you, to help them. So, this is great news for personal trainers and fitness professionals. I believe you are going to see this trend to continue and only grow.

The other area that I find interesting is, the number of physician referrals continues to grow. Doctors are prescribing exercise to their clients as means to getting them well. This is another huge shift for our industry and if you do not have a percentage of your business coming from doctor referrals then you are missing out. Find several doctors in your area and start building a relationship with them. Get them to have trust in your abilities and they will start sending business to you.

Well, that is it for now but I want to leave you with this. The health and wellness industry is only going to keep expanding. Find your niche within the industry and become the expert. If you are unsure of what areas are growing go read the list of the top ten trends and find one that interests you. Make 2011 your best year ever!

Coach Dave

Market and Sell your Fitness Business like the U.S. Marines

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Happy 235th birthday to the United States Marine Corps. I have always had a deep respect for the military and for the United States Marine Corps. Several of my friends have served in the Marines and I am thankful for their service. Today, I want to talk to you about how to market and sell your fitness business like the U.S. Marines.

When we talk about marketing we typically are referring to one of the 4 p’s.

Price
Promotion
Positioning (Place)
Product

One of the biggest mistakes personal trainers and fitness clubs make in their marketing is they fail to position themselves in the marketplace. Positioning, is critical to a successful marketing campaign. More often than not, personal trainers and fitness clubs fail at strategically positioning themselves in the marketplace. Typically, what happens is the fitness club or personal trainer wants to be for everyone. I understand that no one wants to turn down business but if you want to market and sell more you need to take a page out the Marine playbook.

Many people might not think that the Marines market and sell, however, that is far from the truth. Let me tell you about a great example of the Marines marketing an selling to potential recruits. One day I was at an event and  I remember hearing a Marine Recruiter get up in front of a crowd after several other branches of the military spoke, whom went on for ten minutes talking about their particular branch of service and the benefits of joining. When the Marine recruiter took the stage it was quite different.  The Marine recruiter said the following:
” Ladies and Gentlemen, I am not going to take up much of your time here. Many of you are not qualified to be a Marine, and my estimate, with a crowd this size, probably only a handful of you have what it takes to be a Marine. So, if you think you are one of the few and proud that can join my brotherhood, see me afterwards.”

How many people do you think went to visit that recruiter afterwards? More than half, but the lesson to be learned here is this.

The Marines position themselves as an elite group of the military. The Marines do not want just anyone. They want the best and bravest men and women this country has to offer. They are selective as should you be. You should not just be for everyone, as well. Decide what you stand for and position yourself in the marketplace as that.

Here are some examples.

You may be the best at providing services that market to adults or maybe you are best at working with post-rehab patients. The point I am making is you need to decide who you are best at serving and position and market yourself that way. Do this and people will flock to you. And yes, you will get people who might not fit that speciality but by standing for something as opposed for everything you create credibility. the funny thing also, is it is amazing sometimes when you tell someone that they are not suited for your business they want to be with you even more.

Go market and sell like the United States Marine Corps!

Happy 235th Birthday U.S.M.C.

Coach Dave

If You Want More Sales Create More Credibility

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One of the most critical aspects to getting more personal training clients and more sales with either your products or services is to build credibility with your prospects and clients.

CREDIBILITY – Some people might say it is the most important characteristic for a personal trainer to have and establish. Because of all the infomercials and the get fit fast scams, the fitness industry lacks credibility. That’s why it is essential from the second you meet a prospect to establish credibility with them. You must no longer look as yourself as just a trainer or sales person, but also as a consultant. You see, people view consultants as problem solvers and experts.

Action Item – Ask yourself this question: “In the eyes of the prospect, what have I done to establish credibility?”

Now, there are many ways to do this and especially with the explosion of social media and technology but there is no better way to help with credibility then to have other people build it for you. Check out this article that was published in the Orlando Sentinel, which sites a publication from the Harvard Medical School saying that, ” A personal trainer can be a great investment.” This is a great article to tweet to your followers or hand out to prospects to help build that credibility.

Coach Dave

Do you want to build your own personal brand?

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I am pasting this email on my blog to share with you an email that I received from a guy named David Frey. He is the owner of www.marketingbestpractices.com and the author of the Small Business Marketing  Bible. I have been following David for some time now and he offers these free Tele-seminars on different topics. I have listened to several of these in the past and they provide great information. If you are interested at all in building your own personal brand, sign up for the FREE seminar and listen to some of the experts tell you how to do it. Read the email below to learn more and then join me  for the calls.

Why Do THEY Seem To Get All The Business
And Not Me?
________________________________________

I get asked all the time by the small
business owners and entrepreneurs about
how they can get more business.

They look around and see others getting
all the business they can handle with
ease, while they struggle to get any
sales.

So, what’s the big difference? Why do
some people seem to get tons of
business, while others struggle to get
any?

In many cases, it comes down to how
they’ve POSITIONED themselves in the
market or industry… how they’ve
BRANDED themselves in the minds of their
market.

The GOOD NEWS is that you can do this
too! You can brand yourself and/or your
company and become the “Go-To” person in
your industry.

The GREAT NEWS is that you’ll learn how
to do just that in my new telesummit
series,

“The Branding Masters Telesummit!”

http://www.BrandingTelesummit.com

You can go and register for it right
now.

It won’t cost you anything.

And we interviewed some of the absolute
best branding experts in the industry.

Go see for yourself at…

http://www.BrandingTelesummit.com

Each day over the next week you’ll be
receiving announcements about the
different interviews that will be
playing that day.

The Branding Telesummit includes experts
in the areas of…

* How to brand yourself as celebrity in
your industry

* How to repair a tarnished brand

* How to get started building your brand

* How to create evangelists that promote
your brand for you

* How to re-brand your business if you
decide to go a new direction

And much more.

Go and sign up now.

http://www.BrandingTelesummit.com

Again, it won’t cost you a dime to
listen to these interviews.

Have an awesome day!

David

The old rules of selling are dead

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The old rules of selling are dead

What does Elvis, vinyl records, and traditional selling techniques have in common? In case you are stumped, you would be correct if you said they are all dead! Okay, I know that there is a small percentage of you who still believe Elvis is alive, use vinyl records, and are still trying the same old techniques when trying to sell your services or products to consumers. However, it is time to put them to rest and move on if you want to succeed in today’s economy. That being said, you must learn a new approach to selling. Let’s explore those new ways by showing you the old methods and then the new methods you need to adopt in your sales approach.

Prospecting – > Positioning

“It is a numbers game!” I know you probably have heard that statement before and to some extent the statement is correct. However, approaching sales through cold calling takes time and energy, which could be better spent on other revenue producing activities like training or ancillary services that you offer.  So, a better approach to increasing sales is to work on positioning yourself in the market.  Simply put, positioning is how your market defines you in relation to your competitors. A good position is established by answering the following questions:

  1. What makes you unique?
  2. What benefit does your customers consider you to provide?
  3. What is your competitive advantage?

It is critical that you answer these questions in order for positioning to work for you. Once you have established yourself in the marketplace as the expert then people will seek you out instead of you cold calling them.

Control -> Trust

More often than not a typical sales situation puts the control in the salesperson’s hands. This puts the client into an apprehensive state of mind and makes the sale more difficult. The reason for the client’s apprehension is because he or she has been burned before, so the lack of trust exists already even before a pitch is made. Now, instead of trying to control the situation begin by building trust with your customer. Listen to their needs and show them that you are here for their benefit, not yours. By building trust you will create a client who will buy over and over and eventually become one of your biggest fans. Remember, the client must trust you before they will buy from you!

Close -> Value

“The Sale is in the Close!” There are tons of books written on sales closing techniques and some of the techniques they write about are effective. However, people will buy because they believe the price you are charging is equal to the value they perceive to get from it. Being short sighted on just the close of the sale will risk the lifetime value of the customer. Create value in your customer’s mind and you will create a life long customer.