Tag Archives: Consumers

Do you devalue your services?

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I am always amazed at how many fitness clubs and personal trainers follow the herd. Out of the hundreds of clubs I have visited over the years maybe only a handful of clubs do not sell packages for their services (i.e personal training). When I ask owners or managers why they sell packages the response I always seem to get is, “well that is what such and such club does, so we have to offer that.” Let me ask you this, “do doctors offer packages for seeing them multiple times?” No, and you shouldn’t either. I just read an article on Club Industry’s web site that talks about consumers ready to spend more in 2011. Go read it when you have a chance and realize this, if you provide a service that people value then you should charge what you think it is worth and that will lead me to my final point today.

I want to leave you today asking yourself this question, “why is 10 sessions worth $50, but one session is worth $65?” Are you providing the same value during each service? Does over ten sessions the time you spent learning Anatomy and Physiology diminish? No, and that is why you need to stop following the herd and devaluing your services. If you don’t have the ability to set your rates I understand but if you do, then you should feel confident in what you are charging and stick to it. You service is worth what you believe it is worth. If you don’t have that confidence you will struggle long term in the fitness business.

For more info on sales and how to charge what you are worht check out my book www.anatomyofsales.com or join my coaching program here.

To your success,
Coach Dave

Are you remarkable

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Let me ask you a question, “If you were driving down the road and saw a cow, would you stop?” No, you have seen thousands of cows before, but “what if you were continuing to drive down the road and saw a purple cow, would you stop?” Maybe, or at least slow down and see what the heck is that. What I am getting at here today, on another edition of Open Blog Friday, is the idea of being remarkable! Yesterday, someone whom I follow on Facebook shared this video by Seth Godin and I remembered hearing him back at IHRSA several years ago talking about this idea. I have posted the video for you below but want to talk briefly today about how being remarkable can make a difference in your life and business.

The video takes place back in 2003 but is still completely relevant. Probably, even more so today! Why? Well, for one, the club market has become saturated and consumers have way too many choices. And secondly, consumers have a ton of choices and want to be inspired by something new and different. This is why you need to differentiate your product and service. Otherwise, if consumers don’t see a difference they will have no other choice but to make it about price. Now, if we leave it up to being all about price, we are destined to fall as an industry. Here is where being remarkable comes into play!

All right, I have posted the video below and want you to watch it. Now, as you are watching it, begin to think of ways you can become remarkable? Think of ways you can stand out from the herd and be something that people want to belong to. If we all put a little more effort into being remarkable this world we be a better place!

If you have examples of how you or your club is being remarkable please share below with your comments!

Make it a great weekend!
Coach Dave!

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.

Who are you learning from?

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The question I have for you today is who are you learning from? If I was to take a survey probably about 90% of fitness professionals would tell me that they study or learn from the “gurus” in the industry. Now, I will be the first to tell you that you should learn from people in the industry but if you want real growth and real insight you need to study people and businesses in other industries as well. Starbucks, Microsoft, Dell, Mcdonalds have all been in the business of selling their products and services to consumers. These companies have proven strategies and systems that have made them successful. Study them and learn all you can that can apply to the fitness industry. Now, learning and study what a big company has done is only part of the equation that I am talking about today. The second and probably most beneficial way of learning is study people who know how to sell. There are tons of articles and info on sales but I ran across a website that takes the best articles on sales and puts them all on one website.The name of the site is top10salesarticles.com and they find the best articles across the web and post it all on one site to help keep you from having to search for quality articles. What I find unique about this site is the way they come up with their top ten articles for the month. 50% is from the readers voting and 50% from an expert panel. So far I found some really good articles from people in all different industries. Some better than others but overall some good info. Listen my motto is I try to learn something new everyday and learn at least one thing from an article that I can apply to my profession. You may want to set a different goal but start learning from others and apply it to the fitness industry. Now go check out this site www.top10salesarticles.com and learn something from someone else!

The Consumer is DEAD!

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I don’t know about you but I am sick and tired of hearing in the media that consumer spending is over. Let me ask you a question, “Did you go all weekend without spending?” I am pretty sure that about 99.9% of you are going to answer the question with a “No”! But Dave, I had to buy food or I bought something I needed. Well, that brings me to my point, people are going to continue to spend, but they will spend on what they feel is of value to them. As I have written in my book “Anatomy of Sales” one of the reasons your clients will buy is value.

VALUE – Value is different from person to person. Value is relative to the service you are offering, what the client has paid in the past, how bad the client wants it, and how your client perceives the price between you and your competitors.  It is imperative to demonstrate a value that seems equal to or greater than the price your client is paying.  If you create a perceived value greater than the price you are charging; you are more likely to have your client buy more.

So, remember the next time you hear someone say, “The consumer is DEAD” they are wrong. What you need to say to yourself, “No, consumers will spend, but I need to create value.” You see, if the value is greater than the price you are charging your clients will continue to buy. If you need to add value start today and you will amaze everyone else when you tell them my training is going strong!

Coach Dave