Tag Archives: fitness business

The Necessity of Prospecting

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Last week I started a serious called the “Five Steps to Successful Selling” and wanted to continue this week with step number two. Step two is about the “Necessity of Prospecting.” In this step we will break down the difference between prospect vs. suspect. Also, we will talk about the prospecting/sales ratio. So without any more delay let’s get  our teeth around step number two.

A.) Prospect vs. Suspect – What is the difference between the two?

     Prospect – someone who may be a potential client.

     Suspect – someone who you have an 80% chance to close on.

The difference here is that a prospect is all the available people who you can market to and a suspect is someone who is pre-qualified and someone who is already in the behavior mindset to buy training. Focus on suspects!

B.) Prospecting/ Sales Ratio

1.) poor sales ability – numbers game. If you are willing to continously try and determine who is a prospect or suspect and market to them than you can be great.

2.) great sales ability – if you can identify a suspect and close then you will be successful at sales. You need to measure your closure rate to determine if you have a great sales ability.

In order to be successful at sales you need to know the difference between a prospect and a suspect. Make sure you close on every suspect you come into contact and try and increase your closure rate on prospects. Also, if you don’t track or measure your closure rate you will be unable to determine whether or not you have a good or poor sales ability.

The Importance of Personal/Professional Development

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I wrote the other day about how important it is to master the art of sales and I said I would share with you in more detail the 5 steps to successful selling that I adapted from Zig Ziglar. So let’s tackle the first step. The first to step to successful selling is the importance of Personal/Professional development. Okay, let’s get started.

A.) Personal

  1.  Phyiscal – are you keeping your end of the deal? What I mean are you practicing what you preach? I know sometimes trainers get burned out and the last thing they what to do after a session is workout, but remember your clients are watching to see if you are doing what you tell them to do.
  2. Mental – what type of books are reading? Are you staying around positive people? What type of thoughts are you thinking? It is important to feed your mind with positive thoughts and ideas.
  3. Spiritual – Up until a few years ago this is an area I let slip away but since my father’s passing a few years ago I have found my purpose in life. Remember each and everyone of us was put here for a purpose. Find your purpose and live it!  
  4. Financial – I added this point because as a trainer you will have fluctuations in your income from week to week and month to month, so it is important to understand the value in financial planning. Also, one thing for trainers to consider is what would you do if you were hurt or injured and could not train? Long Term Disability Insurance is something you should think about in case you were laid up for a long period of time do to an injury or illness.

B. Professional

  1.  Information – What sources are you getting your info from. Make sure it is a credible and reliable source if you are going to share it with clients.
  2. Experience – The hardest part initially for a trainer is gaining that experience. As you continue to grow you can use the experiences that you learned to enhance your credibility. 
  3. Knowledge – Technology and research has really changed the way we conduct personal training today. I tell all my trainers that the way we train today is totally different than we trained 10 years ago and it will be totally different 10 years from now. It is important to continue to grow and become an expert in your niche. As I tell interns and new trainers the best piece of advice I can give you is never stop learning! Invest in your knowledge on a daily basis!  

5 Steps to Successful Selling

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I was on a website today and I saw a survey that was asking fitness professionals what they wanted to learn more about. Quite frankly, I was surprised to see that many of the voters were wanting to know more about multiple streams of income for fitness professionals over sales and marketing. Now, I understand that it is smart to want to know more about how to create multiple streams of income, but don’t put the cart before the horse. In order to be successful in any business venture you must learn how to sell and today I am going to start a series of posts that will tackle the 5 steps to successful selling, which I have adapted from Zig Ziglar. Here are the five steps that we will be digging into in the next couple of days:

I. The Importance of Personal/Professional Development

II. The Necessity of Prospecting

III. The Power of Planning

IV. The Art of Closing

V. The Fortune in the Follow-Up

In the next couple of days I will tackle each one of these steps and give you an action step to take, so stayed tuned and get ready to master the art of sales.

Coach Dave

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

Web 2.0

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Do you want to succeed in building a solid clientele? If you answered yes to this question than in order to survive in this technological world you need to use the Web 2.0 tools available to you.

You may have heard the term Web 2.0 and wondered what are they talking about? Web 2.0 is a buzzword, which describes the trend in the use of the World Wide Web as a platform and the new technologies that are being used to share information and establish online social communities. Essentially, Web 2.0 allows trainers to be able to do two things.

C:UsersAnne VioletteAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5YK60PBRRMPj04393500000[1].jpgFirst, it allows us to connect with our prospects and clients. And second, it allows us to be heard as experts in our field.  It has never been easier than now and with the explosion of all the social networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, blogs, podcasts, and wikis.  Have you embraced the new trends or resisted them?  If you fail to adapt and use these new trends, there is a good chance you will be left behind.  Also, it is no longer “good enough” to just meet a couple of times a week with your clients. You need to try and interact with them in some form almost everyday and this can be accomplished with all of the new platforms and technologies.

 

Excerpted from “Anatomy of Sales”