Quick… what’s the acronym for S.Y.S.T.E.M.?
It’s Save Your Self Time Energy and Money, right?
We all know and understand that concept from an intellectual standpoint. However, when it comes to the real world of business, most of us are left scratching our head wondering why we’re riding the Revenue Rollercoaster.
Over the years, I’ve developed what I call the P.O.S.T. method. This simple methodology allows my team and I to:
- Define and locate your ideal customers
- Capture their attention
- Create specific offerings for them
- Establish a simple sales system to get them involved
Although this system works for any business, let’s examine it as it pertains to fitness club owners.
Before we begin, let me briefly tell you why I chose fitness professionals as my specific audience.
TRUE STORY
One night in August of 2003, my friends and I were playing around with a camcorder. It was epic. We had a great time. But when I saw myself on camera for the first time, my heart dropped like a rock. I couldn’t believe what I saw.
I went home and hopped on a scale. It read 303 pounds. I stayed up late that night watching movies. And then it happened… Billy Blanks’ Tae-Bo infomercial came on TV and I was captivated. I watched it all the way through, picked up the phone and placed my order. Three days later, the VHS cassettes arrived at my home. To make a long story short, I did one hour of Tae-Bo every single morning for 9 months straight. When it was all said and done, I was down to 198 pounds.
There’s a deep and personal connection between myself and people on their fitness journeys. Through trial, error, and independent study, I have developed a great understanding of what it takes for transformation to occur. At Done-For-You Clients (DFYC), we understand what it takes to help fitness professionals take their businesses to the next level.
Now that you understand my passion for the fitness niche, let’s get back into the P.O.S.T. method. This simple methodology could be responsible for helping you create new fitness programs and enroll new clients. Let’s explore:
P is for Positioning
There’s a lot of misinformation going around about positioning and branding. It’s been said that you don’t need to worry about branding and positioning until you start making sales. Well, what happens if you’re brand new and haven’t made any sales yet?
Positioning at DFYC simply means aligning your message with your market. That sounds a little cryptic. So let’s break it out a little more.
In this step it’s about creating a connection between yourself and your ideal clients. You want to make sure that you are speaking to and attempting to solve problems that are top of mind for them. For example, a top of mind problem for your fitness clients could be something simple like being overweight. However, that problem is a bit to broad. It doesn’t give you enough information to really go on. But if you zeroed in on people who are overscheduled AND overweight, then you have more to go on.
Key Takeaway: Think specific audience with specific problem
O is for Organizing Offers
This is where the rubber meets the road. Organizing your offers (or creating them properly from the beginning) is of the utmost importance. Think about it. If you have a specific audience with a specific problem, doesn’t it make sense to create a specific solution for those people?
You bet it does.
Here’s where you need to look at every aspect of your current offerings and ask yourself, “Would this be a good fit for the people I’m planning to bring on as clients?”
It’s likely that your current offers need to be reorganized. If that’s the case, it’s really only a matter of putting your clients needs before your own. One size fits all programs are boring and generic. Your best clients are looking for novelty and specificity. Go ahead. Create a new fitness program, put up some flyers at your club, and watch people flock to it.
You could also do all of this online and make it mostly automated. But that’s another story for another day. If you’re looking for help with something like that though, let us know.
Key Takeaway: It’s not about you. It’s about them.
S is for Sales System
Imagine this for a minute…
You went through all the trouble of creating a specific offer for a specific audience with a specific problem. You put up flyers all around your club. And you’re excited about filling up your new program.
But you forgot two things. The first thing you forgot is to tell people on the flyer how to get involved. You left out what’s called a Call-To-Action (CTA). You didn’t tell people to call a certain phone number, or go to a specific website, or to ask people at the front desk.
You also forgot to inform your staff how to get people involved in the new program once they inquire about it at the front desk. You figured that your staff is great at sales and they’ll just “figure it out”.
These two seemingly simple things can ruin your new program. Make sure to put a CTA on your flyers. But even more importantly, make sure you train your staff on how to handle these inquiries as they come in.
The best thing to do is to tell your salespeople that the class size is limited and to keep a list of people who enroll. When someone inquires about the new program tell your salespeople to say, “This new program looks promising. Let me see how many spots we have left. It seems like we have 8 spots remaining. Let’s go ahead and get you enrolled.”
Key Takeaway: Establish a simple sales system to create predictable results
T is for Traffic
What happens if you create a specific offer for a specific audience with a specific problem and create a simple sales system for you and your staff, and nobody enrolls in your new program?
It would be frustrating to say the least. Devastating is probably a better word. I mean seriously. Think about that. You went through all that trouble and got no results. You would have every right to be a little upset.
The problem with this whole scenario is that you only have one source of traffic and it’s neither predictable nor scalable. You put up some flyers inside your club and basically just expect people to walk past it, read it, and enroll. While that’s very likely to happen, it won’t happen without a little extra push.
The best thing to do in that scenario is to get the word out by having your salespeople subtly mention it when people come to the club for their regular workouts. You could also take out some ads in the newspaper. Maybe even radio. But, those advertising channels are risky. It’s a little like putting change into a slot machine in Las Vegas. You put money in and you simply hope that money comes out.
My recommendation is an advertising platform like Facebook. Everyone is already there (almost 2 billion people) and their advertising platform is both reliable and effective. Chances are you’re reading this right now because of a Facebook ad.
Key Takeaway: Use Facebook ads to advertise your new fitness program
Your Turn
Whew! We went through a ton of information.
Just remember… information only leads to transformation through implementation.
How do you plan to use this to improve your business?
Leave a comment below and let us know.