¶ Marketing Funnels for Gym Owners
Marketing funnels. How are the world's best gym owners getting clients? And how many are they getting? You're gonna get answers today. In fact, I'll give 'em to you right now. Real stats from September in a gym, 45 appointments set, 26 shows and 16 closes. Those are real numbers from three D Fitness in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The owner is here and he's gonna tell you how he posted those numbers.
This is Run a Profitable Gym. I'm Mike Workin . We're giving out the cheat codes gym ownership here every single month. Please subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Now with me today, bell Bats , he's the owner of three D Fitness, and he posted great numbers. I just told you what they were in September. Set rate, that's the number of people who book appointments at your gym.
Show rate, that's the number of people who show up for those appointments. Close rate, that's the number of people who show up and bye . So, Val , welcome here. Let's dig into your numbers. Are you ready to go?
Yes, I am . I'm ready.
Thanks so much. These are incredible numbers and I love that we have the real numbers from ground level, and you're gonna tell us how , how you did it. So I wanna start at the very top of your funnel. Like what's the number one thing that you did to get so many appointments ins in September, like 45? How did you get that? Mm-Hmm .
I , well it all starts with , uh, overall leads that month. Uh , we ended it the month with 102 , so that's a high month for us. Like usually we're around about , uh, 70 I'd say or so, and most of them usually come from Facebook. That particular month we actually , uh, I did a 51 30 that completely blew up on Facebook, so that gave us a really big boost as far as total leads and got a lot more people.
I would say more warmer leads into the ,
Okay. So I'm gonna ask you a couple questions so people know exactly what you're talking about. When you're saying leads are coming from Facebook, is this organic stuff or are you running paid ads right now?
Running paid ads. So we're running the paid ads. Um , we're kind of just letting that go monthly , uh, watching it and tweaking it , uh, here and there. Just making sure we're staying up to date with like holidays and time .
Are you spending a lot of money on Facebook ads?
Yeah, I'd say between five and seven a day . We try to float around that number , uh, per month. So
Sorry, five and seven what?
500 to 700 per month . Okay,
Perfect. Because some people do five , seven bucks a day or something like that. So five or seven a month on . Yeah , that makes sense. Cool . Yeah,
Just to , and staying in that window has been great for us. Honestly. There's really no need to go any more than that . So .
Yeah. And you're tracking that and you're getting results on that you're or a return on that investment, correct?
Oh yeah, definitely. Okay .
So that's an
Important , you know , how it's Yeah, like two , two sales. I mean, it's worth it, you know, you get that money back, you gotta think of it more of an investment than it's,
And you won't know listeners if you don't track. So that's a big point right off the bat. And Vel just is living proof. If you do not track the return on your ad spend , you might be wasting your money. You gotta know what's happening. Now you also mentioned a 51 30. Tell listeners what that is, because this is a really cool one.
Yes, yes, yes. So 51 30. Um , so it took me a minute to get into those, but what I like about them is they're more organic. So what I do is I'll go to my personal page and , um, I have a pretty good following.
So I , what I'll do is I'll just go to the page and I'll say, Hey, we're looking for five to 10 people, or women, men , depending on what it's , uh, looking to lose five to 10 pounds within the next 30 days. What that does is, is hooking a lot of people right away, most people are wanting to get that done.
So every once in a while, sometimes it's hit or miss, some months it's great, and then sometimes nobody really responds to it. But that particular one did really well. It was targeted towards women. Um, and it brought in like 36, 36 to 35 , uh, to 40 comments. And I didn't expect it to do that. And it was within like 24 hours .
So , so I mean, like , that's, that's incredible.
Yeah. That gave us a big hoop . So I know a lot of people struggle with the 51 . They feel awkward in , in the group. I've , I've seen that a lot. But , um, it definitely help a lot when everything are getting slow . You don't wanna just wait on the ads. That's a way to kind of generate some quick leads and get some conversation .
So listeners, the code for this 51 30, it's, I need five people to do one thing in 30 days. That's what 51 30 means. There are variations of that. You could say 10 people and so forth. But the idea is, mm-hmm , that's been tested, 51 30 has been tested vs. Living proof, it works. Put that post up in your organic social media, you don't have to pay for that one. And then you said you get comments on that.
What do you do when you get those comments?
So what I do, usually I'll say comment me or comment and emoji , uh, the fastest way, you know, you don't wanna say comment, get myself fit. It's , that's too long. People are , they're not gonna do that. So I'll just say, comment me. Once they comment me, I'll comment back and I'll say, Hey, I'm gonna send you a DMM now so we can have a conversation.
And then you're talking to them in chat and in that chat you're trying to get them to come in for a free consultation.
Yes. Yep . So that's the first thing I kind of asked them , like, okay, you know, what have you tried before? Um, have you been in fitness? Have you had a personal trainer? You know, I kind of warm up the conversation first on row .
I've tried jumping right to like, okay, hey, well , I would just come in and I think sometimes we get uncomfortable, so right away we get in the chat and I'm like, Hey, thanks for commenting the post . Wanted to see how I could best help you. You know, I'll let them answer back, wait a couple of minutes, and then we eventually get to that point where we're getting them in the gym. Getting ,
This is a sell by chat strategy. It works really, really well if you do the right things. And the goal here is you've got a lead. You wanna talk to that person, find out a little bit about them and say, Hey, I can help you with my services. Why don't you come in and talk about it? Then you have a sales meeting. So this is lead flow, and I'm gonna tell you something in secret here, guys.
We don't always talk about, you can't just put up the 51 30 post and just, it'll explode. You kind of have to be a presence on social media. That means you need to post regularly and build your audience. Val , you have done a great job of doing that. Your social media accounts, you have a pretty big following. Do you not tell people where they can take a look at what you are doing?
Because I know you've got a huge , uh, following on social media. Mm-Hmm, .
Yeah, so definitely , uh, Instagram, I'm floating around almost 16 K on there . So , um, a lot of my followers are outside of the city, but , um, I do still have a lot of following here. So usually we'll put the 51 30 in my stories on there and I'll put a , either I'll put a link right underneath so that way they can just click that link and go directly to our landing page.
That way there's not a bunch of stuff in between there. You know , you wanna
Make , where can people, people look you up? What's your, what's your handle on Instagram?
My handle, my personal handle on Instagram is Hercules. So if you check that out, you know, you go there, you'll see all my 51 thirties here and there every once in a while ,
Hercules underscore Bates , check that out and follow him. He's got a great account. And again, follow account is not the Beall and end all , it's a glory metric. But if no one is looking at your stuff and you don't have an audience, you're not gonna have a bigger response.
So if you can get people to engage and regularly grow your account, you're going to have a better, a bigger, we'll call it a bigger ocean to throw your hooks into. And then when you put these things up, people are listening and watching.
So going back to your, your , uh, lead flow, you put up, you're using 500, 500, 700 bucks Facebook ad spend, you're using this organic post and you said you got, what was it , 120 something leads in September, is that right?
102 .
102 . So that's a huge number. Mm-Hmm, . And from there you used sell by chat and other nurturing things to get 45 of 'em to book appointments. You talked about DMing them. How else are you getting those people to book appointments? What else is happening in the background when someone becomes a lead?
Uh , well, as soon as they become a lead , uh, I think the biggest thing is to help with your show rate and get them to book . Um , we do, like I said , we'll send them, some people will ask price, things like that.
But what we'll do is we'll ask them their general idea, what they wanna do , and I'll send them like a , uh, a transformation or before and after somebody with similar, you know, that had a similar build , similar goals. And I'll say, well, here's somebody that we've helped do that before.
Um , so if you would like, you know, we can come in, get you in here, we can do a quick 30 minute consultation and we can talk about how we can customize this so it can work as well.
I love that. So you're showing them what we call social proof, right? You're someone like you did something that you want to do and it's, it's a great resource, but you have to have created those resources, right? You have to have , exactly. That's
¶ Marketing Strategies for Gym Membership Sales
one of the things Bell and I met , uh, two years ago at the Two Brain Summit in Chicago. We were chatting, bell hadn't signed up with Two Brain , we were just chatting and remember looking at his Instagram account , uh, and he had a whole whack of great client stories and transformations. And I was like, wow, like you've got this much stuff on here already, your business, you can showcase this and take off.
Now when someone asks you says, Hey, I wanna lose 20 pounds, you'd be like, I helped, you know, these 10 people lose 40 pounds or whatever. Right ? You've got that on command at the snap of your fingers, right?
Yes. And that makes it way , I mean, 80% increase. And that's a , that's a big number, but I mean that's , it gives them more of an emotional feel. Um, and I've been an online coach as well, so I know him like firsthand, if I chose somebody a transformation, sometimes that's the close, that'd be enough. They're like, oh wow, okay, I see it. You can do it. That's proof.
But it's a lot harder to close on them when you don't have any. So , uh, social. So we also, we just try to make sure we show that and post that to the page. The testimonials definitely three
To Ring Gliss clients a specific script to help you get those testimonials. You can certainly figure it on your own, but Two Brain has an exact plan that says, ask these questions at this point with your clients. Create this stuff. Have it ready.
If you can show people testimonials, even on your website, if they're just just scrolling through and looking, but even by dmm like Vela is doing, which is a great idea, you're going to close more sales because people will see proof that you are actually an expert and can deliver on your promises. Val, this is a good time to ask. What exactly are you selling at three D Fitness?
Like what, what it give us the 4 1 1 on your gym and business. Yeah,
So our main focus now is personal training. Uh , so one-on-one personal training. Uh, we're growing and working on semi-private, still kind of new , uh, small group classes just came back. And then we're also offering nutrition coaching and 24 hour access .
Okay. So you got a bit of , a little bit of everything. What's your , and you see your biggest focus is pt? Mm-Hmm.
. Yep . That's our new focus now. Uh, originally we opened it was 24 hours, so we're still working on that shift to becoming more of a, okay, we offer personal training, but um , yeah, that's what our main focus is .
Okay. So when you did that shift, which is in progress right now, did you have to change your marketing and your approach because your avatar becomes a little different when you're looking for someone who just wants to come in and do their program versus someone who wants to work with you on a specific goal? How did you change that avatar focus?
Yeah , so that's been a work in progress. Even still now. It's been really hard to get people to understand, okay, we're not just the access . Um, a lot of people, what we did was we kind of take in , out of our ads, we don't really promote it as much 'cause it's one of those things where it takes care of itself. We have enough open , uh, 24 hour members, so we don't really post about it anymore.
We try to make sure we headline everything as , okay , we offer personal training, semi-private small group. And then if they wanna know about access, you know, they'll find it on a , but we just out of sight out mind is what we're going for. It's like, okay, let's kind of dial it back on promoting the 24 hours because , you know, that's not something as far as ARM that's not a , it's not helping that number that
Much . That's average revenue per member. I gotta ask, has your ARM gone up a lot since you shifted this?
Yes, definitely. Yep , yep . Since we were a majority 24 hour access gym, our a RM was pretty low coming in now that we're incorporating personal training that's growing and as we start to get more people in the gym that are already here to sign up for classes, the personal training, I could see that and we're growing a lot more.
Okay. So that's great. And then by that, by that metric, if your average rev revenue per member is higher, you don't need as many clients and you don't need to market as much because you have fewer people paying more and staying longer. Is that what you're seeing at your gym?
Yes, exactly. Yep . Yep . That , that's the goal. I mean, we'd rather that, you know, you don't , I know some gyms go for 500 members and things like that. If it works, then you have the space. But we're still a smaller, tight-knit community gym. So we're really trying. Okay . Instead of going for more quality, we'd rather have more quantity . So
Yeah. Okay. So you've got organic and paid advertising at the top of your funnel, then you've got people booking appointments either , uh, I'm guessing through your website. Do they do that through your website?
Yes . Yep . Through set up on our right , on our landing page. Mm-Hmm ,
Perfect . Or you're doing it just by dmm or just , you know , booking appointments by chat through sell by chat. What are you doing in between there? Now, now do you have any systems that make sure that people show up for those appointments? Because we all know as fitness owners that like people will book and they're like, and then they just ghost you. So what are you doing to make sure to
Show up? Oh , yeah , . So I mean, that's been something that we've been working on now for a couple of months and I'm the , I'm seeing that it's common. You know, it's not, it's just the common thing. A lot of people will book an appointment and just completely disappear on FaceTime . So what we're doing though , uh, and we're, we're sending the reminders.
So depending on how far out, it's like, if it's a couple of days, maybe five days or so, we'll do a three day reminder. We'll do a one day reminder, so about 24 hours, and then we'll do a four hour reminder leading up to that . But those are set by email. And then we also do it by text. Well just in case they don't .
And then another thing we , we've added within the last couple of months is we send them a text message and it's basically , um, our , our address, it's a link to a , um, local newspaper. We were featured in a newspaper earlier this , and it's our social medias. So it's basically like saying, Hey, here's some information about us just so you can get to know us, get more comfortable with us.
Um , before you come into the door, let me know if you have any questions before your appointment on this date. And usually we'll wait, get a, if we get a reply, you know, that's a good thing and we'll kind of gauge it off of that . But in between there, we send that about right after they book, if it's the next day.
But if it's, like I said Fridays out , we'll wait a couple of days and then send that, see if they're still interested, you know? 'cause most people will tell you right there, oh actually I'm gonna have to reschedule. And most people won't, you know.
But I think that's helped a lot, just building that relationship before they even come in the door because walk in that do show and they're like , Hey , I read everything. I read the article and they have questions. So that helps feel more comfortable coming in the door because we've all been there. I mean, you first start a fitness journey, there's a lot of anxiety and some people get nervous .
We've had people get in the parking lot and almost drive away until I pop outside and I'm like, Hey, you can come in. So we , we know it's coming .
So there's a couple of things, listeners that are super important. They're , the first is Val has a system and he's laid out the signposts. They're getting texts and uh, email messages at these intervals. It's all laid out according to a plan. The second thing I wanna point out in that system is it's not just email. He's sending texts as well. Super important everyone.
I mean, if you look at your phone right now, you probably have 10 to 10,000 unread emails, right? And there's lots of stuff in there. People lose. Emails is not the best way to get ahold of it . Anyone anymore. Text message in many gyms works better if you can get their phone numbers and send them texts because everyone looks at texts, not everyone looks at emails .
So that's a huge, huge one that they'll just point out, consider getting text message reminders. Could be a video text. Hey, thanks for booking an appointment. I'm so excited to see you Thursday at 10:00 AM I'm gonna be checking in with you before Queen then and now if you have any questions, talk to me right now. Video, text, something that people are gonna open it. That's a huge one.
All of those things get people to go in the door. What happens though , if someone doesn't show up? What do , do you have a , uh, a system in place there to try and get them again? Or do you le leave them for bid ? Or what do you do?
So usually if I , if they don't, if they're not there, right on the, you know, right on the , on the dot , I'll usually , uh, I'll text them and go, Hey, are you having trouble finding us? You know, we , we know what's going on, but hey, you having trouble finding us? You know, do you need and no response. So then I'll wait, you know, a couple of minutes maybe. I dunno , I'll text me . Hey, I'm so sorry.
I wish we would've gotten to meet you today. Still looking forward to helping you. Did you need to reschedule? Alright , we understand things come up, you know, acting happen. You know, if you're still interested though, we would love to get you set up for a consultation. Get . Sometimes they answer right away. I'm so sorry, I forgot. Or sorry, my kids dropped this and I had to, and we get it rescheduled.
Um, but we'll do that up to two or three times. And I know that's nicer than some gyms. I know some gyms are like, nah , they're done. They nohow . Um , but you know, I'll reach back out. And we've had people appreciate that. We've had people that they genuinely were not meaning to know shows. They just had a lot going on. They have anxiety.
And I've gotten people to come in after four times of them not showing up and they sign up and they come in and they sign up for PT and nutrition and it's like, oh, see, it was worth it . And they appreciate it. So , uh, we definitely check in. I just , I think that don't give up on 'em so easy. I know for us it's our business. And a lot of people can take it personal.
When people go to them and they nohow it , it can be taken personal, especially when you map your entire day out. But I do encourage everybody to like, you know, give 'em another chance, reach out. You never know if you
Were ready for the appointment and they don't show up. You've got 15 or 20 minutes to start texting and do some lead nurturing. Exactly . And there are stories in the, in the two brain group of like owners who have messaged people and put them on, you know, reacquisition campaigns and have gotten Mm-Hmm . someone after like seven, eight months, maybe 10 or 12 calls or something like that. Yeah .
And is this annoying that person? No, the person asked for help, right? That's the person contacted you out , went out of their way to book an appointment and contacted you asking for help. It's kind of your duty as a fitness professional to help that person and say, Hey, I'm here to help. I'm here to help. I'm here to help. If they contact you and say, Hey, I don't want your help anymore.
Let 'em go get the outta your system, or we're done here, we're all good. But that's perfect because you know you've gotten a no answer, it's fine. But if you don't contact them, they might still need help. Maybe they just need
¶ The Prescriptive Model for Gym Sales
a little push. And this is where Val's social media comes in, because let's say that person skips an appointment, they're nervous, they contacted him, maybe they were having a bad night or something. They felt bad about themselves. I wanna lose weight. Uh, next morning they wake up, they're really upset that they've done this. They're not ready for it, but they're just like still in their head.
They start thinking, they look at his social media. This person lost weight. This person accomplished this goal. This seems like a really good guy. He's a professional, he's got a great staff, great facility. Oh, I got a message saying, I missed my appointment. I, okay, I'm gonna rebook. All that stuff is your backup plan.
It's like, think about it, you know , playing baseball, that's the backstop, that's catches all the things, the pitches that don't go over the plan . Yeah . That stuff is essential. So you gotta build all that. So those are the systems that you've got to get people in the door . And you had a great time doing that. So you got 45 appointments, 26 shows, and that's fantastic. So good work on that.
Now you've got them in the sales office. Tell me about the structure of that sales meeting. What do you do and how do you get them to sign up?
So definitely , uh, prescriptive motto , uh, thank you two brain , you know , uh, instead of, you know, them just coming in, a lot of gyms, they just walk in and they're like, you want personal training? All right , here's the price. There you go. Do you want it or not? You know, it's like, that's not gonna close anybody. So we definitely do the prescriptive model.
Um , we've changed our questionnaire a lot of times just over the experience and getting more questions. And what we do is we turn it into more, for one, you know , identifying the pain points. Um , specifically for the good thing about us offering all those services is we allow them to have control and they can hybrid their package. So with prescriptive model , we say, Hey, you may not, you might not.
Do you need nutrition? How's your relationship with nutrition? Um, do you have experience with personal trainer or you more experienced with group classes? Okay. And they choose that. Okay, boom. So as they're giving us these answers, we're building it out. And then at the end we have their prescription.
Okay, based on the things that you've told us and your needs, your goals, your expectations, here's what we think will work best for you, here's the price . And we kind of get out the way . But before we even do the price, the biggest thing I think is we kind of connect on more of a psychological and an emotional level.
Um, by asking them , you know, if six months from now you were to achieve this goal, what would that look like for you? What would that feel like for you? Like, what , what would change in your life? And that's usually where we get the real answer, the real , uh, intrinsic answer to why they're wanting . Everybody's like, oh, I just wanna lose 30 pounds. I'm like, yeah , but why do you wanna lose 30 pounds?
Why do you wanna lose 30 pounds? What is that gonna do for you? Once you get that answer, you know, you can use that as far as if you get any roadblocks and things like that. Yeah. But you know, you said you wanted to, you know, be able to be here longer for your kids or be more in shape for your wife, you know, things like that. And I think that that gives you that extra push to close.
I had a guy the other day that we closed on just last Friday and was, once we gotta that part of it, he was sold on it. I was able to relate to him on more of an emotional level and incorporating fitness and how that could change his life . Um , I think it made a big deal .
Wow. So there, I mean, I'm gonna put a link in the list in the show notes for you listeners. The prescriptive model. Mm-Hmm . . It'll tell you exactly how to use it because Val's sticking to the two brain playbook here, the short version is exactly what he laid out. You ask someone what they wanna accomplish, you tell 'em how you can help them, and that's the deal. And it works.
It sounds too good to be true, but it's not Mel's living proof. Again, it works. And he's added in an extra step that we recommend is what do you wanna accomplish and why? And if people, like, you'll get some gut punches in there. Hey, when people tell you I wanna do this, be like you mentioned a guy who wants to be around longer for his kids.
There's other ones where it's like , I I just wanna feel good in my own skin again. I wanna go to the beach without feeling ashamed of myself. Like, you've probably heard some incredible emotional stuff in there and that helps you understand what this person really needs. Like, have you had a couple of other really great examples of things people have told you, like their whys that are just like, oh, this is incredible
As far as like wanting to transform themselves . Usually I, I get 'em by asking, you know, like, okay, so not just are you wanting to be more in shape, you know, for your wife, but I'm like, I still try to make it be for them . Like, I'm like, okay, but what about what you want? You know, because at the end of the day that that's gonna be the best way to go with it.
You know, we learn extrinsic motivation and entrance motivated . You want them to, what is it doing for you though, specifically? And what I usually get is, okay, yeah, but you know, yeah, you look good for wife , be here for the kids, but you know, like you said, I wanna look good in my own skin. You know, I wanna walk in a room and not feel like I'm the most outta shape person in the room.
You know, especially, you know, you wanna be able to use those, like you said, the beach. But I think like , you wanna go to the beach and be able to just take your shirt off and not be insecure and not confident in yourself, you know? So , um, but those are mainly the ones that I hear. I think you pretty much got 'em . Yeah, perfectly. Those are the most common ones.
So it's what do you wanna accomplish? Why do you wanna accomplish it? Here's how you do it. And the cool part about the prescriptive model is that sometimes people will come and they'll say like, okay, I want , I wanna look, I wanna look better. I want , I wanna build muscle or whatever. And you're like , okay , cool.
And they , they might just think that they're just gonna do personal training, but you're like, you know what? The best actual plan if you wanna accomplish this goal is, I wanna do personal training with you three times a week. But I also, I have a nutrition plan because if you're not eating properly, we're not gonna get the results that you're gonna , that you want. Right?
We need to ba gain , lose a little body fat, we wanna gain some muscle meat , high protein, low fat, whatever it is. I wanna work out with you and give you some nutrition coaching, help you with your healthy habits, all that other stuff. And they're like, oh, you that what , that's gonna get me to my goals faster. And you're like, yes, of course it's going to help you get your goals faster. The price is this.
They're like, sign me up. Right? Like Exactly. Yeah. And your system is the close. When you ask for the money, is it difficult at awkward?
No, not if you make sure you hit all the pain points specifically to them. And you, I think like we talk about social proof . If you say all of this and you show a price, the value to them psychologically value is determined by the result in a way. So if they see these results and they're hearing these stories and you can relate and your pricing is not a number to them .
I've had people, of course, you know, it depends, you know, people are like, Ooh , that's a lot. But if you connect with them on an emotional level, usually the price doesn't matter. They , they're like, I don't care what the price is, it's gonna , if it's gonna make me feel the way you're telling me, it's gonna make me feel if I'm gonna get the results. Like those people on that wall over there, I'm willing to ,
What is the price of self-esteem? What is the price feel comfortable at the beach? What is the price ? Those are valuable things, right? So like, you know, $200 a month or 300 a month, whatever it is , when when you have that emotional hook, it's not just a gym anymore, this is like you're selling a result. You're not selling a thing, right? You're not saying, oh, this is just gym access.
You're saying I'm selling you self-esteem through this plan . Yeah . And so the close becomes very easy. And instead of you saying, I'm trying to take this person's money by getting 'em in my gym and whatever, you're actually selling a result and you as a , as the gym owner, you're on the hook for that result because you're gonna get them there and you're gonna provide everything they need.
Obviously you can't save everyone, but you do your very best to give everyone what they need. And you've got the social proof to back it up. Because like in your sales office, did they look at the wall and just see pictures of transformations and stuff? Is that there?
Yes . So we added that like two months ago, and we're still adding more . We just talked about it yesterday. So not only do we have before and afters on the wall, we also have, there's spotlights. So have it built into the client journey to where there's a spotlight photo done at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. And that it's , it's highlighting their wins . Usually smaller wins .
But since we do have access to an InBody , we usually put their InBody numbers at the top and they'll emotional , um, response down, down this much body fat percentage, down this much fat mass . But then at the bottom, feeling more confident in the gym or in my body , we have those all on the wall on one side, and we have just the , you know, the before and after the other side.
So yeah, they, we've had people stand up and they're like, can I actually look at these? I'm like , of course. You know, but they're walking through and they're , um, they're looking at these people and they're like, wow. So they did that in how long, you know, and we're telling them .
And like I said , I think that that just makes , at that point , I just kind of , we'll just sit back and let them just look at all these people because they're like, the best thing is sometimes those people that are on the war in the gym, and I'm like, you want to talk to them because they're here.
, has that happened? Have they gone out and tried it ?
Um , yeah , I've , I've had that happen a couple of times. Uh , I've had somebody that were out there, good one here , one of our , uh, CE clients for sure. And I'm like, Hey, you feel like stepping in? And I'm like, see, she's real. No Photoshop here. I know we, we have all this AI and stuff going on. I just want you to see these are, these are real people just like you.
That, that started off insecure, started off without confidence, started off anxiety. Now here , they're on their own because the good thing about us is after they get done with PT and everything else, since they're self-sufficient, that's the good thing about our access. We just go into access and they stay longer now. They're here for years.
Okay, so listeners,
¶ Social Proof and Sales Strategies
if you're out there, start collecting social proof. I'll give you a tip as to when to do it. Have a goal review session with your clients, three month mark. After three months, have a goal review session. Ask that client, are you happy with their progress? If they say, yes, I am, great. I'd like to make a superstar of you.
Pull out your phone, ask 'em some questions about what they've accomplished and what their next goals are and that kind of thing. And start putting that social proof together. You can also do it like Val does, put them on an InBody. Ask permission of course, but just get them on there. Put their numbers up before and after pictures. Almost nothing is more powerful than a before and after transformation picture.
Like Vel said, you can do 'em with ai. People do that. It's sketchy. Don't do that. Do it with your real clients because you're a great coach and you're getting results. Put that stuff up. Make superstars the people. Celebrate them. That's gonna retain that member. And it's gonna connect, give you all sorts of ammunition when you're talking to someone in your sales office.
They'll just points , Cindy did that, Jeff did this. And it's like, oh, that's what I wanna accomplish. He could obviously make this happen. Tell me one final thing. Your sales binder, do you have an actual thing that you, you look through and show the client? Or how are you presenting prices to them?
So yes, we do the binder. I I've been thinking about doing the tablet right now. We do have the binder and um, we have it all organized by personal training. So a private , um, small group, 24 access. But um, it's all in order of all the services. But just so we don't overwhelm them again based off the prescriptive model, we usually just flip right to that thing , right ? To what they fit in .
Um, the way it feels too salesy. If, you know, we're flipping through everything, do this , do that , do that . Then they're like, but I need you to test . So we have the binder . And I do think that makes a great difference. Instead of either sitting PT is being able to pull that binder out, we actually have a printout of our, our client journey.
Oh, nice. Hold that up for a second. That is beauty
. So it's kind of like a , it's like good roadmap . Yep . Just like that. Cool . Pass . Something pretty cool like that . So we wanted to incorporate what we do though. They see this on day one. And then as they're going through their journey, Lexi also, she's doing like CSM work too.
She'll send them, so when they get to 30 days at 30 day mark here, they'll get like a , there'll be like a little car or like a person on a bike. Like , congratulations on making 30 days, congratulations on Congrat . So they're getting these emails throughout the , the first 90 days we were , we're still start trying to work on our attention . So we do a lot more in that first 90 days than do .
But yeah , that's been great . You know , they've , they actually have an expectation . Okay , 90 we do , um, a goal overview at 90, get back started right back at the beginning of the road. And we do , that's in the binder. And then also we have like our nutrition coaching, macro coaching, not just the prices . It's also kind of a , a kind of a tease of hey, this is what's gonna look like if you do this .
This is the roadmap . And I , I , again, I think that helps just get
You look ultra professional as gym owner. If instead of saying , uh, I think our prices are 70 bucks a month, if you just pull out the page, mm-hmm three times a week, one-on-one personal training, 2 75, whatever. It's, you just pull out the page. This is the best solution to your problem. It's our hybrid program. It's nutrition fitness, it's 3 0 5, whatever. You just pull out the page, show it to you. Mm-Hmm . .
And there's a whole different way to like break down if someone's got objections says , ah , I can't afford that. Okay, I get it. Could you afford 2 75? Maybe won't start with nutrition coaching. We'll start with this. Yeah, I can afford that. There's a whole system that two brain teaches clients to close those sales.
But in a lot of cases, if you just show 'em the price, you built up the value, you're gonna close those sales. Just like Val said, just by showing them that stuff as a pro, two Brainin does have for clients, downloadable sales guides that you can use and Mm-Hmm, . Yep . You can also show 'em on an iPad. Val was talking about that. Some gym owners have been really creative.
They'll put 'em on a screen that's up, you know, behind the cl above the client or something like that. Show 'em on a tablet. Having your prices and packages laid out simply and directly and clearly is going to help you close more sales. And having them scroll through a bunch of stuff or having them try and memorize all the stuff that you're throwing, throwing at them. I used to do a horrible job of that.
Uh , three times a week. Is this one time a week? Is this two times a week? Is this unlimited? Is this the client's? Like, I don't care. Right? You gotta just give them number , right? When you do it like that, it works. And then I love this, that graphic that you've had, you showing 'em the client journey.
So you actually are telling them, here's where we're at, here's where we're going, here are the milestones along the way. Some of those milestones are, you know, those check-ins, which are super important for retention. And that 90 day check-in has been proven. Chris Cooper has the data.
It's proven to increase average revenue per member and retention because you ask clients if they're happy, if they are, you keep 'em going. If they're not, you make changes and you might alter their program and even add more stuff. I'm not losing weight fast enough. Well now it's time to add in nutrition coaching because you're doing the work in the gym, you're not doing the work in the kitchen. Let's do that.
So that 90 day journey, when you put that in and show people that graphic, did that start to, did you see visible results in your business with greater retention and greater or onboarding success?
Yes. Yes. And it's a psychological thing too because now we have in our bio and we have on a whiteboard next picture just says , we help people take control of their health and fitness within 90 days . Oh , so they're already , that's expecting. Yeah . So they're already expecting to do at least 90 days. And that's the last question on the , uh, questionnaire.
Do you feel like you can commit yourself to this really 90 days? So by the time they get to that 90 day mark, we uh, put them through a, we show them like their InBody again. And we've actually had that save people from leaving you . 'cause people don't, they're just going off the scale. They might audit and lose any weight.
Well , we've had somebody that came in didn't think she lost weight, but when we showed her, we had her do a 90 day , uh, InBody before her 90 days. And the last time she did it was her day one. And what we did was we go, look at this. Your weight's the same, but it's because you lost six , you lost seven pounds of body fat , but you gained seven pounds of mu uh , muscle. So it canceled it out for her .
So then she's like , oh my gosh . So I have been, I'm like, yeah, you had a body , you reed, you had a body recomp. So , which is incredible. She , oh , okay, well I think, okay, so I was thinking I wasn't getting resolved, so I'm gonna , I'm gonna stay on longer. But had we not had that 90 day checkin there to show her , Hey look, no, let me show you what's really going on.
And you thinking you're not getting progress from this. I'm pretty sure she would've remembered this , but that 90 day can save somebody from canceling. 'cause then you're showing them , Hey look,
I love it. And that again, true brain data backs us up. And that's why it's like great to have people like ve explain it ground level, how it works. I'm gonna give you the summary here, guys. Organic social media, paid media. You've got your funnels all putting people into your business. You do not have to use every single funnel in the world. Two brain teaches four funnels for clients.
Uh, there's content, social media, paid ads and referrals. Those are the four big ones that get people going. Whatever you do, you gotta start with one and then make sure it's working well. And then go to the rest. Val's got some organic social media, he's really great on there. He's also got paid me , uh, paid marketing. Those are two that are working really well. I'm sure you're doing referrals and stuff. Am I right?
Yeah. Working on that. That one's harder. We're working on that. Yep .
But that's gonna get you the best clients . So that's almost a free space, right? Yeah , because you're getting results with your clients. You're a great trainer, they're gonna give you their friends . So once you get that going, the business is even gonna take off. But his funnels, the main ones there . We got organic social media, call it content, a little bit of blurry one there. And then you've got your paid ads.
He's coming in, he's got his nurturing systems telling people, you booked an appointment, I'm gonna see you here. If you don't come, I'm gonna follow up. You get people in the door using the prescriptive model to close those sales. It is a very simple, hugely effective system. Check the show notes for a link and then you've got this 90 journey that retains the clients. Gives you a chance to ask them, are you happy?
And if they are, you make 'em famous with social proof. If they're not, you make a small adjustment and you retain them . Set new goals and keep moving forward. The system works like a charm. Val , gym owners who are out there. So we, we talked two years ago, you didn't have this stuff in place. Tell gym owners who are out there right now who don't have the stuff in place. How soon could they make this transition?
How soon could they do what you're doing
If you're , if you're committed to it and you're willing to do the work? I know a lot of people look at it as the boring work. You know, I'm not a systems guy, but I had to become one. You have to, you know, if you wanna , if you wanna get somewhere you've never been, you gotta do things . So I would say it would take you, if you were committed to it, give yourself a good six months to really nail it .
Because obviously once you get it together is you have to, you know, trial and error to make the adaptations. I'll say all of the work is upfront . Once the systems are in place, systems do , and you can make small definitely worth it . Um , we didn't have these systems and we struggled and didn't know why we weren't closing on clients. We weren't getting leads.
Um, now that we have all these things in place is I encourage you to at least give yourself a six month goal to have it all laid out, secure. And
Six months change of business is not that long. Val, how important is a mentor in speeding that process up?
Very important. Um , Peter's great. I have Peter Peter's great. He just actually gave me a new challenge to post more for content than I already post. So more, Hey . I started a , yeah, so I started a blog. Uh , we're starting , we have a blog on our, the , the website now. So I'm gonna be putting some blogs up and things like that. Um, but yeah, great, great guidance.
Um, always able to see things from a different perspective from the outside perspective where when you're in the business, if you're in the grid of everything going on, it's hard to kind of go, Hey, did you , did you get this done? Peter's good at keeping me from the shiny objects in you . I'm like , oh , lemme try this then . You know , it keeps you focused , keeps you locked in. And , um, emotional support too.
It's not easy being a business owner that alone, a gym owners . So definitely worth having a mentor. And I , I would do it again if I had chance .
¶ Jim Owners and Business Transition Insights
I appreciate all your comments so much. There's a ton of insight in here for gym owners. Guys follow ve on social media. Check out his blog. We'll put a link to three D Fitness in there so you can check it out as well. And then take a look at the prescriptive model. Everything you talked about is laid out in there and it can help you transition your business.
And if you want help doing it, plug and play resources to brain business has that for you. Vel , thanks so much for checking in with me. I wanna talk to you in another year and see where you're at.
Oh yeah, for sure. You know, I look forward to it .
Drinks in Chicago.
Yeah, sure, I'll be there again.
I'll see you there my friend. Thank you so much. That was Vel Bates. He's the owner of three D Fitness. This is Run a profitable gym. I hope you enjoyed the show. There's some great information there for you. Please subscribe because this stuff comes out every single week for me. Chris Cooper and the other hosts of the show. And now here's Chris Cooper with a final message.
Hey, it's two Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a quick note , we created the Gym Owners United Facebook group to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners, just like you have already joined in the group. We share sound advice about the business of fitness every day I answer questions, I run free webinars and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym.
I'd love to have you in that group. It's Gym Owners United on Facebook, or go to gym owners united.com to join. Do it today .