The Jerk Store is outta you. Huh ? Do you ever wish you had , uh, the exact line you need in a certain situation? It didn't say something dumb like maybe when you need a referral or you wanna sell some pt? Well, two Brain Founder and CEO , Chris Cooper is here, and he's gonna solve your problems today by telling you exactly what to say in certain situations that come up so often in gyms. My name is Mike Kinin .
I'm here with Run a Profitable Gym . Please hit subscribe wherever you're watching or listening so you don't miss a single show. Chris, are you ready to tell people exactly what to say?
Yes, I was super ready, but I, I gotta ask you what your opening joke is gonna be every time, . Yeah, totally ready. So ready. This is gonna be awesome.
Yeah, and if you don't remember anyone who was out there, the jerk star was the , uh, classic Seinfeld line where George gets stuck in a situation, thinks of what he thinks is the perfect line, delivers it, and just gets kicked back in his face. It's happened to me in the gym setting so many times. Chris, I know you've had it too.
I think I would call a blog where you said something like, you literally used to tell people I'm a terrible salesperson, and you really thought like, maybe I shouldn't do that. Maybe I should just learn to sell . So let's go through a few things. I got a big list of stuff that you've said, and we'll talk about this because these scenarios come up in gyms all the time.
I've dealt with them , you've dealt with them , and people out there, you are going to deal with them if you haven't already. So here's a big one, and this one is literally the answer is gonna make you money. Chris, someone says, do you offer discounts?
I just say, no, we don't offer discounts. And most 80% of the time, that's it. You know, that's the end of the conversation because why ,
Why is it so hard not to say that? It seems so hard to say that sometimes. Why is that ? Well,
'cause you get into this trap and it's like, oh, I do offer discounts, but not for you. It is really hard to say. So if you offer discounts for firefighters and nobody else, what quickly happens is you find yourself trying to justify giving a discount to everybody else. You know? So do you offer discounts only for firefighters? Well, God, I'm an ambulance driver. That's the same thing.
And then it's like, I'm a nurse, I'm a teacher. You don't value teachers, right? Like, it's actually just easier to say no,
And then you start getting defensive, right? I always feel like that where I'm like, oh, well, it's just , uh, and then I start fumbling and then I ended up giving everyone a discount
Ex , and that's what happened to me. Yeah. And you know , one thing that I learned way back in the day when I was selling treadmills is to say, if people really press you on it, just say, our service is as inexpensive as we can make it for the level of service we provide. And what you're doing there is creating a difference in their brain.
So if they're like, well, that guy down the street, he offers 20% offer first responders, and you say, our service is inexpensive, we can make it for the level of service we provide.
Now , you didn't say cheap.
No , no, I never say cheap. Never .
There's a big difference because high value services aren't cheap and we don't wanna imply that they are. So what you're saying is inexpensive for this level of service. That's a value statement, right?
Yeah. You know, when I was selling treadmills, my boss told me to say, we don't play those games. But what she was doing there is we were selling a high-end treadmill against a piece of crap department store , our , and she wanted to provoke like an a response. Like, what are you talking about? What games , you know, from the buyer? I don't want to do that. I don't want to call anybody else cheap.
So I use the term inexpensive on purpose.
That works. So guys, that one will save you money right now if you just tell people, we don't have discounts, the price is the price. Nope , you will save . That's, it's as easy, that's like a rate increase in a lot of ways. Eliminating discounts is very much a rate increase onto the next one.
So , uh, starting a conversation, this used to be a little bit easier back in the day before screens and cell phones where everyone's down looking like this, but how do you, you're out and about and you just, you know, you might wanna talk to someone and maybe eventually tell 'em about your business. How do you start a conversation?
I say good morning. And because nobody's ever gonna have a negative reaction to good morning, right? And even if it's like 1:00 PM I'll just be like, good morning. And then I'll say, oh, I guess it's not actually morning anymore, you know, whatever. And I do this , uh, when I'm on my bicycle, I do this when I'm , um, buying a coffee, I do this.
When I'm meeting somebody that's walking down the sidewalk in front of my gym, I will literally be the one to go first. And this is like, it's so rare now that it's almost like this a surprise that somebody would make eye contact and greet them. And I've never had anybody ever not smile and say Good morning back. Even if they're kinda like flustered, , you know, it's, it's a skill that's called going first.
And I teach it to my kids. I teach it to all my staff too . Like, go first, say good morning.
And what happens after that? Because the conversation, you know, inevitably, inevitably goes somewhere. How do you get it into the realm of your gym? And if it doesn't get there, that's fine, but how do you do that? Well,
It depends where we are, right? So if I'm buying a coffee at a coffee shop, I'll say good morning. Usually that leads to a little bit of conversation after none of us are taught how to start a conversation, but we all know how to , uh, respond to good morning. You say Good morning, and you smile. And then from there I'll just be like, how's your day going? You know, just natural and it takes practice.
And then , um, if I'm somewhere around the gym, I'll , I'll be like, Hey, by the way, I'm Chris and this is my gym. Have you ever been in there? You know? And um, so literally this morning, okay, so this guy had a bunch of laptops accidentally delivered to my gym. He works next door and he shows up and I'm on a call and I'm like, I'll be right with you . I walk out to the lobby, his name is Mike.
And um, I'm like, Hey, Mike, great news. I got you laptops. He's like, thank God I thought the Amazon driver, blah, blah, blah. So I'm like, let me help you carry them to your car. So he's got like eight laptops. We're carrying them to his car. And I'm like, yeah. So anyway, I'm Chris Shake his hand. This is my gym. Have you ever been in there before? No, it's my first time in there. Hey, fantastic.
It's probably not like the Good Life gym up the street, right? No, it's not. I'm a member there. Oh, that's cool. How's, how's the workouts going? You know, and it's like we're all too polite to say, get lost. I'm outta here. And so, you know, you just start a conversation
And it might not give you a new client right then, but that person knows about your gym, knows who you are, knows you're a good person, and maybe down the line that will equal something, right? And so it's just planting these seeds. And I love the idea of what you said going first. That's so uncommon these days when everyone's locked into a screen.
Just going first and having a conversation is going to give you opportunities to talk about your business. It doesn't have to be a hardcore sales thing, but it's just branding essentially. Hey, that's my gym. He'll tell someone , I saw this great cool gym down over on , uh, catalyst there was amazing, right? And then maybe someone's interested.
Yeah. And you know, the , the big hangup for me is such an introvert was I was always trying to think of like, what is my desired outcome here? Right? And it's like going on a first date with a girl and you're like, okay, what are the steps from first date to marriage? Okay, let's think about it. And that paralyzes you, like the outcome is that you have a nice conversation and they feel good. That's it.
You know, that's the goal.
My advice here, see what Chris says, and my advice is , uh, remember the lines, don't be weird. Just be a normal person. React like a normal person. Don't be weird
you what I say, not as what I , not as , uh, as I do that . Yeah . So
Here's the , here's the next part of the scenario. So you've got this , uh, person and , and they , they start talking to you and they start talking about their goals. And maybe they mention like maybe laptop guys , like, ah , man, you know, I , my back kind of hurts when I carry these eight laptops or whatever. How do you take the next step?
Like how do you get that person who mentions a goal or a desire into your gym?
Yeah, so different guy again this morning though , um, he came in for something else. He was picking up a key for something and he's got two ribs out on one side, and now he's walking with a cane. And last week when I saw him, he wasn't, so I'm like, Scott, dude, things are getting worse. And he's like, I know my doctor, they're telling me to see a chiropractor.
And I mean, any fitness pro listening to this sees the opening before me here, right? But basically like whatever you say is like, look man, I think I can help. That's the line. So in this case, it was, look, Scott, I think I can help. I don't wanna see you in pain walking around with this cane. I , I can either get you a referral to a physical therapist to take a look, or we can come in at 2:00 PM on Monday.
I've got an opening and we can try something. Now, in Scott's case, I would refer him out. But you know, for somebody else that I was running into who's mentioned fitness, oh, I've heard of your gym, you know, like a contractor that was working on one of our buildings last week. I'm like, oh yeah. Uh , Scott is his name. Like, Scott, what are your goals with fitness?
Oh, dude, you know, I love doing these workouts at home. I've got this garage set up . I'm like, great. Like, what program are you following? Oh , I just kind of make it up. I'm like, dude, let's talk about your program. I've got an opening 2:00 PM Monday. Do you wanna come in then ? And , and we'll hang out.
Is Scott coming in?
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean , he's also a contractor who wants me to hire him . But yeah, I mean, this has worked for me dozens and dozens of times.
Quid pro quo, Scott .
Yeah. The , the key there is not like, hey, well if you ever wanna talk about your fitness, like you can't just leave it vague and open-ended or it'll never happen. It has to be, you know what, I've got an opening Monday at two o'clock. Do you wanna come in like that ?
And I love the part about help. I think I can help, help and they can make the offer. And it's just going first. It's the same principle again. I like that one. So let's talk about someone who's actually a client. Now you're doing a goal review with a client thrilled with progress, right? You and you're just , this person is just like you say, Hey, are you happy with your progress? Yeah, I'm happy.
I wanna keep going. And you kind of think that maybe we could talk about referrals and friends. What do you do in this situation? What do you say?
Well, the first is you wanna know that client really well. So in my brain I'm like, okay, who are the people closest to this client? So like, who's her spouse, right? Who uh, does she work with and who does she hang out with? Well, I happen to know that Bev's spouse is named Alan , that she's an accountant at the lottery corp.
And that , uh, she hangs out with, she has a whole bunch of like first cousins who are all the same age . I know that because I talk to my clients. You're
A good coach. Yeah.
First I'm gonna talk about Alan . Like, because Alan's her husband. I know what she makes. Therefore I know what Alan makes. I know where she lives. I know, right? Like I know her hobbies and like, Hey Bev, you know , I'm so proud of you, number one proud . I've heard you mention Alan a couple times, I know he is getting ready for golf season.
What do you think it would take to get Alan to come in here and try a workout with you? And then she's gonna tell me how to sell Alan , right? Because there's a chance that she's been trying to sell Alan and can't do it, but she's gonna give me the language to do it.
Yeah. And the key here is that you know your client and you can ask this stuff because you've been a good coach and you've had these conversations
A thousand percent. So what I would say there, and you know, there was a time when I would've been really nervous about this, but you gotta keep in mind like Bev wants her husband Alan to come to the gym. She wants him to feel good, she wants him to be healthy . So what I would say is like, well hey, while you're here, why don't we shoot Alan a text and just see when he wants to join you .
And she'll be like, oh my God, he is gonna kill me, right? Like , okay , yes he is . What's his number? And then you just text him, Hey Alan sitting here with Bev, we're just talking about you, dude, I'd love to have you in Wednesday when she's back at 11:00 AM will you join us? That's it.
It's weird if you pull that with a client who's not happy with progress or a client who you don't know anything about. So you're just sitting there and you're like, Hey, at the end of class , uh, yeah Dear Bob, you got any buddies who wanna join? Like, that's weird. Like that's the jerk store , right? Like that's not a good way to do it . Oh yeah .
If you know the client, it's just a natural thing to say, oh, you know, your spouse has been golfing for years and he's always been talking about hitting his drive further and he's never been able to do it. What if we got him in here, what let's do it today? And she's like, I'm pumped up about my progress. Let's get him in here. It's not, you know, you have to pick your spots, right? Yeah,
It is. And you know, if I were talking to you, I would say something like, Hey Mike. Hey, I know Crystal got really into biathlon over the wintertime and I was just cycling this weekend with a guy who does biathlon. We were talking about training. I really think that I could give her some stuff that's gonna help. Do you think she'd come in with you so that I can show her this stuff next Wednesday
And I'm immediately interested
If you care about the person, it's easy.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's, I mean, the , the , the downstream is having these conversations. The upstream is being a good coach, communicating with your clients and knowing what they're about and who they're, who they hang out with. You gotta know your clients , so don't use this stuff if you're not doing that first. And I'll say that the key linchpin here is those goal review sessions.
You have to do those things so that you get a chance to speak to your client face-to-face in those settings. If you don't, you're not gonna have those chances. So I would strongly recommend that. And then Chris, like one of the things I pulled out from a blog he wrote a long time ago was , uh, asking , uh, someone to refer a friend, not a partner.
And it was just like, and you said it was a text or email and it was subject line is the client's name. I love that because if someone sees the client's, like the friend's name is the subject line, they're gonna open it. And you just said, Hey, lead name. I was just chatting with client and we're here. Or sorry, we agreed that we'd love to have you in for a partner workout.
Her next appointment is, you know, July 40 14th, can you make it? That's, and that's a simple one, right? And then all of a sudden you've got access to like a buddy.
Yeah. And it's not, do you want to, it's not, let me barf a bunch of information about fitness or say something like, you know, we all wanna lose weight this time of year. Gee whoa .
Yeah ,
, yeah. Like you, you know, my biggest mistake early on was always like, I'm gonna impress you with my knowledge and then you're gonna wanna join my gym. No, it's just this person cares about you. Can you make it?
And if it's a yes, you got a really good chance to land that client because they're already locked in with this person. They know about your gym, they trust their friend , they trust their friend, they implicitly trust you because their friend trusts you. It's probably an easy sell. So that's a huge one that can make you money. Here's one where you can get a group, and I love this one.
So your same scenario, goal review session, but you've got a client and you know that this client's kids are into sports. How do you get access to a client's kids sports team? Because this can be a big money one.
Yeah. So when I'm teaching this to my staff, I call it thanking up, which is just like kind of scaling up your client book by using a thank you. So we did this so many times , um, especially around like we hockey figure skating were kind of our biggest too . But we also saw a lot of sprinters and basketball players for a while .
So what we would do is this like, Hey Holly, thank you so much for being such an amazing client. You know, I was trying to figure out like what I could do to say thank you. And I thought maybe the best thing would be to invite your daughter's basketball team to come in. Uh, I know it's, you know, getting close to the end of their season and we would just like have kind of like a fun team party here for them .
What do you think? Now what you're doing is you're solving a massive problem for that team. 'cause they have to throw a team party anywhere. The parent is like, hell's yes, this is amazing. And you are meeting another dozen parents. Every kid that comes in is gonna sign a waiver with their parents' name, phone number and email address on it.
And you can even say like, Hey, if the parents wanna come in and watch, that's totally cool. And you can invite them too. You know that the kids are gonna have an amazing time. It's not gonna be like a salesy relationship, but it's an amazing conversation starter. And what's bananas about this tactic is that most kids play more than one sport.
So if you invite 12 kids in, number one, there's a great chance you're gonna sign up half of them for your kids' program. If you don't have a kids' program, you're gonna sign up one or two of their parents anyway. And that kid is also on the swim team . And so then you say like, Hey, this has been awesome. You're such a, a great family to have around our gym.
What if we invited your swim team in, you know, same thing.
And would you spend an hour to get, you know, 20 or 30 leads? I would. And that's a Oh yeah . And the worst case scenario, that's what you're doing here . Even if no one signs up as a result of this, you've probably got 10 kids and 20 parents' email addresses, and all of a sudden you are , you can send those people all sorts of info and warm them up.
And if they don't sign up, then they might see something down the line. Oh, you run a cycling program in summer. Holy crap, I want in on that. Right? So it , it's, you could spend an hour to get leads and you're probably gonna sell some people too, but what Chris said there is really important.
Make sure they're signing something and you're, you're getting some contact info and you can even say, I'm gonna send you some stuff from time to time away you go. And then that's a perfect way to get a ton of stuff.
You know what's funny, and it's just a sign that I've owned this gym for 20 years now, is quite often when somebody comes in for an NSI, they'll say, Chris trained my kid
And now they're retired or whatever, you know? Oh,
That's funny. So
It's amazing. Yeah,
That, that is interesting. But that's , uh, being the vocal local and , and getting a referral network, that's the result . So like that's the long game. You've been doing it long enough that you're getting the rewards from that, like the boomerangs are coming back. And that's because you started tossing boomerangs 20 years ago. So if you're out there right now, start doing that because the rewards will come back.
Next one here, this is an interesting one . You get a client and this client is a group class person. Or even in a free consultation, it's a prospective client who's gonna sign up. Actually, I'm gonna ask you for this one first. I'm, this is the million dollar line. So guys, I'm gonna just blow this up. This line has been said by one of, by our marketing officer that this line made him a million dollars.
So we're gonna ask you for this one, Chris, free consultation. You presented , presented a workout plan and you wanna close the sale and see if the client is interested in pt. What do you say?
Yeah. So you're framing this by saying like, given your goals, here's what I think is the best course for you. Are you more comfortable doing these workouts one-on-one with me or in a small group setting?
There it is .
That's it. And you know, according to John , that made him, that question made him well over a million dollars at his gyms when he had 'em because , um, you were just giving people options and one of those options was not yes or no , you know? And , and what happened was you'll find like 30% of the time people will be like, I'd like to start one-on-one, you know, and then they stay one-on-one,
Use that line, present the plan in a free consultation, not a free trial, and ask the person, do you wanna do this with me or in a group? And every person who says with me is probably going to be what? Four x the , the , the value of something like that. It's going to be much greater value. They're gonna get better results. It's a win for everybody. Remember that line.
If you do nothing else from this podcast, remember that line
For me saying, would you be more comfortable? Is performs best? Mm-Hmm , you know, but that might not , it might be, would you prefer for other people? But for me testing this hundreds of times over the last 20 years, it's, would you feel more comfortable doing these workouts in a group setting or one-on-one with me ? There
You go. So this is related to that one. If you are partnering someone up , so let's say you've got a one-on-one client and you wanna start shifting into like a semi-private or a small group setting and you wanna try and maybe float that past this one-on-one client, what's the lines that you can say to start launching this program?
Yeah, so I actually learned this from Greg Glassman. This is how he went from doing one-on-one training to small group training, which is what CrossFit always was when he was doing it. So what he would say is like, Hey Mike, you're doing amazing. In fact, the only thing that I could think of that would make you get more fitness faster is if I partnered you up with somebody at the same time.
Now I've got the perfect match for you. She's around your age, she's very close to your fitness level and it's, you guys would be a great collaboration because I think you'd push each other to do a little bit more without it feeling competitive anyway. Do you wanna try partnering up with her for a session? Sure . We can always go back to one-on-one if you don't like it, you know, and that's it.
And, and so then he would bring people in, you know, and Mike meet Crystal and, and you're gonna work out together and it's gonna be super fun. And then he would never say, well, what'd you think? Do you wanna go back? And nobody ever went back to one-on-one. He never said it's 10 bucks cheaper to do a semi-private, you know, he did charge like 10% less or whatever.
But that was just kinda like the cherry on top for people. He always positioned it as this is best for you because, and then they tried it and you know, that's how they did it.
And that's an interesting way, if you're charging $80 an hour for PT and you give , uh, you get two people together and you charge instead of 160, you charge 140 each person pay 70. Yeah , whatever the math is, they get a small discount that's basically irrelevant, but it's something and you get to double that hourly rate more or less. That's a pretty cool one.
And then they're , the other thing is they're gonna get better results because it problems gonna push 'em , there's a little bit of retention built in there because they've got a training partner. There's a lot of good stuff that can come from that. So if you ever wanna start doing semi-private or small group training, that's the line and that's the way to do it. Now Chris, do you, you got some more there?
Well, so when we started semi-private at , at Catalyst, it wasn't actually that long ago because I didn't understand that that was the original CrossFit model , but when I decided we did wanna start it back in January, we got 12 clients like that using that exact line.
It's been tested, it does work. So remember that one. Here's one that I think think people will struggle with, but it, I don't think it's as difficult as they think we're gonna talk about asking a client for a video testimonial. So you're in a free consultation, client is happy with progress and results and you just high five and let it go out the door. That's a mistake.
How do you get that client to give you some marketing assets that will allow you to get more clients just like that person?
Yeah, I think testimonial is what throws people off here. So here's what you do.
Sounds churchy.
She's sitting in front of you or camera , you know, class is over and she's leaving. And you mentioned some result that she's had. Jane, you just deadlifted 200 pounds. I'm so proud of you. You know, I really think your story could inspire other people, especially people just like you. Can I share your story? And she'll be like, okay.
And then you just pull out your phone and and she'll be like, oh my God, I didn't think you meant right now. Like , no , my , and I'm not picking on women 'cause guys are worse.
Exactly . Exactly . Lemme
Run to the bathroom, comb my hair, right? Like , and so you just, you're like, Hey, tell me about you just deadlifted 200 pounds. I'm , I'm so proud of you. Why is this an important milestone to you? You know, why do we care? And they just start going, they never end in under two minutes. It always winds up with like, and Catalyst is my favorite place on earth, you know, .
And , um, it's funny, I I was visiting this team in Minneapolis years ago called Saber-Tooth , and we were talking about testimonials. I was sitting in their coach's room on the couch and there was this personal training client leaving and she's a physician. And I'm like , there's your, your ideal client right there. Like, how are you not getting a testimonial?
Well, you know, we ask people for testimonials and they never give it to us. So I got my phone out and I walked outta the office and I'm like, Hey, I'm Chris. These guys were just bragging you up in there. Like, do you know how proud they are of you? And she's like, I can't believe they even talk about me. I'm like, seriously, there are so many women who need to hear your story. Would you share it?
Oh, I don't know. I'm all sweaty. I'm like, it doesn't matter, you know? And she's like, okay, okay. Hit record . And they had their testimonial right there from a female physician who probably inspired another 300 women.
Share your story is different than walking up and saying, would you like to do a testimonial and say good things about my gym? Like, that's awkward, right? That's again, go my line. Don't be weird, right? Like, just make it natural. I'd love to share your story and tell other people about, about you. Chris, some of the other stuff that , uh, that you said is , uh, I'm looking my , my note here.
Maybe you just, you know, tell , could you tell someone something you wish you'd known when you started here six months ago? That's a really great one. Any wisdom that you could give someone who's just starting their fitness journey. Like little tips where saying, Hey, could you help someone else? And it's not so much as like, say good things about my gym. It's like, share what, you know, share your story.
That's different, right?
Yeah, man. And one of the best I ever saw, and I, this is one of those ones I wish I'd come up with myself. So they, they were just grabbing people as they were leaving the gym and they would say, you're doing great. Do you feel like you're making progress? Yes, I am. Camera comes out. What advice would you give to the person you used to be a year ago? Ooh .
And that's good.
They all cried.
. Yeah. Tears are good for marketing . That emotion is good. Yep .
Yeah . And share your story. That's so good. Yeah ,
I would, I love that. Share your story is so much more powerful than some of the other awkward approaches to that. Can I, I'm proud of you. Can I tell your story? You know, what can you say to your former self? Like, these things are all great questions, remember them and use it and it won't be awkward The next time you want to ask for , uh, quote unquote testimonial. Do it the easy way.
Here's another one, Chris, this is another big one. This is like the , uh, we talk about kids, how it's a a 10 for one kind of thing. This is the peer, this is the peer group, right? Where it's like nurses travel and packs, accountants travel and packs , whatever. It's so you're in a free consultation. Again, client's happy with progress and results.
You know, this person works with a large group of people or in an office or has a bunch of peers. How do you get access to the peer group?
Well, it's like, what can I do to help this, this shift work or , or this office group or whatever it is, right? Like, that's what you always gotta be thinking about is how can I help this person best ? So the way that we've done this in the past is , uh, especially with nurses and accountants, it's worked extremely well. So at certain times of the year, their workplace gets even more stressful than normal.
So we had this group of accountants and it was in like a government thing and I, I had the client in for goal review and I'm like, you know, what's going on? Oh my God, the gym is good. It's my sanctuary. You've heard this. If you own a gym, it's, this is my safe place. I come here to de-stress. I, you know, and I'm like, yeah, you know, it's march is are things even worse at the office right now than normal?
Oh, Chris, you wouldn't believe it. My god. Between the , the stress of getting the stuff done, blah . Okay . And you think like, how can I help this person who's suffering right now? Well, the best thing that I could do is probably teach her people how to like, eat healthier so they're not on this caffeine and sugar rollercoaster all day.
Maybe I could teach 'em some stretches or like how to relieve stress at their desk. Okay, well the best thing I could do is actually come into your office and teach people like how to reduce their stress in 30 minutes a day. Why don't I just do that? And of course, you know, this, this woman was like, oh man, that would be a miracle. And I'm like, no, no , I'm really willing to do this.
Like who should I talk to at your office about setting this up? So she connects me to her manager and I talk to the manager, Hey, I'm willing to come in. This is not a sales pitch. I am gonna end . I might do a draw or something, but I'm not gonna be there to pitch catalyst, you know? And she's like, okay, let's call it a lunch and learn. They can bring their lunch and they can listen to you if they want.
I'm like, wonder. So I go into this building, I go through all the security. There's 30 people sitting in this classroom. This is the first time I ever did it. 30
Leads.
Yeah, 30 people right there. I'm like, okay, we're gonna be moving a little bit, so please sign this waiver. Okay. You know, know I don't want you suing me or your boss. Ha ha . And then I'm like, look, this is a stressful time of the year. I appreciate you guys giving me your attention. I don't wanna waste a second. Everybody stand up and we just go through like, here's how to do a little squat.
Here's how to stretch, here's how to eat to reduce your stress. Fantastic, thank you all for coming by the way, you guys have been so great. Write your name on a slip of paper and throw it in this brown paper bag. I'll draw somebody and give them a free membership.
And what I've got there is like 30 leads, like no Facebook ad is going to get me 30 accountants who are more than $120,000 per year who live in this area code, right? Like, but that's what I just bought myself.
And I think I've heard that story before. Didn't that result in like a , a large amount of money over the years for you? Yeah,
That one was ridiculous. Um, so that one, the first lady who put her hand up says, you coached my kid. I saw you at the hockey rink. And like, Hey, the kids on your bench had a lot more energy than the kids on our bench . How'd that happen? And then I was like, well, I'll write down what I tell my kids and you can share it with your team.
And that became this piece of content called How to Feed a hockey animal. And um, of course that got distributed to like every hockey playing kid in town , which was incredible. But another time it was like , um, hey guys, we're writing this book on like how the brain and body work together and exercise. Can I buy your staff lunch?
And I sent this to a physical therapy practice, they immediately started referring people to us who were on insurance plans. And that earned us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years. And it wasn't me coming in saying, let me pitch this program to you. It was, can we have a conversation about this? I , I really could use your advice, I'll buy you lunch in exchange.
But really like that tray of sandwich just got me hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Make connections, meet people, talk things, don't be weird, have conversations is going to result in downstream effects for your business. Chris, I asked a few questions in our growth group for , uh, tubing clients. I got a few really good answers and I wanna throw a couple of 'em at you . Be two , two in particular because there's two scenarios that I that are always cut . One is like just squidgy. No one likes it.
And the other one is like a real opportunity for gym owners to hold onto some revenue. So I'm gonna give you the scenario or the , the question and the answer. So what do I say to a client who smells bad? And like, if you're like me, my stomach drops and I'm just like, oh my god, I gotta deal with this. Oh , horrible. Right? So here's the answer and now I want you to tell me what you think of this.
Hey client, I noticed you've been working up a smell when you're getting after in the gym. I've had the same problem at times. You might try replacing some of your older workout clothes and you could definitely use the gym shower before class if you've had a long work day . I've got body wash in there as well as spray deodorant you can use before and after working out . What do you think of that?
I think that's fantastic,
Right ? You're just giving someone a friendly kind bit of advice and not making it awkward because it can't get awkward on that one. Another uh, person said they use a preemptive strike and a message to all clients so you know when it's starting to get warm they say something like this , uh, you know , like an email newsletter or something, we're heading into the deep heat summer smells can get funky.
Take a moment and wash those knee sleeves and wrist wrist wraps while you're at it. Spray some odor killer on your shoes and in your gym bag. Swing by the front desk this weekend and grab a free on-the-go deodorant spray to keep hand . Last. Lastly, double check your workout gear to see if it passes the sniff test . Sometimes things get past their prime and need to be replaced solving problems before they happen.
What do think of that?
Amazing. Like that's, that's more my style. Like how can I solve this before it becomes a problem? I love that one. So good. Yep .
Who did that come from? I believe that was Brandy Forbes I believe.
Oh of course it was. She's so thoughtful, like and so empathetic. Yes. Amazing. I think
That was from her and apologies if I've got that wrong, but I believe that was from her. Here's a really good one and I can tell you this comes from uh, the answer here comes from Jolene Bingham who is our tinker lead and a great gym owner. This is great because she's literally used this to save five people from holding their membership over summer. So she's like, that's five people who are still paying.
So the question was what do you say to a client who wants to hold a membership for summer? And for me it was like, oh , I guess . And then the person please don't , right? I lose three months of revenue or whatever it is. And then for half of them they don't come back. So I lose all the revenue. It was a disaster. Here is what Jolene said, Hey name . We understand that summer is a busy time of year.
However you've made so much progress on insert the goal that you know from a goal review session. So you've made so much progress on your squat strength. I would hate to see you lose that progress over summer. Let's set a goal, set up a goal review so we can figure out a plan that allows you to continue making progress and accommodates your busy summer schedule. What do you think of that?
I love it so much. Yeah, so good.
Five people didn't cancel because of that. There was one person Jolene said, who had like a legit like I am like, you know, it was like deployed to have , you know, a war zone or something or whatever. It was like the hold was legit, right? Where it's one of those ones where you're like, ah , you're you're good astronaut or something. But like this one, most of them, five of them saved just from using those lines.
So guys, those are two bonus ones that come from our growth group , uh, with strong influence from our mentor team. Use those ones as well when they come up.
Can I add one more there please ? Yeah , please . For people taking a short-term vacation. So one thing that's always worked extremely well for us is, hey, can I put my membership on hold? I'm going on a cruise for two weeks or I'm going to California for a week or I'm going on holiday to this place. And what we always say is, why don't you find me the name of three gyms near where you're staying.
I'll contact them for you and I will pay for your drop in fees 'cause I don't want you to lose your fitness. And you know, one time in five they'll actually do it. The other times they'll just like keep their membership running.
There's another one you guys can use. It is the summer season you are gonna get asked for holds. Use those lines to retain members. Chris, as we close this out, if someone had some questions, where could they go to ask questions like this of a great group of gym owners and mentors and even you? Well
The best is in our mentorship program. That's where all these responses came from. But the next best is gym owners united.com, which is our free group that we run for gym owners. There's 9,400 gym owners in there right now and if you ask these specific questions in there, you'll get a lot of good responses.
There you go. If you do one thing now, go over to gym owners united.com. If you wanna go further than that and go further faster, head to terrain business.com and book a call to talk about how a complete plan can help you run your business better. This has been run a profitable. Jim. Chris, thanks for being here.
Thanks buddy. This is awesome.
Alright guys, hit subscribe on the way out so you don't miss another show. We'll be back just in a few days.