Ok, so maybe you have but I promise it doesn’t happen often. Sometimes people just legit can’t afford what you’re throwing at them, but more often than not you fail to connect the dots between their $ purchasing their dream. Let’s change how many deals you close by covering some fundamentals of The Gym Tour:
Find Their Why
The first thing in being able to close any sale is being disciplined enough to find out the prospect’s WHY. Don’t settle for the first answer! Intro and call them by name. The only thing that matters at this point is their name and your attention. Your focus is on them and not on you, or what you’re going to say next.
Here’s an example conversation:
Gym Staff: “What brings you in today?”
Prospect: “Just figured it’s time to get in shape”
Gym Staff: “Awesome, paint me a picture of what being in shape looks like for you?”
Prospect: “It would be great if I could run a 5k, and lose about 10-15lbs”
Gym Staff: “Those sound like great goals. Can I ask why those are important to you?”
Prospect: “Just something I’ve wanted to accomplish for a while” {Don’t settle for this}
Gym Staff: “If you could lose 10-15lbs and run a 5k what gets better in life?”
Prospect: “Well, family time does. My wife runs 5k’s, and I’m sure she’d love it if I lost a little weight, as would I.”
Gym Staff: “Of course. I think all of us want to participate in family activities and feel good. We do the Santa 5k in bla bla part of town every year as a family so I completely understand what you’re getting at. {Be relatable but humble}
Now that you know the WHY, we need to overcome TIME, MONEY, and SPOUSE/FAMILY. My personal preference is to tackle time next. The longer the prospect can envision themselves there the better. It’s important to LISTEN when asking these questions. You’ll need their answers later.
Overcome The Time Objection
So now you know WHY the prospect has walked into your gym, but starting a fitness regimen requires a time commitment. If you’re running a group training facility then you’ve got even further time objections due to the scheduled class start times. Here’s how we tackle the time objection.
Gym Staff: “So what time were you thinking about working at? We have classes at 5:00, 6:00, 12:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00”
Prospect: “Probably the 6:00 after I get off work.”
Gym Staff: “So 6:00 is a good time for you? Family, wife, etc would be good with that?”
Prospect: “Yeah”
Spouse/Family
We know their WHY and that they have the TIME to workout, so next we need to make sure they have buy-in from the family.
Gym Staff: “What does your wife think about you starting here? Is she for or against you working out here to start doing 5k’s with her and losing 15 lbs?”
Prospect: “She’s for it, pretty supportive”
Gym Staff: “Awesome so she’ll help keep you motivated I’m assuming, which will only make things easier.”
Prospect: “Yeah we’ve talked about this for a while”
Money and Close
Finally, you need to illustrate what success looks like and how you the expert will deliver. Remember their answers to every question you’ve asked.
Gym Staff: “Here’s the plan that would set you on the best path of success.
(Outline how many days per week, and what nutrition option they’ll need. BE SPECIFIC! Don’t give options. You’re the expert!
Prospect: “With this plan of attack you’ll tackle that 5k with your wife, and have a healthy track on losing 15lbs with 4 months.
(Again be specific, and reinforce their WHY. At this point, I like bringing up the physical portion and not the underlying WHY. This is because I want them to imagine that 5k and losing 15lbs.)
Sometimes they’ll push back. This is where you’ll need a hard close.
Prospect: “I like that but let me check with my wife”
Gym Staff: “I thought you said she was supportive and would even help keep you motivated?”
Prospect: “Well, she is but we run expenses by each other”
Gym Staff: “Oh so it’s not really about checking with her it’s about the price?”
Prospect: “Yes”
Gym Staff: “Gotcha, this is a plan that I can confidently say will accomplish the goals you have which is why you walked in the door today. If this is important to you let get started with your first session Monday at 6 PM.”
Additional Hard Close
Each of the above-mentioned objections may require a hard close. Here are a couple continued from the conversation above:
{Spouse Objection}
Prospect: “I’ll check with her tonight and let you know this weekend if that works”
Gym Staff: “I completely understand and I hate being that guy, but you could have walked through our door last week, last month, or last year and you didn’t. Life gets in the way of things, but you chose to walk in tonight and I know if you leave without committing to the change you told me about there’s a high chance you’ll regret it. 6 PM, you name the day next week, and let’s tackle this together, what do you say?”
{Time Objection}
Prospect: “6 PM can be tough for me sometimes.”
Gym Staff: “Earlier you said 6:00 pm worked for you, and the family and wife were good with it. What changed?”
Prospect: “Some days AM is better”
Gym Staff: “So what I’m hearing is that we need to be flexible on this journey. We work primarily with business professionals so this isn’t new to us. What morning works best to get started?”
There are times when you’ll have to let a sale walk. Their WHY may not be strong enough, or they couldn’t envision it as clearly as they wanted to. You may have stumbled through the Gym Tour process. Whatever the reason, you’ll want to take a couple of actions immediately. First, update your CRM and input any notes on the client’s profile. This will help in the future should the prospect come back as well as with future follow-ups. Second, send a personal message summarizing the conversation. This should include their ‘why’, a short reference to the plan, and a personal connection if you made one. A personal connection could be anything that they had in common with you or the gym community.
Good luck closing a higher percentage of leads in what’s sure to be a busy year ahead!
