As a business, how would you like to be approached?

Hanley

The recent thread about the state of the forum got me to thinking... I've always got loads of Qs floating around my head but never start a thread as I usually know the answer and would just be posting for a rubber stamp. But on this one I'm stumped.

Since there's (presumably) a lot of biz owners here, it's the perfect audience.

Long story short - I want to link up with some local businesses to bring their staff to come train in my gym. The staff would be the ones paying, as I can't see any company absorbing the cost (see "background" below for pricing).

I want to do it without being a pest. And I DEFINITELY don't want to walk in and be seen to say "hey gimme some business will ya?!".

So, I'm stumped. If you owned an SME, how would you like to be approached on something like this?

The pitch is basically (from an employer perspective) happier staff and an employer that cares means lower turnover, more energy / look / feel better = better performance in work.

And from a client (aka 'employee') perspective it's a chance to actually tackle the health and fitness goals everyone has but always puts off.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

BACKGROUND:
I own a gym, we're in operation coming up to 4 years now and have moved to Glasnevin from Drumcondra in the last 8 months. We deal mostly in semi private personal training - groups of 3-6 people per personal trainer.

Cost wise, we're at the top end of the market for what we do - approx €170 per month on average, but most of our members are long term'rs who value our service a lot (in my humble opinion they get great value for money).

StupidLikeAFox

Im guessing few employers would object if you did up flyers with some introductory discount, knock on a few doors and ask could they be left in the canteen?

Or are you looking for some more complex scheme than this?

pedroeibar1

Hanley wrote: »

The recent thread about the state of the forum got me to thinking... I've always got loads of Qs floating around my head but never start a thread as I usually know the answer and would just be posting for a rubber stamp. But on this one I'm stumped..

That is the type of post that deserves time & discussion on this forum. Sad that it has had so few views.

Reading what you have written (IMO) the real issue is you have not defined your product offer and that is why you cannot see how to make the sales approach.

Some random comments:
You have a big advantage - your business has credibility because you are around for 4 years. You personally have credibility because you have thousands of posts on Boards on Health/Fitness/Exercise so (apparently) know your stuff.

First thing to understand is that ‘bosses’ get hassled all the time by people selling rubbish products or ideas (look at some of them on this Forum!)
The buyer asks What are you selling? What does it do for me? How much does it cost? When can I have it? (Or Stop wasting my time.)

You need to make your approach with the right product (that you fully understand) in the best/structured way to the correct person.

Your ‘corporates’ idea is good, it is also an efficient way to contact potential customers i.e. as a group rather than individually.

Do you have/can you obtain reputable information (figures, not waffle) on how ‘health’ has an impact on productivity, how it diminishes the number of sick days and then use that as a selling point to buyer. Say that you would match with a discount any contribution they would make on membership payment (run some numbers to make sure this works for you).

Have you compiled a list of target businesses in the area? Staff numbers? Phone no and MD or HR person names?

How many existing members work in them? (you do not want to cannibalize your existing business!)

What you need to do is decide who the buyer is – user or HR boss or Company boss and then polish up your sales pitch.

€170 per month is too dear in the current climate (that’s €2k p.a.!!!), so forget that and do a price per session that is attractive to them and profitable to you.

Do you have a covered space to offer members to park bikes - cycle to gym, workout ,shower and walk to office collecting bike after work?? (Attractive with the bike to work crowd who do not have office showers.)

Can you implement and run programmes for specific ages/sexes? (without impinging on/disturbing your existing business)

Can you develop a team building program? E.g. Company X enters a team for the Docklands Run / Mini Marathon and is prepared by you?

If you start doing all these ‘workshops’ what impact will it have on your regular customers?

Employers love giving good news to staff – “We have negotiated X% discount with Y gym for our staff.” (However, if I told staff in companies with which I’m associated that I negotiated a discount from 2k to 1k for gym membership they would crack up laughing at me.

Hanley

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Im guessing few employers would object if you did up flyers with some introductory discount, knock on a few doors and ask could they be left in the canteen?

Or are you looking for some more complex scheme than this?

I wouldn't say complex, but effective.

Lashing in a few flyers is just very "bleh" in my opinion. It's kinda what everyone does, and people seem to do it because they think it's what they SHOULD do. I just don't think it would convert in any meaningful manner ya know?

100% could be wrong on that as most of our marketing is direct response and easily trackable, so I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to flyer blasts.

Hanley

Thanks so much Pedro! I hope you don't mind if I address the post section by section to keep it a bit cleaner.

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

That is the type of post that deserves time & discussion on this forum. Sad that it has had so few views.

Reading what you have written (IMO) the real issue is you have not defined your product offer and that is why you cannot see how to make the sales approach.

Some random comments:
You have a big advantage - your business has credibility because you are around for 4 years. You personally have credibility because you have thousands of posts on Boards on Health/Fitness/Exercise so (apparently) know your stuff.

First thing to understand is that ‘bosses’ get hassled all the time by people selling rubbish products or ideas (look at some of them on this Forum!)
The buyer asks What are you selling? What does it do for me? How much does it cost? When can I have it? (Or Stop wasting my time.)

You need to make your approach with the right product (that you fully understand) in the best/structured way to the correct person.

Your ‘corporates’ idea is good, it is also an efficient way to contact potential customers i.e. as a group rather than individually.

You're 100% correct re: what we're actually offering. Typically we get new clients thru content marketing online with retargetted advertising and/or referrals. So people tend to self select. Trying to adapted that approach for the corporate market is where I'm struggling. But maybe it doesn't need to be adapted, maybe it's an entirely new approach we want.

Thanks for the kind words re: credibility / being established - hopefully that will work in our favour.

Your comment re: boss/owner being hassled is EXACTLY why I'm asking this Q now because I know if we go in with that approach they'll stone wall us and no one will benefit. The Qs around "what will it do for me" etc are very helpful and will be something to work into the offer.

Do you have/can you obtain reputable information (figures, not waffle) on how ‘health’ has an impact on productivity, how it diminishes the number of sick days and then use that as a selling point to buyer. Say that you would match with a discount any contribution they would make on membership payment (run some numbers to make sure this works for you).

Have you compiled a list of target businesses in the area? Staff numbers? Phone no and MD or HR person names?

How many existing members work in them? (you do not want to cannibalize your existing business!)

What you need to do is decide who the buyer is – user or HR boss or Company boss and then polish up your sales pitch.

Having those figures would be great, I'll definitely look into them. Would be interesting to see the effect of confidence/health on sales performance and stuff like that too - there's a lot of car dealers in the area.

We've started to get together a list of local biz. Our first port of call was to survey current member, ask them who their decision maker in work is, and get their contact deets along with any specific company info that could be helpful. We got a good few replies and 3 or 4 really good prospects.

For the companies where we don't have a point of contact we've been looking for HR manager / founder on linkedin.

Any ideas how we could find out company size / employee numbers etc?

Matching their contribution with a discount is a BRILLIANT idea!!!

€170 per month is too dear in the current climate (that’s €2k p.a.!!!), so forget that and do a price per session that is attractive to them and profitable to you.

This is the big stumbling block. When people self select to join, they do so knowing how much value we provide. I flat out refuse to discount our core service, as it is worth what we charge, so that probably means some alternative training program or system that's "corporate members only" or something along those lines to clearly differentiate.

Do you have a covered space to offer members to park bikes - cycle to gym, workout ,shower and walk to office collecting bike after work?? (Attractive with the bike to work crowd who do not have office showers.)

Check / check / check on all counts. The bicycle storage space could be a solid idea. I don't know how attractive it would be as the business parks around glasnevin are very roomy - much more industrial than multi story office buildings so storage for them probably isn't an issue. BUT if it doesn't put us out or cost anything extra it's a free benefit we'd be mad not to consider.

Can you implement and run programmes for specific ages/sexes? (without impinging on/disturbing your existing business)

Can you develop a team building program? E.g. Company X enters a team for the Docklands Run / Mini Marathon and is prepared by you?

SERIOUS ideas. Our whiteboard is filling up now. We've taken members to hell and back, and have got groups to enter powerlifting competitions.

If you start doing all these ‘workshops’ what impact will it have on your regular customers?

Don't see it as an issue really. We've a nutrition consultant that does bi weekly workshops with our members, and we try to have at least 1 social or "training" event or workshop each month anyway, so there's loads of additional stuff they can come to if they want

Employers love giving good news to staff – “We have negotiated X% discount with Y gym for our staff.” (However, if I told staff in companies with which I’m associated that I negotiated a discount from 2k to 1k for gym membership they would crack up laughing at me.

LOL. That's where I'm struggling!!

I was thinking something more along the lines of an 8-12 week special training program for staff at X company to deliver Y results.

Seems to make sense doing something like that with summer coming up. It's an easier sell. Lower price point. It gives them a good exposure to us. AND then it puts the onus on us to over deliver to keep them as a client.

Thanks so much for the reply - I'm taking my laptop over to the whiteboard now.

If anyone else has ideas, I'd love to hear em

jimmii

The fixed period programme is definitely a good idea and that gives you time to convert them into long term customers. Would it be possible to offer to run a short introductory session in a companies office some how? Logistically that could be tricky because you don't want to just rock up and have people doing fairly standard circuits but could be something to consider. Flyers definitely isn't the right way to try target the ABC1 market imo. With so many budget gyms knocking around these days it's going to be hard to get the value across using traditional methods do you use video much online that seems like the easiest way to show what you get at your gym that they're going to miss out on at a €20/month gym. Aiming for a particular event is a great idea there's so many people out there always wanting to take on a X distance but never get round to it. I've signed the wife and I up to do a 10k obstacle race I can't recall seeing them often in Dublin but they're pretty big here and sounds like it may be ideal for what you offer.

sysprogrammer

Hi Hanley,

You are a legend on the fitness forum, well done on that achievement.

Can I ask :
What would a normal member receive for their €170 a month ? personal coaching or more ?

Where you are located, would a person have to drive or cycle to your gym ?

Is there a bus route nearby?

Is there any reason you wouldn't train staff at their company location ? or nearby park ?

I am trying to get a better idea of the service you provide for the cost you mentioned.

Thanks,
SysProg

EndaHonesty

sysprogrammer wrote: »

Hi Hanley,

You are a legend on the fitness forum, well done on that achievement.

Can I ask :
What would a normal member receive for their €170 a month ? personal coaching or more ?

Where you are located, would a person have to drive or cycle to your gym ?

Is there a bus route nearby?

Is there any reason you wouldn't train staff at their company location ? or nearby park ?

I am trying to get a better idea of the service you provide for the cost you mentioned.

Thanks,
SysProg

www.revolutionfitness.ie

Hanley

jimmii wrote: »

The fixed period programme is definitely a good idea and that gives you time to convert them into long term customers. Would it be possible to offer to run a short introductory session in a companies office some how? Logistically that could be tricky because you don't want to just rock up and have people doing fairly standard circuits but could be something to consider. Flyers definitely isn't the right way to try target the ABC1 market imo. With so many budget gyms knocking around these days it's going to be hard to get the value across using traditional methods do you use video much online that seems like the easiest way to show what you get at your gym that they're going to miss out on at a €20/month gym. Aiming for a particular event is a great idea there's so many people out there always wanting to take on a X distance but never get round to it. I've signed the wife and I up to do a 10k obstacle race I can't recall seeing them often in Dublin but they're pretty big here and sounds like it may be ideal for what you offer.

Yah exactly - we absolutely cannot compete on price and really are an experiential purchase so the marketing needs to be different.

We've some great video content of facebook with 170+k views on some of our stuff. It's definitely the most well received of our content, and the most shared. Especially given how facebook works now.

Sounds like targeting towards races / events is an easy sell from a client perspective, especially since it's a normal and accepted thing loads of people take part in, rather than a niche thing like powerlifting.

I hate the idea of going to offices to do classes, mostly because I know people won't get the full RevFit experience. BUT it may be the sort of thing that's a necessary evil to get people involved. I think if we get the offer right tho we won't need it. I hope at least!

jimmii

It's definitely not ideal to do it in an environment like that but I would think the key challenge is to get people to that first class so removing as many barriers as possible to do that should be something that would work. Get race ready 12 week work out including race entry would be something I think would be appealing businesses these days definitely understand the value in having healthier staff so maybe they would sponsor them in some way.

Hanley

sysprogrammer wrote: »

Hi Hanley,

You are a legend on the fitness forum, well done on that achievement.

Can I ask :
What would a normal member receive for their €170 a month ? personal coaching or more ?

Where you are located, would a person have to drive or cycle to your gym ?

Is there a bus route nearby?

Is there any reason you wouldn't train staff at their company location ? or nearby park ?

I am trying to get a better idea of the service you provide for the cost you mentioned.

Thanks,
SysProg

Very kind of you to say. Thank you.

WHAT THEY GET:

+ 3x semi private personal training sessions each week customised to their individual needs, injury history and mobility and movement problems, coach client ratio of between 1:3 and 1:6

+ 2x high intensity fat burning bootcamp by revfit training sessions each week

+ regular body composition measurments

+ complete access to our open gym to do any extra workouts or rehab work they need

+ 24/7 support on our facebook members group

+ a membership website with hours of seminars, workshops, how tos, video training guides, rehab videos, instructional books, cookbooks etc etc etc

+ interaction with us daily before, after and during class to talk about any problems or issues tey're facing, and how we can help

+ a kick ass supportive community atmosphere

+ monthly social / training events

+ the complete support of our nutrition consultant along with a 20 page "getting started guide" from him including meal plans, common misconceptions answered etc etc

+ 1x group Q&A session with him each month, and a monthly in person food diary review too

...and a load of other stuff I probably don't even realise we do

LOCATION

We're on Ballyboggan Road in Glasnevin. It's very accessible to anyone who lives in swords / cabra / finglas / glasnevin / navan road / castleknock / blanch / drumcondra / north city.

It's fairly cycleable too. The maynooth train line is beside us and there's a couple of bus routes too.

Training people off site would be a nightmare, mostly because we can't do the stuff that makes us so special since we won't have access to equipment etc. Given how high end what we do is, we only really need to bring in 20-40 more people to be right at capacity, which is the 3 month goal.

Over time a second gym, a corporate expansion and a few other partnerships is pencilled in, but right now it'd be nice to just settle at a very profitable number, consolidate operations and tighten up this ship before launching antoher one.

Hanley

jimmii wrote: »

It's definitely not ideal to do it in an environment like that but I would think the key challenge is to get people to that first class so removing as many barriers as possible to do that should be something that would work. Get race ready 12 week work out including race entry would be something I think would be appealing businesses these days definitely understand the value in having healthier staff so maybe they would sponsor them in some way.

I love "get race ready". YOINK

But yah, there's a very simple conditioning test I can think of we could do that requires no more equipment than what we could carry and would humble pretty much everyone who tries it.

I'm so reluctant to do offsite stuff, but if necessary would do.

jimmii

I did think it was quite catchy!

Some ideas:

Put together a nice brochure using all the data you've compiled from your body composition measurements from your existing members, and link it to health benefit studies and productivity studies. Along with what the package consists of, this becomes your corporate sales material.

Have some different financial offers available for your potential targets - for example if its 170 per month and you could get people signed up for a 12 week period the company pays 50 euro a head, you subsidise 50 euro a head and the individual pays 70 a head for the based on X signups.

Maybe too hard a sell but if you could get people to come during work hours en mass from a company this could be very nice. So there are 6 employees from one company who've agreed. Class it set for 12.30, they leave work around 12, get to the gym change, warm up for 5 mins and do a 30 minutes class. Post class you have a choice of meals designed by your nutritionist, tailored to the candidate - sourced from a reliable local business. On their way out of the gym at 1.15 they are handed their lunch at say a tenner each, at which you profit at a 20% margin, and they are back at their desk at 1.30 munching on whatever you gave them and being productive again. Boss only loses half an hour of working time and people get back not laiden down after eating a big carvery or some carb laden sugar dump thats going to render them sleepy for an hour. A hard sell to a boss who knows nothing about fitness and nutrition but perhaps not so hard to one who does know about it.

Alf Veedersane

I was working in something recently and it referenced stats on the boost in productivity from healthy, happy staff. I'll dig it out...it could improve the chances of buy-in from an employer to see that they get something out of it too.

Alf Veedersane

I was working in something recently and it referenced stats on the boost in productivity from healthy, happy staff. I'll dig it out...it could improve the chances of buy-in from an employer to see that they get something out of it too.

Triceratops Ballet

What about approaching the relevant person (ops person, hr, founder. If you can, find an influencer with an interest in fitness) and offering to give a 20/30 minute talk /demo to the team maybe something simple like improving mobility for workers who sit all day, establish yourself as an expert, not overtly flogging a service. But it gives you a chance to get in front of all the staff and tell them who you are and what you do. You can then offer a package to staff who want to work with you.

It's something I'm toying with for my team we've just introduced company sponsored gym membership and a few of the team want to join somewhere near the office but dont know what to look for or what they want. Unfortunately we're southside so no use to you

beauf

What worked in our place was free tours and some free classes as a testers. Then discounts after that. We didn't approach them. Some staff found places they wanted to use, got HR/Social club to negotiate a group deal. So perhaps ask your current members if anyone else would be interested.

Hanley

0

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I was working in something recently and it referenced stats on the boost in productivity from healthy, happy staff. I'll dig it out...it could improve the chances of buy-in from an employer to see that they get something out of it too.

Any joy Alf???

Alf Veedersane

Hanley wrote: »

0

Any joy Alf???

I'd started but I'll finish...

Hanley

dottie_lottie wrote: »

What about approaching the relevant person (ops person, hr, founder. If you can, find an influencer with an interest in fitness) and offering to give a 20/30 minute talk /demo to the team maybe something simple like improving mobility for workers who sit all day, establish yourself as an expert, not overtly flogging a service. But it gives you a chance to get in front of all the staff and tell them who you are and what you do. You can then offer a package to staff who want to work with you.

It's something I'm toying with for my team we've just introduced company sponsored gym membership and a few of the team want to join somewhere near the office but dont know what to look for or what they want. Unfortunately we're southside so no use to you

Yup was deffo of thinking of that as an option too. I think it's probably a no brainer to offer it anyway.

I'd be 100% happy to come over and chat to them and show em how they can move better and get loose after a day of sitting if interested.

Would be handy for you too because I'd be non-biased so could recommend the best place based off requirements rather than the place I wanna sell

beauf wrote: »

What worked in our place was free tours and some free classes as a testers. Then discounts after that. We didn't approach them. Some staff found places they wanted to use, got HR/Social club to negotiate a group deal. So perhaps ask your current members if anyone else would be interested.

A while ago I saw this argument online. It was about "if people aren't referring to your gym, you're obviously not doing a good job". And the poster was protesting that they were constantly over delivering and people loved it.

The other dude replied with "obviously not - because if you were they'd refer".

And I remember questioning why we get so few referrals off existing clients. I asked my girlfriend about it and she told me a story about how when she was training in a similar gym years ago she wouldn't dream of referring even her absolute BEST friends because it was "her space" and wanted to having something that was uniquely hers.

...and I asked a few members I trust and got a very similar response. Found that very unusual.

Not entirely relevant to your post, but looking for referrals is something we've done before with lmited success, though I'll definitely have a think about something like what you suggested

Hanley

Deleted User wrote: »

Some ideas:

Put together a nice brochure using all the data you've compiled from your body composition measurements from your existing members, and link it to health benefit studies and productivity studies. Along with what the package consists of, this becomes your corporate sales material.

That is a truly cracking idea. I'll pull together the stats of our top performers and link it back to quality of life / health benefits, and then link it back to how it helps the employer!

Have some different financial offers available for your potential targets - for example if its 170 per month and you could get people signed up for a 12 week period the company pays 50 euro a head, you subsidise 50 euro a head and the individual pays 70 a head for the based on X signups.

Yup that'd work really really well. Will tie in nicely wit the specialised corporate training program we design that's different enough to our core offering so as to not devalue it.

Maybe too hard a sell but if you could get people to come during work hours en mass from a company this could be very nice. So there are 6 employees from one company who've agreed. Class it set for 12.30, they leave work around 12, get to the gym change, warm up for 5 mins and do a 30 minutes class. Post class you have a choice of meals designed by your nutritionist, tailored to the candidate - sourced from a reliable local business. On their way out of the gym at 1.15 they are handed their lunch at say a tenner each, at which you profit at a 20% margin, and they are back at their desk at 1.30 munching on whatever you gave them and being productive again. Boss only loses half an hour of working time and people get back not laiden down after eating a big carvery or some carb laden sugar dump thats going to render them sleepy for an hour. A hard sell to a boss who knows nothing about fitness and nutrition but perhaps not so hard to one who does know about it.

Definitely an interesting pilot program option once we've got some buy in from some businesses around!!

Have been approach a few times about offering meals outta the gym too but the margins were SHOCKING. Some places wanted minimum order of €700 off us paid up front to make back <10% margin. Couldn't get over it.

I know they've margin and profit to cover, but we'd have to sell 30% of our membership 3 meals a day for 5 days each week to make like €100 gross profit!

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I'd started but I'll finish...

PM whistling it's way through the ether to your inbox now.

beauf

Hanley wrote: »

....Not entirely relevant to your post, but looking for referrals is something we've done before with lmited success, though I'll definitely have a think about something like what you suggested

Also people don't like recommending things, in case they don't work out for other people.

I was more thinking of someone putting an ad up on their work notice board. Many places now have social & fitness 'club' within work. People might not know what's near them at work.

I think rather than one big idea, you might 20 smaller ideas.

Hanley

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

PM whistling it's way through the ether to your inbox now.

SIIIIIICK. THANK YOU!

Can't wait to get stuck into it.

beauf wrote: »

Also people don't like recommending things, in case they don't work out for other people.

I was more thinking of someone putting an ad up on their work notice board. Many places now have social & fitness 'club' within work. People might not know what's near them at work.

I think rather than one big idea, you might 20 smaller ideas.

Good point re: not recommending in case they didn't like it. Never thought of that.

And the "20 small ideas" thing is probably a good idea, but I know myself well enough to know if I pick a ton of things I'll get implementation ADD.

So right now I think my plan is (...and this is a collation of everyone's posts, so thank you)

- Pull together the relevant stats
- Finalise a list of target partner companies & key contacts
- Create a skeleton program for them
- Prepare a individual video presentation / info pack on how we can specifically help them
- Follow up nicely until they tell me to p!ss off or come on board

Once that's rolling, I can start putting on the "little things":

I'll probably look at putting together some sort of monthly fitness newsletter to direct mail to any companies I'm in touch with now just to keep the relationship there too.

I'll get some of my current clients to stick something up in work.

..and I'll trawl back thru the thread for more ideas.

Thanks so much all!

(...and if anyone things ther'es something I should do that I missed, please holla - here or via PM!)

Will report back with results.

Bandara

As an aside Hanley

I typed your location into goggle maps and drove to your place the other day as the missus is looking to change gyms (she goes to a place similar to yours in another location but yours suits her better).

I know that area very well, drove up ballyboggan hill, down to the end were the sharp left takes you over the new bridge

Couldn't find your place. There seemed to be no signage at all visable from the road ?

I'd maybe do the same drive as I did yourself and you'll see what I mean. Maybe there is a sign but it's just lost in the various signs attached to each railing up there. I did see signs for some gyms but none of your name !

Your missing out badly if that's the case, either way deffo have a revisit of your drive by advertising

In any event the missus is signing up with you at the end of the month so you got a new customer from this thread

Triceratops Ballet

Hanley wrote: »

Yup was deffo of thinking of that as an option too. I think it's probably a no brainer to offer it anyway.

I'd be 100% happy to come over and chat to them and show em how they can move better and get loose after a day of sitting if interested.

Would be handy for you too because I'd be non-biased so could recommend the best place based off requirements rather than the place I wanna sell

That would be awesome, I'll PM you about it. I'll be meeting with our CEO on Friday and can run it past him then and see what he thinks!

Hanley

Bandara wrote: »

As an aside Hanley

I typed your location into goggle maps and drove to your place the other day as the missus is looking to change gyms (she goes to a place similar to yours in another location but yours suits her better).

I know that area very well, drove up ballyboggan hill, down to the end were the sharp left takes you over the new bridge

Couldn't find your place. There seemed to be no signage at all visable from the road ?

I'd maybe do the same drive as I did yourself and you'll see what I mean. Maybe there is a sign but it's just lost in the various signs attached to each railing up there. I did see signs for some gyms but none of your name !

Your missing out badly if that's the case, either way deffo have a revisit of your drive by advertising

In any event the missus is signing up with you at the end of the month so you got a new customer from this thread

Deadly. Thanks for sending her in. If she pops onto the website (revolutionfitness.ie) she'll get the option to book a free session immediately. She can book right up to the end of the month so if she books for the week she'll be leaving her other place she can just hop in with us immediately and have her intro, goal setting sesh, movement screen and technique work done in advance so there's no delay in her training. Ask her to just pop me a mail in reply so I know to look our for her

To your aside, you're correct - it's woeful. We actually do have a GIANT one on order.

There IS a reason tho, and maybe this is a segue someone could offer advice on.

We don't deal with drop ins. Because everything is coached and personal, it's very labour intensive so we don't have staff free to just show people around on the off chance someone shows. Plus, given our price point, most people "dropping in for a look" won't convert anyway.

So we kinda sandbagged the driveby advertising to alleviate that problem and put it on the long finger. We've had a few drop ins over the last couple of months that have been quite ...unhappy... we couldn't spend an hour showing them around.

That's even after we explained what we do, why we do it, told them exactly what to do, offered to book a session for them there and then and said "we'd love to have you on board".

I think it actually acts an effective prequal because if it's like that booking an intro, what will it be like training 'em...?

But am always open to suggestions if anyone reading has them.

Hanley

dottie_lottie wrote: »

That would be awesome, I'll PM you about it. I'll be meeting with our CEO on Friday and can run it past him then and see what he thinks!

Great, thank you.

Anything you need in advance just shoot me a mail and I'll get it together for ya.

pedroeibar1

Hanley wrote: »

There IS a reason tho, and maybe this is a segue someone could offer advice on.

We don't deal with drop ins. Because everything is coached and personal, it's very labour intensive so we don't have staff free to just show people around on the off chance someone shows. Plus, given our price point, most people "dropping in for a look" won't convert anyway.......
But am always open to suggestions if anyone reading has them.

I consider you are right in doing that - you have a quality product with lots of personalized bells/whistles: do not demean it. If a drop-in is serious, s/he will accept the individual quality nature of your offer and would call back. Keep an eye on the conversion rate.

Hanley

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

I consider you are right in doing that - you have a quality product with lots of personalized bells/whistles: do not demean it. If a drop-in is serious, s/he will accept the individual quality nature of your offer and would call back. Keep an eye on the conversion rate.

Brilliant. Confirmed what I already thought. Thank you.