Have Your Gym Membership Sales Stalled?

By: Jim Thomas

This is all too common. We receive a phone call from a club owner who indicates they need help with marketing. They don’t have enough people to talk to. Now, at a certain level, this may be true, but when you investigate further, you find they have cracks in their sales process and marketing foundation. That’s what needs to be fixed first; otherwise you’re simply driving additional guest traffic into a broken system. The business of your gym is either trending up or it’s on the way down. Growing and making improvements to the business of your gym is a choice. The key is to choose the right area of your business that will make the necessary impact. Here are some things to think about.

1. Track Your Numbers: It’s always interesting to see how few independently owned gyms know their daily, weekly, and monthly sales and production numbers and member attrition trends. How can you expect to fix something if you don’t know where you’re at? You can’t guess at it and conditions will continually change.
2. Expectations and Goals: This is a crucial element of gym success for the independent owner. I had a meeting with a club owner recently and he expressed his frustration that his staff was not hitting their numbers….when the staff was asked what their goals were, they were unclear of expectation.
3. Use Proven Marketing Programs: Do not know where to start? If you’re not sure, this is an area to get some help, but you want proven marketing programs. If you’re trying to get your gym business back on track, now is not the time for trial and error.
4. Know How to Give a Tour and Membership Presentation: If you don’t learn the proper sales process, you’ll find yourself simply making it up as you go along. At its core, you need to be sure you’re selling the benefits of your gym and not the features.
5. Know the Industry Trends: The way you run your business will continually change and you must keep up. As hard as it is to believe, there are still clubs that don’t understand their web site analytics, have a web site that is not mobile friendly, don’t have a club app…well, you get the picture.
6. Regular Sales Training: This is no different than any other profession; you and your team must continue the educational process with daily sales training. You must focus on sales improvement and the accountability to the process.

Now, go improve your gym!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting and turnaround firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars and workshops across the country on the practical skills required to successfully build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Learn more here: Jim Thomas On Demand