Building and running a successful business is no fluke, it comes through countless failures and learning from them. Here are the key aspects to focus on to help you achieve your goals.
Have a unique offer - 1 day pass, 7 day free trial has been around for years and it’s not attention grabbing and doesn’t get people interested because they could go anywhere and get the same offer. Don’t blend in and be average, have a point of difference. Using an irresistible offer can strike a nerve and get customers through your doors. Offering something for free doesn’t make the prospect see the value in what they have to offer, Instead they offer a program, training or create something based on market feedback and what they want.
Specialists - They niche down and know their ideal customer and focus on getting results for them. They aren’t generalist’s and can charge more and have stronger messaging.
Provide value and get their customers results - People care about results and if you are actually providing value. Learn what your prospect’s problem is and solve it. Not guessing what your audience wants actually finding out. Too many people create a solution and then try to find a problem to attach it too. It should be the other way around, find a real problem and fix it. Know your audience better than they know themselves, get to the point where you can write a page in their diary because you know them so well.
Focus on lead acquisition – Turnover Is Inevitable and members will leave for a number of reasons so they need to be able to replace them. Having an abundance of leads allows them to have flexibility on pricing, how much you grow and makes goals achievable. It also relieves the pressure of running the business and not knowing where your next customer will come from. Generating leads is a revenue generating activity and is vital for success. Getting enough leads allows you to practice and get good at closing leads, this brings us to our next point of closing leads, sales training is good but the best way is to learn and then practice and to practice you need leads coming in.
Know their numbers
- Life time value (LTV)
- Lead to close ratio
- Retention rate
- Churn rate
- Target/goal
- Capacity of their facility
- How much it costs to get a lead
- How much it costs to get a customer
- Expenses
If you know your numbers, growing your business becomes a mathematical equation where you put money in and get more money out.
Here’s an example: A profitable gym will put in $100 to acquire 10 leads with the understanding that one of those 10 leads becomes a member paying you back $100/month. This gym also knows a member stays with them 8 months on average. So each member is worth $800. This gym pays $100 in advertising, receives back $800 in revenue, and profits $700. Then they rinse and repeat. So now you can calculate how much you can afford to pay for a lead and how much you can afford to pay for a customer and remain profitable.
Profitable pricing - They know their numbers and know how much they need to charge to be profitable and reach their goals. People don't care as much as you think about your prices. They care about results! That's it, results! Most gyms aren’t charging enough to be profitable because they just copy other gyms in their area and guess what, they probably aren’t profitable either.
Know they have to spend money to make money - Invest in themselves so others will invest in them, this includes everything from having the best equipment and staff to getting yourself in front of your target audience. They outsource their lead generation so they can focus on the other important activities because focusing on too many things at once is the quickest way to get nowhere. They don’t want to represent their business in a sloppy unprofessional manner if they aren’t experienced marketers and they get a professional to do it.
