Can’t Afford a Sales Team?

Michael, your friendly substitute teacher here, taking over Mark’s email this week. 

Instead of rolling out the a/v cart to play a VHS tape, let’s talk about sales. 

Take a deep breath. It’s going to be alright. I promise. 

Here’s what I hear all the time from gym owners…

”I’m the only one who does sales. I’m good at it, but I don’t like it. I can’t find enough time to do it, and I can’t afford a sales person yet.”

Often this is followed by… “If only I could find a way to incentivize my trainers to do sales.”

Well, you’re in luck, my friends. I have a suggestion. 

Are you ready?

For teams without a dedicated sales person, I like the idea that trainers are incentivized to contribute to the whole sales funnel. 

For example, the process could look like this…

As a trainer, if you:

  • Add a new name, phone number, and email of a qualified lead to our list and you’ll get $10.
  • Sell that person on buying our $200, 2-week trial you’ll get an additional $20 (or 10%).
  • Convert that person to a membership, you’ll get 20% of their first 2-week billing cycle (ex. $30 for a $150 bi-weekly membership).

As an owner, you just spent $60 to acquire a client that is likely to spend $3,900 over the next 12 months. 

And if you have good retention the lifetime value of that client could be 3-4 times as much!

Seems like a good deal to me.

So what’s the catch, right?

Well, you have to provide lots of training and accountability. 

You will have to work with each trainer to find the way(s) in which they will feel comfortable heading out into the world and turning strangers into friends. 

You will have to teach them how to have sales conversations, and you will have to hold them accountable for doing more lead follow-up and outreach than they will (initially) be comfortable doing. 

But, if you’re willing to do all that then you might have the sales team of your dreams in your gym right now just waiting to be activated. 

Go crush it!