I have been in the fitness business for well over 20 years and have figured out a few things on how to be successful… and, of course, how to fail.

I learned that systems need to be constantly refined, until they’re seamless and successful. Systems allow employees to learn how to do something that’s proven to work, learn it so well that they have confidence in it and then forget about the system itself and focus on the person involved.

Do you have something that is costing you money in your company or that’s irritating you? Develop a system to fix it! Here’s a great example of how a system can help you…getting new members involved in personal training as soon as they join.

Are you tired of watching new members walk past your personal trainers? Is your membership sales department missing the boat on getting people involved in personal training from the new member’s first day? Are you losing money because very few members get involved with your trainers once they join your gym? Do you have a system in place for that whole process that anyone can follow to get your members involved in personal training?

As you sit there and answer those questions, are you getting a little bit annoyed? Frustrated? Maybe even a little angry?
Alright…calm down. I have the perfect solution for you. What you need to do is develop a system that all of your staff can implement and replicate. Without having a system in place, it makes your gym look inconsistent and sets it up for failure.
What you need is an effective way of approaching new members and getting them into personal training within the first week of their new membership. Let me help you build this program right now. The goal of the program will be to give the new members something of high value to them, which can be sold easily by your membership team, and easily implemented and repeated by your trainers.

The new members need something that is easy to understand; is not dependent on just one trainer’s knowledge, mood that day, or exercise belief system; and very affordable.

Your trainers need to have a small package they can perform effortlessly with clients. They need to look at this package as a helpful sales system and a chance to be interviewed by the new members. It needs to be a replicable system that they can implement the process without much though so they can focus on the client during the session.

Your membership sales department needs to have a product that they can understand, believe in, rely on, be able to explain constant benefits to the new members, and be able to get a little kickback for helping get the person into training. All of this will make it a lot easier for them to sell the package.

Consider this…your Membership Sales Department has already built a lot of rapport with the new members. They are the reason why new members decided to buy into your place! Your Membership Sales Department has a perfect opportunity to get that member the results they want by selling some form of PT package.

You can see why and what you need to sell to your new member. Now, how do you develop it?

The first thing you need to do is call a meeting with your Membership Sales Department and Personal Training Department. Start by doing these 6 things:

1. How many sessions would a new member need to get an idea that they need training without overwhelming them, or looking like the trainer is trying to overwhelm or intimidate them? (I suggest 3-6 sessions.)
2. Develop a sales process that the trainer can put the new member through that will actually benefit the clients. The sales process needs to be subtle and impact their emotions, as well as their rational mind, and encourage the new member to ask the trainers to buy more training when they are done with the small package. (I suggest a fitness sales assessment.)
3. Develop 3-6 different sample workouts that they can give the new clients that won’t kill them. (I suggest 4 good examples of total body, functional and fun workouts, that have them up off the machines. Changing tempo, reps, sets, and exercise pairings, to give the new clients some variety as well as intrigue them.)
4. Type all of this up and put it in a form that your current and future trainers can read and follow to a “T” and looks goo when you sent it home with the new member.
5. Then develop some sales materials and a process for the Membership Sales Department to present it. It should be colorful and explain what is going on, and done in a fun and effective way for the new members. (A nice full color handout is the most effective.)
6. Role-play the heck out of this! This means you will need to put the people who are selling this through the process, with multiple trainers, so they know and can believe in the process and know which trainers are doing this right.

Once you’ve done all of this, you’re ready to rock ‘n roll. Each month, look at your numbers and tweak the process so you can maximize the conversion rate of new members into buying the small personal training package at the point of sale.

After you have that number, you need to look at how many people are finishing all of their package sessions, and how many of those are buying a larger package or more training at the end?

A sample club might look like this:

• In the last 30 days we had 50 new members
• 25 Bought the Intro Package
• 20 Finished all the sessions
• 15 bought additional training

If you can hold these numbers for 3-4 months, you’re making some serious money!
Glad to be able to help! Remember…systems rule!

Nick Osborne