Everyone loves lists of secrets or tips – me included.  They’re bite-size things that you can implement and immediately see benefits from.  So here are 6 of my favorite ‘Secrets’ that have helped the clients we serve and the franchisees who have allowed us to build the two fastest growing training-based franchises in the industry.

To maximize the success of your business you need to have your 5 Pillars in place:

Pillar #1 – Lead Generation – You need to have lead sources in place that are effective enough that they provide you a minimum of twice as many leads per month as you need to need to convert into clients to reach your financial goals.

My recommendations are that you need a minimum of two external lead sources and two internal lead sources going each month as the basis of your fitness marketing plan.

Pillar #2 – Front End Offers – How are you turning your leads into paying clients? Maybe it’s a free trial, a paid trial, an assessment or a Transformation Contest.

Maybe it’s several of those or different front-end offerings like clinics or workshops.

No matter what, you need some way for a person to try out what you do while incurring minimal risk as part of your fitness marketing plan.  My suggestion is to have several ways throughout the year.

Pillar #3 – Core Offerings – Your Core Offerings are the foundation of your business, so everything else centers around them.

The Core Offerings we see have the most success are:

• Semi-Private
• Small Group
• Large Group / Bootcamp

You simply need to determine what is the most effective use of your time as a professional.  Your core offerings should be where you can clearly be better than the competition – what you offer is clearly better than what they offer. Combine that mindset with the identification of how to best maximize your space, schedule and the client base you want to serve.

Pillar #4 – Back End Offers – Most fitness pros drop the ball on the Back End. The Back End is basically comprised of:

• The ‘Problems’ Created By Your Core Offerings – What can you provide that isn’t addressed in your Core Programs but will help them achieve their goals faster? What is addressed in your Core Programs but your clients want more of?
• The Opportunities Your Clients Potentially Create – Can they open doors for you to speak, add new programs, provide referrals, etc.

Pillar #5 – Systems, Staffing & Numbers – This is the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff that separates fitness business owners that basically have jobs versus the ones that have true businesses.  As a business owner you need to:

• You need to have systems or processes that are documented for everything you do in your business.  Don’t make it too tough…just document each step in a task after you do that task.  Then clean it up.  That’s your system.
• Once yo u have systems – then you can add staff.  Not the other way around.  Start with administrative help.  Then training help. Not the other way around.
• You MUST know your numbers.  If you’re employing the first four Pillars – you have to track how they’re working.  Once you know the numbers you can either fix what you’re doing or replace it. None of that is really possible without knowing the numbers first.

You’ll Beat The Competition By Delivering More Value Than The Competition.

The average competitors in your market will try to win by doing as little as they can to get and keep clients.  The real secret to becoming a great business is by continuing to seek out ways to do more for your clients.  Disney does so much more than other amusement parks that they’ve basically become a category of one and everyone else fights for second place.

Be your markets Disney and eliminate the competition.

Have A Minimum of Four Marketing Irons In The Fire.

I mentioned it in Secret #1, you need to have at least 2 External Marketing Strategies and 2 Internal Marketing Strategies running at any given time.  Here are some examples:

 

External Marketing Strategies:

• Networking
• Public Speaking
• Joint Ventures
• Fundraisers
• Deal of the Day Sites
• Business or School of the Month Programs
• Direct Mail
• Facebook Ads and Focused Social Media Marketing

Internal Marketing Strategies:

• Point of Sale Referral Offers
• Referral Contests
• Bring a Friend Events
• Transformation Contests
• Referral Gift Cards
• Reactivation Campaigns

Should you have more? Probably. But start with a minimum of 2 of each, dial them in and then add others.

Get Help.

Whether it’s a franchise like Fitness Revolution, joining a Mastermind Group, being part of a coaching program or attending live events – getting help will accelerate your progress significantly. It will cut your mistakes significantly.  Being a business owner is hard.  It’s supposed to be hard to weed out the weak.  But it can be a LOT easier if you don’t try to go it alone, don’t try to reinvent the wheel and instead leverage the knowledge, experience and support of others.

Implementation = Success.

It’s not what you know.  It’s not what you think.  It’s not what you dream.  It’s only what you do.  Most people won’t do much.  If you really want to be successful, do the things the competition won’t.  They’ll look for the easy way out.  Don’t fall into that trap.  Think big, take action and finish what you start.

It’s simple but it works.

Don’t Make This Harder Than It Is.

I spent a lot of time early on looking for the Magic Bullet. Some people have built their entire business model around trying to sell it. Guess what – It doesn’t exist.  We teach that to our clients every day, right?  There is no magic pill that will get them the results they want.  It requires work, an adherence to fundamentals and discipline.  It’s the same in business.  Deliver a great service.  Get a lot of qualified prospects to experience that service.  Work hard.  Treat people the way you want to be treated.

If you’re consistently doing those things, you’ll get where you want to go.

 

Pat “Good Ole’ Boy” Rigsby
Top Fitness Business Coach, CEO,
Athletic Revolution Franchises
www.FitBusinessInsider.com