8 solutions to quit bad sales habits

Every time a person walks through your gym doors, books a call, or engages with your website they are a potential new conversion for your business. When they do sign up and purchase a membership, you’re then making a sale. Sounds easy!

We know that when talking about your growing your business in those very straight-to-the-point terms seems rigid, transactional, and quite frankly impersonal. But when talking about sales and new member potential it’s helpful to get straight to the point so that you can create a strong plan that enables you to boost your conversions and make the sale.

We also know that the reason a person would take that sign-up step in the first place is because of you and what you’re offering. So ask yourself, if this isn’t happening as much as you want it to, what’s the blocker that’s getting in the way of connecting with potential new members?

Why potential new members aren’t converting

Let’s start by taking a look at your marketing and sales strategies.

It’s easy to be afraid of being too transactional or sales-focused in your marketing and on your website. You don’t want to push people away, seem too hungry, or make your website too sales-driven. It’s a turn-off and chances are while you might see people visiting your website (looking at you, Google Analytics) you’ll never see them take action and convert.

A casual approach however sends the wrong message too! You do want them to know that you’re going to help them achieve their goals and that you have the solution to their fitness needs right?

Can’t there be a happy medium? Glad you asked!

Simply put, your message needs to be clear and in order to do that you need to quit the bad habits that are turning your possible sales into business blunders.

Common sales bad habits and how to quit them

Simply put, the person on the other end of the sale needs to know what they’re getting out of giving you a call, engaging with your website, and ultimately becoming your client. They won’t do any of those if:

1. Your offer isn’t clear
2. You have no social proof to support your offer
3. You don’t engage with new leads and inquirers in the right way
4. You’re not paying attention to or measuring the right metrics
5. You’re not adding enough content to your website
6. You’re not optimizing your local search
7. You’re not targeting your ideal client
8. You don’t have an easy place for clients to sign up

With careful planning and the right approaches in place these common mistakes can easily be corrected so that when it does come time to close the deal, all you’ll have to worry about is being yourself and being the right fit for the inquirer. Your website, social media, and business’s reputation can handle the rest.

1. Make your offer and call to action clear

For many, simply putting an offer on their website with a clear way to get in contact for more information or to sign up is enough to get inquiries. However, when you’re competing with dozens of other fitness businesses in your area you want to make it clear that what you offer no one else does.

Don’t hold out on what makes your gym stand out, this is not the time to be shy or hide your pride. Clearly lay out what your package(s) includes, what new clients can expect, onboarding details, and how to sign up or how to get in touch with you to learn more such as your pricing.

Use a clear CTA (call to action) in your marketing that explicitly states what it is you want potential new customers to do or take advantage of, and make sure this is easy to find on both desktop and mobile.

When it comes to whether or not you show your pricing, this is a pretty big debate in the fitness community as it works for some and doesn’t for others. Know that if you do or do not decide to list your pricing and your website still isn’t achieving what you need it to, it’s ok to test the other option.

2. Understand how to analyze website metrics

There’s no point in having a website and putting work into it if you aren’t measuring if it’s actually working. What we mean by this is that dozens of tools, including Google Analytics, can tell you how many people are visiting your website, what they’re clicking on, where they are coming from, and their area.

Define the metrics you want to track whether that be a number of website visits versus how many people convert and sign up, where web visitors are coming from, and how many people sign up via your website instead of going through you directly.

A helpful tip is that you can link your Google Analytics to your gym management software to set up goals that will help you better track and manage conversions and new customers.

3. Optimize your local search

In your local area alone there are dozens of potential customers out there just waiting to become your members, they simply don’t know it yet. Casting your net too wide while at times successful will often miss the mark because of the physical distance between them and your facility location. With so many online options available, the likelihood that more than a handful of people would be willing to take more than 10-20 minutes (especially when driving) to reach your facility is slim.

Make sure that when setting up your marketing and targeted ads, you focus on the area around you to maximize the chances of reaching clients who are within a good distance of your gym and will commit to attending in person. Get your business featured on local directories and Google Maps so those nearby potential customers can easily find and locate you.

If you’re offering both an online and in-person offering you can expand your reach but you’ll still want to ensure that for your in-person offering you’re focusing on your local area.

4. Update your online presence with new relevant content

Whether via your website, social media, newsletter or all the above, one of the things potential customers will often check is that your content is up to date. If they go to your Instagram page and see that your last post was from months to years back or that your last blog post is from 2019, this is a sign that you aren’t very active online. It’ll also knock you down several spots on Google if you’re not frequently contributing to your online presence which will make it harder for web visitors to find you.

Use those friendly SEO keywords and strategies to ensure the content you share on your website is easily searchable and can be found by people searching for terms that describe your business. Your blogs don’t have to be super long, but a few monthly entries can help your website stand out and keep your business relevant amongst your competitors.

5. Use social proof in your marketing

Our friend Jamie Hayes said it best, “Too many times gyms employ a photographer to take club photos and the photographer comes when nobody is there and then the club uses photos of an empty gym! This is a turn-off.” If you’re trying to prove to new customers how great of a customer experience you offer and the results you can provide, you need to show them some photo evidence.

Take photos during your classes, share them in your marketing, on your social media, post customer testimonials and encourage your members to share your content with their own audiences. People want to see what they can expect so they can visualise their own glow-up or transformation and experience. Don’t waste time posting your beautiful space if there’s no one in it.

6. Nurture your new customers

The hard part isn’t getting new people in the door, it’s getting them to stay once they’ve made it there. Nurturing and fostering a relationship with your customers is essential for client retention. So many owners make the mistake of not doing enough of this because they think they need to do this one by one in order for it to be genuine. When in reality there is so much automation you can set up in order to still make genuine connections with your customers, without having to do it for each individual new customer.

When your gym software integrates with platforms such as Zapier and Mailchimp that can automatically send content to your new members and help you collect information about their goals and needs. While you may have not been collecting it manually, you’re still getting exactly what you need to build a relationship and make a lasting impact on your new member which will encourage their return. Your time is saved and better connections are made faster with more people. Sounds like a win!

7. Make sure you’re targeting your ideal client

Identifying your ideal client is an essential part of your business planning. You want to make sure you know who will benefit most and want to take advantage of your services. If your targeting isn’t set up properly and you cast a wide net, similar to the issue of not optimising your local area, you’ll attract the wrong type of customers who your ad and marketing efforts will be lost on. Do your homework and make sure you know where your ideal type of clients spend their time (in-person and online) and ensure your efforts are pointed at reaching your potential new customers there.

8. Use booking software for easy signup

Last but certainly not least, make the signup process easy as 1, 2, 3. Having the right type of booking software will make this a no-brainer easy-to-set-up solution. Some customers might want more of a hand-holding experience, while others will want to be able to come to your website, find the info they need, and then sign up on their own to get started.

Having this option to streamline the signup process will get customers to engage and sign up faster without you having to chase them back and forth. Once signed up having a place where they can manage their own bookings and memberships will also sweeten the deal and help them stay connected while being autonomous over their own membership.

That’s all there is to it

You don’t have to be a professional salesperson to be a successful business owner, you have to wear enough hats as it is. That’s why taking some time to set up an effective sales process that will work for you will give you the time you need to focus on building an unbeatable customer experience that will keep retention high and encourage new customers to join your business.

We hope this blog has helped you figure out where to improve and elevate your sales and marketing strategies. To find more marketing and sales tips to grow your business, check out these guides:

For more tips to improve sales and get more clients through the door, check out these 8 ways to increase fitness club attendance and continue to grow your business.

Thanks for reading!