Develop the art of 'value-added selling' so you can show your club in a way that makes it irresistible. Understand your 'Unique Selling Position'.
What happens when you fail to ask a guest to join your club?
The short version is that you don't get the sale. The longer version is that they join another club, don't join at all, or continue putting off their decision. In any of these cases you have failed in your role as a health club salesperson. After all, aren't you paid to make sales?
One of the most interesting sales questions for health club owners, managers, and salespeople is simply this:
Why do owners, managers and salespeople spend such a great deal of time, effort, energy and commitment to get in front of a prospect only to let the opportunity to sell a membership slip away from them?
Why does that happen?
Is it a sense of fear that is driven by a desire not to offend - or to avoid being offended yourself when your guest says "No?"
Is it an inability to establish value and benefit in the mind of the guest that the salesperson never really knows when or even how to ask someone to join their club today?
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Selling on price and facility will rarely work, be sure to find out the REAL reason the guest is in your club.
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Let's Look At Some Of The Real Causes:
- A lack of selling benefits and results on the part of the salesperson. Selling on price and facility will rarely work.
- A lack of decent boldness on the part of the salesperson.
- A lack of professional sales skills on the part of the salesperson.
- A lack of confidence or low self-esteem on the part of the salesperson.
- A lack of personal accountability.
- A lack of true belief in the club or exercise on the part of the salesperson.
- A lack of a proven sales system that leads to the sale.
- Letting the guest convince you they're coming back.
Whenever a sale is not made, it is generally the fault of the salesperson. So stop blaming poor marketing, pricing, the club, the boss, competition or anything else for your own failure. It's you…not the guest, who have failed. If it is to be, it's up to me!
Be sure you're using a guest profile or needs analysis and take notes. Be sure to find out the REAL reason the guest is in your club.
Better selling is a matter of learning how to listen and observe better.
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Strategies That Work
That being said, how do you fix the problem? Here are some strategies to help you begin closing membership sales today:
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Understand and stay focused what your real job is. It is making sales. Period.
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Learn how to use feedback questions ("How does this look?") to be sure you're on target as you move through your tour.
Learn how to listen and observe better. Listen to what your guest has to say. Don't just wait for your turn to talk. Be sensitive to body language.
- Take notes on the tour. It tells your guest this is important, plus you can use the information later in closing the sale.
- Learn how to overcome guest concerns on the tour, before they even come up.
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- Develop the art of value-added selling so you can show your club in a way that makes it irresistible. Understand your Unique Selling Position.
- Be sure you're using a guest profile or needs analysis and take notes. Be sure to find out the realreason the guest is in your club.
- Believe in yourself, your sales process, and club so much that you badly want others to become a part of it - and ask them to do so, with enthusiasm and decent boldness.
- Learn, apply and become comfortable with several different ways to ask for a sale and use them consistently. Statistics show that more sales are made after the fifth attempt than any other time.
- Learn how to ask people to buy after agreeing on the results they are looking for.
- Take the time to establish the value of the regular membership, otherwise your special just might become the rate.
Now, go close a sale, today.
About Jim Thomas
James E. Thomas, the Director of Fitness Management & Consulting, has held positions within the fitness industry for 20 years. As company President, and having owned individual clubs, Jim understands the needs of the small business owner as well as the special challenges of larger operations.
Visit the Author's website at:
www.fmconsulting.net
Email:
info@fmconsulting.net
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