How To Tour And Convert Gym Member Prospects Part 1

How you tour your gym member prospects can make the difference between a struggling gym salesperson and a respected and successful membership consultant.

I consider the fitness centre tour portion of the new member sales process to be a lot like taking someone on a test drive of a car you're trying to sell.

I don't know about you, but I’ve owned many cars over the years, some nice, some absolutely hideous (sky blue Honda Civic circa 1982 model with pink rust repairs no less), but with each and every one of them, my decision whether or not to buy was made during the test drive.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t buy a car without first taking it for a spin, see if it suits my needs and is something I can see myself owning for a few years. I always find speaking to the dealer or seller much more comfortable while at the wheel and able to ask the right questions.

They were probably able to gauge any of my concerns or objections because of how I was reacting to the drive. You might be able to figure out where this is heading and if you thought the gym tour portion of the membership sales process, you would be right!

Most people know how much a gym membership is before they walk in the door, or at least have a pretty good idea, just as you know how much the car is when you go see it. So why is there so much focus on the price presentation?

In my experience, the club tour is the make or break portion of the sales process and it has absolutely nothing to do with the equipment or the group fitness timetable. This is when you have their undivided attention, they feel more comfortable on their feet to answer your questions and this is the perfect opportunity to meet all of their possible objections and even gather referrals. The potential member is observing your enthusiasm as much as they’re checking out the treadmill and you need to make them feel at ease.

The art of the successful fitness centre tour

After making your introductions and exchanging pleasantries, you run over the prospects goals and fitness experience with them, all the while making a mental visualization of what facilities in your club will best suit their needs. (Well that’s what you should be doing!) There is no need to discuss the equipment or timetables at this point because it will just be too confusing and chances are they don’t know what they want or what half of the equipment does anyway…think how many times you have seen people doing pulldowns thinking it’s an arm exercise.

Part 2 of How To Tour And Convert Gym Member Prospects can be found here.