IMPORTANT
- Take your membership prices off your website
- Change your process for linking to your online joining area.
Send the online sign up link to prospects AFTER they have been qualified using txt or /and email.
INTRODUCTION – Why It’s Not the Customers fault
When customers ask you for your membership prices, it’s not necessarily that its vital to them. Really, they simply don’t know what else to ask.
They never say “can you make me feel better about myself”, or “can you change me so my partner finds me more attractive”, or “Can you make me sexier and more popular” even though they may sub consciously be feeling these things.
Sure, they may have a budget that they want to spend on membership but like everything in life, this is a moving feast and is negotiable dependent on what they are getting back in return.
Do you think they would pay many times more if you could GUARANTEE the results? You bet!
The critical mission to selling memberships when you are not the CHEAPEST player in town is to get them to come down and visit you and sit 1 to 1 while you explain “what makes you different”. Anything else is throwing in the towel and giving a huge proportion of your hard-won prospects to the opposition. Crazy!
If you doubt the logic try this test.
I’ve got 2 cars for sale, a Blue one and a Red one.
You can have either for £1000. Which one do you want?
If you chose the blue one you are now the owner of a broken down, 20-year-old Mini with bashed in wings, boot and 3 flat tyres.
If you chose red you can drive away a brand new, out of the show room Porsche Carrera.
Who chose Blue?
You did because you couldn’t see exactly what you are buying, and you therefore couldn’t make an informed decision. It’s the same with fitness clubs where you are differentiated on service and facilities.
You’ve got to first see them and hear about them to understand the value they offer.
HOW TO DISARM THE PRICE ENQUIRER
There are 2 sorts of people who want to know your price
- Prospects interested in finding out more information on your club
- Your competitors ringing to see what this month’s offer is! Do you really want to do their leg work for them?
Before we get into the script you should use I want you to think about the customers ability to make a value judgement on your club without seeing it.
Do you think that you have a good chance of converting the prospect against your competition by quoting price alone? If you are the cheapest Club in the area or you have a great reputation, then you may be ok to go right ahead and quote rates.
If not, here’s the plan…..
This conversation starts when you get the prospect on the phone when either they have called in or you have followed up an enquiry and are calling them back
They say something like…How much is membership?
You then use the following line word for word …
“I can certainly help you with that.”
(If they don’t know who you are, introduce yourself and tell them your title and function)
“My names Steve Davis, I’m the Fitness Director here and my role is to help all of our Prospective new members”
Here’s the bomb….
“So that I can give you the correct information, do you mind if I ask you a few questions first?”
Basically, this disarms the customer completely because you have suggested with is line that only after the customer giving you more detail can you answer their original question.
What the prospect did was essentially like ringing up a n Indian takeaway and asking, “how much is food”!
You then go into a questioning sequence when you aim to get as much information about the prospect (and note it somewhere because its gold dust in the follow up process), as well as building rapport and getting them to converse with you.
The questions you ask will be around the anacronym S.A.L.E.S
Status – Who is the membership for, what does it include, how long for etc
Aims – What does the customer want to achieve, how long have they been thinking about it, what’s stopped them before? Why now?
Lifestyle –Do they live locally? Occupation? Family? Leisure interests? Football team? What time of day will they be using the club, how frequently etc
Exercise history – What have they been doing exercise wise. Why did they stop? How much were they spending?
Source – How did you hear about the club.
NOTE – You must get the email address & mobile phone number
“It’s lucky you called today because we’ve got a special bonus offer for all enquiries we get this week. If you give me your email address I can send you the details.”
There is a lot of tips that I can give you on how to get the appointment set but space and time prevents me doing it here so that’s for another day.
Here’s what you need to understand right now.
You keep asking questions as we’ve discussed until you can hear, and feel, that you have found some rapport with your prospect.
Rapport is the sound that you hear and feel when the customer really starts to engage with you.
It could be they laugh at your jokes or they make one. They may share personal details about themselves, but you will detect the turning point in the conversation when the relationship changes.
At this point you will say something like:
“What would be great if you can find 30 minutes today or tomorrow to pop down the Club, so we can discuss your programme in more detail and you can get a feel for the atmosphere”
“Do you have 30 minutes today or tomorrow?”
“Morning or afternoon? Etc till you get a fixed time for the appointment”
Then you take the pressure off by saying
“The great thing about Axis Fitness is that whatever option you choose with us carries with it a 100% no quibble unconditional 14-day money back guarantee so you can be sure that the Club is going to be right for you whichever of our programmes you decide to take. How does that sound?
Then go for the referral offer?
“Just to make you feel more comfortable would you like to bring a friend with you when you visit?”
This is the equivalent of McDonalds “Do you want to supersize that?”. A line that increased MaccyD sales by 10%, simply by asking every single customer who entered a restaurant. Scripts work when they get used every time.
Good luck. Let us know how these techniques work for you!
