So here we are. The prospect has arrived, we’ve greeted them and made them comfortable in the sales area. It’s time to qualify them.
There is every chance that whatever the quality of the car they arrived in, or the level of personal business success they have achieved, they will be feeling a degree of intimidation when visiting the club. People’s attitudes to exercise are often deep rooted and go as far back as school days.
In the PE Class of 30 children the teacher lines the children up and selects 2 children to act as captains and select the teams. Who are these captains? Normally the sportiest kids on the block. The best players, who surround themselves with friends just like themselves. So now the beauty pageant can begin with the captains picking their friends or the most competent in an order of ability that leaves the children left on the wall understanding where in the pecking order their peers rate them.
Probably overweight and lacking coordination, the longer the selection process goes on, without being picked – the more penetrating the feeling that where physical exercise is concerned, they are not what the doctor ordered!
The other important point to state here is that prospects are at varying stages in the buying cycle – some are ready to buy, others are just getting information and our job is to help that process along. We need to carry out a systemised and in-depth interview of the prospects to uncover the information that will give us the tools we need to see how we can best help the individual and what the most appropriate membership option (if any!) will be.
The initial questions should be geared up to relaxing the customer by getting them to open up and discuss themselves. Open questions (cannot be answered Yes or No) will uncover information to establish rapport. And then we are in to a phase of fact finding. A two-way, interactive conversation driven by the answers to our questions to establish:
- That we know what we are talking about.
- There are a multitude options and we need to drill down to find the right.
- The club is ideally placed to fulfil the motives of the customer.
- The club has a track record in assisting people like our prospect.
The questions we will ask fall into the anacronym S.A.L.E.S
STATUS – Who’s the membership for?
AIMS – What EXACTLY are you looking to achieve. And THEN WHAT? Facilities, equipment you like /dislike
LIFESTYLE – What do you do professionally, where do you live, family, any constraints on usage, what do you like doing leisure wise, home and work location, time of day to exercise
EXERCISE HISTORY – Previous memberships and feedback, Good experiences, negative feelings to exercise, Likes /Dislikes
STATUS – What brought you into the club today? What caught your eye of our marketing? Do you know other members here?
In the next blog we will move on to stage 3, the tour.
