Training the Enemy
Regarding new employees, the loss of revenue does not only happen when club sales personnel voluntarily leave for greener pastures, but also when management hastens their departure, because they were just not producing fast enough. Depending on whether they were set up for success at the beginning or not, will usually dictate if this is was the right decision. Have you ever witnessed your favourite sports team unload a once favoured prospect, only to see them crop up elsewhere and star in a system where there was a better training program.

Unfortunately, this happens in business all the time. At times, this can be a triple hit against your club, because it was not only you who expensed their initial training, and your club who loses their future sales, but if they end up with a competitor, this person is now a potential threat by taking sales away from you. The key and the challenge here, is to know the difference between the “never wills” and the “soon will be’s”. One of the ways to take guess work out of the equation is to ensure your new recruits get the right start they need to maximize the possibility of their success, so there are no doubts or regrets if they don’t pan out.

“Ready or not,” Here they Come
Quite often sales personnel in the fitness industry are left to sink or swim, after given a few hours of sales training and a quick review of some club procedures, thinking that is all that is required if they have the “right stuff” to begin with.… Read More

The following article written by Terry Patryluk appear in the September 2014 issue of Fit News, A Feature Newsletter from Fitness Industry Council of Canada. You can download the full issue here.

Serving our Way to Greater Memberships
Many clubs are either so busy hunting for new members to make ends meet or enrolling and up-selling new members as a result of great sales and marketing strategies that they have taken their eyes off what it takes to keep existing members happy. This often results in as many or more members leaving as being enrolled.

When most of an entire club’s energy gets spent in hunting mode, it takes away from servicing members and creating the culture of care that will help to keep your members satisfied – or to keep them as members period!

What may have started out as a desire to run a profitable service based operation gets morphed into a model of desperation selling just to keep the doors open.

Having created many successful strategies to generate club revenues, I fully understand that selling new and existing members to either build your business, or counter balance normal attrition rates, will always be a necessary part of our industry.

I also understand that with many clubs today more or less providing similar facilities and services, competition is greater than it’s ever been, and the one place you can still gain a competitive edge is in making your members feel really special!

One way to do that is to implement your club’s own personal Retention Plan.… Read More

Problems are Just a Chance to Grow
Some business owners see setbacks as personal failure, while others see them as challenges that can be resolved or conquered and a necessary part of the learning process. If you can develop this mindset, you will almost instantly look at your club business with a totally new and fresh approach, and with the knowledge that every gym has problems and that each new day is a day to tackle challenges and work on solutions. It is actually strength to acknowledge and seek out weaknesses or flaws in your business. The more you do this, the easier it gets, until you start to see this practice as a necessary activity to keep things on the right track, not as a destructive criticism of yourself or others.

The same dynamics that drive successful personal relationships also drive successful businesses. Do you look for areas in which you can change and make improvements? Are you open to these changes? Do you take responsibility for your mistakes? Do you make an effort to change them? Are you honest when evaluating what your problems are?

Preventive Medicine, not Corrective Surgery
When problems come up in your club, you hopefully react quickly to correct them, but the fact that some gym owners, or managers are constantly reacting in the first place may be the bigger issue. Examples abound of fitness clubs that never got back on track after troubles arose and perpetuated that could have easily been prevented in the first place.… Read More