Selling is an essential part of any fitness business; it’s the key to your growth and success. Customer service, marketing, and sales are all critical parts of an effective sales system. From your front desk staff to instructors and sales team, all of your employees play a role in growing your business.
You need a proven sales system that you can use again and again. By crafting a sales pitch that works for your target audience and specific niche, you can overcome sales objections more easily and increase the chances of closing a sale. In this article, we talk about the key elements of an effective sales pitch and the steps you need to take to create a proven sales system for your fitness business. Skip ahead to:
- What is a Fitness Pitch?
- Gym Membership Statistics in 2021
- 5 Key Elements of an Effective Sales Pitch
- 10 Steps for Creating a Sales Pitch for Your Fitness Business
What is a Fitness Pitch?
A sales pitch is often referred to as an elevator pitch or elevator speech. This is because you should be able to deliver your pitch in the time it takes for a single elevator ride. In a time-constrained society, you need to get your message across in a short amount of time with maximum impact.
A good fitness pitch is more of a process than a flat-out sales pitch. It’s a dialogue or journey that takes prospects and complete strangers to paying customers. Your fitness pitch is an opportunity to build relationships, trust and create an emotional connection.
If you want to grow your business, selling memberships or classes is a necessity. However, generating sales requires multiple steps to close a sale. For example, your fitness pitch may be delivered in person, on the phone, or a combination of the two.
The best salespeople understand the importance of developing connections, listening, and asking questions that get you to the heart of the issue. By the time they come to close a sale, they have so much information that they have already solved many common sales objections. Honesty, integrity, and openness are essential in sales success. Nowadays, transparency is non-negotiable. Gone are the days of sales being sleazy. What you offer has the power to change a person’s life. Sales is a service.
The Fitness Founders Podcast has an interesting episode on developing your business for a changing fitness industry. Laurie McCartney, the President of Global Fitness and Wellness Solutions at Ascend Learning, talks about how sales and marketing will change and new opportunities for fitness businesses post-pandemic.
Gym Membership Statistics in 2021
In 2021, Americans are estimated to spend as much as $33.25 billion on gyms, health clubs, fitness centers, and studios. Considering that 44% of gym-goers are now using on-demand video platforms at least once a week for fitness, it’s clear that digital fitness has been a huge adoption as an effective way to work out throughout the pandemic.
The fitness industry has experienced dramatic changes over the last year. With an acceleration of digital fitness, livestream, and the adoption of hybrid business models in fitness brands, consumer behaviors are shifting. A report by RunRepeat shows that the fastest-growing trends in fitness are home fitness equipment, personal training/nutritionist, and digital fitness.
Health and fitness are a major priority for consumers with clear public messaging on the link between COVID-19 severity, weight, and health issues. In addition, physical activity is being utilized to improve mental health and keep people healthy despite rising feelings of isolation and loneliness.
5 Key Elements of an Effective Sales Pitch
As a fitness business operating in 2021, you need to effectively find a way to support and engage with new members who are increasingly searching for digital fitness and a more personalized approach to fitness. A good sales pitch starts with an offering that serves your target audience in the most convenient, flexible, and effective way possible. Here are five essential parts of an incredible sales pitch.
1. Research
Sales is all about problem-solving. Your prospect has a problem, and you need to have the solution. However, to offer the most relevant solution, you need to know who your prospect is. This goes beyond the typical demographics of your target audience to really find out what the problem is. Great salespeople truly understand the needs of their prospects. The only way to achieve this is through proper and thorough research.
2. Value Proposition
Your prospect is now intrigued. A good sales pitch includes a strong value proposition. This is your chance to persuade your prospect that your offering is as amazing as you think it is. Highlight benefits and results, not just features and pricing. Emphasize where your potential client is right now and where they will be after joining your gym or health club.
3. Social Proof
Social proof is a great way to build trust and authority. You are showing prospects that someone just like them is using your services and achieving incredible results. You’re offering a level of reassurance that what you are talking about is tangible and relatable. Use member testimonials, referrals, and client results to add credibility to your sales pitch.
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Discover more 4. Storytelling
Storytelling is a key part of your fitness pitch. When you tell a story, you put your prospect directly into the picture. You’re not just listing features and services; you’re showing someone what they could accomplish. As a result, your prospect is now an active participant in the sales process, rather than an observer who you are talking to.
5. Personalization
Finally, personalization is a significant part of the sales puzzle. You need to deploy personalization at critical moments throughout the sales process. To solve a problem, you need to offer a relevant solution. For example, someone who is time-constrained, working from home, and new to working out would benefit from your digital fitness platform membership alongside virtual personal trainer sessions so that they get started using the right form. In addition, personalizing your sales pitch as you progress through the sales journey makes prospects feel like you are listening, which helps build a genuine connection.
10 Steps for Creating a Sales Pitch for Your Fitness Business
Your fitness pitch is a conversation between you and your prospects. Therefore, the pitch is a crucial part of your sales toolkit. In a fitness business, you will likely have multiple touchpoints throughout the sales process. Your sales pitch can act as a template to help guide conversations with prospects, but each interaction should have an element of personalization to close more effectively. Here are 10 steps for creating your fitness pitch.
1. Know Your Prospect
You need to take control of the conversation with your prospect early on. To do this, you need to know who you’re speaking to. Arming yourself with as much information as possible will put you in a better position to guide the sales process. In addition, researching your prospects and keeping track of all information will increase the likelihood of a successful sales pitch. You could have the most persuasive sales pitch in the business, but it won’t get you anywhere if you go in without enough information on your prospect.
2. Sell Results, Not Memberships
When a person buys a gym membership or personal training services, they are paying for a transformation. Therefore, you must sell the transformation and the results rather than a price or specific package. When a prospect can imagine themselves achieving a fitness goal that they thought was unachievable, they are more receptive, and the conversation can continue.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency
During your fitness pitch, you’re helping your prospect to understand the value of your offering. One sales strategy to implement during this process is to create a sense of urgency. This is when you attach a deadline to your offer. The aim is to get your prospect excited by presenting an offer that is too good to turn down. You then follow this up by outlining what will happen if they don’t take action quickly.
4. Sales Staff Training and Onboarding
Your sales training is another critical step in creating an effective sales pitch. Give your staff all the tools they need to deliver a sales pitch. Delivery is just as important as content as it helps to build trust and relationships. Think about the employees involved in the sales pitch. This could be fitness professionals, front desk staff, and your sales team. Usually, there are several elements involved in the sales process. Make sure that anyone involved receives thorough sales training and employee onboarding to grow your business effectively.
5. Create Genuine Connections
Building trust and creating genuine connections will determine the success of your sales pitch. With a customer-focused sales approach, you should be honest, open, and transparent with prospects. The most effective sales pitch simply facilitates a two-way conversation. Being pushy will create a potentially poor relationship with a prospect. While a sales script can help to guide the conversation, it’s important that you don’t sound like a robot reading a script. Keep it personal and authentic.
6. Close the Sale
There are several techniques to closing a gym sale successfully. You need to choose a strategy that works for your business and members. When you close a sale, it should feel like a natural step of your sales pitch. By this time, you should have presented your value proposition. Your prospect is genuinely interested, and you feel like the only next step is to close the sale.
7. Address Concerns and Objections
When you ask for the sale, you may have to deal with some concerns and objections. To help you overcome sales objections, you need to nail your pre-selling strategy. Your prospects should already who you are and what you to do from your social media and website. Warm leads who already have a lot of information will have fewer roadblocks and concerns. They already know if you are a good fit for them. Naturally, common objections may pop up, such as price or location. It’s your job to overcome these concerns by offering a relevant and transformative solution.
8. Don’t Forget to Follow-Up
80% of sales require five follow-up calls. The chances of selling on a first call or attempt are low. To deliver a successful sales pitch, it will likely take multiple attempts. Perfecting your sales follow-up process will be a key determiner in the success of your sales department. If you don’t have a firm follow-up process in place, you will struggle to close a sale. Your follow-up sales pitch should be slightly different and focus on guiding your prospect through the sales process.
9. Manage Leads and Prospects
Your fitness business needs a lead management process. Without it, your sales pitch will be ineffective. By managing leads and prospects, you can take them on the journey from strangers to new clients. Prioritize your leads so that your sales team knows where to put their time and effort for maximum return. To manage your leads, you can identify, score and assign leads to your team. It’s then easier to nurture, track, and convert leads.
10. Create a Proven and Scalable Sales System
Your sales process needs to be scalable to grow your business. Your sales pitch, the follow-up process, and the sales funnel combine to create a proven sales system that your business uses. In addition, you need a surefire closing system that builds trust, establishes your authority, and sets up a genuine connection.
In Summary
By focusing on transformation and creating a solution through dialogue and listening, you can build trust and authority with your prospects. Your fitness pitch is the perfect combination of storytelling, social proof, and a too good to turn down value proposition. The sales pitch forms a larger part of your sales strategy to drive revenue and grow your business. Sales is an ongoing process that can be finetuned as your business continues to develop. A proven and scalable sales system is crucial in standing out from the competition and increasing your customer base.