Why Your Next CRM Should Be Your Member Management System

Over the past few years, fitness software has evolved dramatically. Originally, customer relationship management tools (CRMs), member management systems (MMS), and retention tools like rewards software evolved independently, designed to service unique segments of the member lifecycle. However, we’ve now seen a consolidation of these products as software providers expand to adjacent segments, merge, and even acquire each other to create combined solutions.

So what’s going on? Why are software providers racing to sell you ‘all-in-one’ solutions and what does it mean for your fitness business?

Check Out:The Ultimate Guide to Gym Management Software

Why Separate Products Originally Made Sense

Members have different needs at each stage of their lifecycle with your business, so it only made sense to design software to meet those unique needs. Leads need to be contacted much more frequently with tailored messaging across multiple channels as well as strong calls-to-action. Member needs revolve more around checking-in, scheduling, and billing with fewer manual touchpoints from your staff.

When fitness software was a less mature market, trying to use one product for both typically meant compromising on functionality. MMS tools did not have the reporting or automation that sophisticated sales teams rely on, leaving many gyms to rely on generic CRMs like Hubspot alongside their MMS.

What Changed?

Member expectations have evolved – especially among younger generations, who now demand a consistent, personalized, and branded experience from every business they engage with. We often hear from customers that there are “too many apps” and they’re looking to provide a single, digital experience.

The needs of fitness operators have also evolved – increasing competition and costs have forced gyms to double down on retention, engagement, and advocacy. 

Finally, fitness software has evolved – growing in complexity and scope. It’s no longer clear where the remit of one product ends and another begins, leading to duplicate efforts or worse, service gaps. Administrative overhead has increased, as have integration maintenance and syncing issues. As the technology industry turns its eye to the rising wellness and fitness boom, investment is growing for purpose-built solutions.

Check Out: How to Manage Gym Memberships Like a Pro: Tools, Tips, and Time-Saving Strategies

Different Approaches to a Combined CRM and MMS

As the fitness software market has matured and the value of a combined CRM and MMS has become apparent, we’ve seen software providers take 3 different approaches:

1. Acquire
   Many companies that traditionally focused on member management have acquired CRM products and added them to their product suites. However, while these products may have moved under the same roof with the same support and sales teams, they typically remain as separate interfaces and workflows tied together by integrations.
   
2. Borrow
   Several member management providers have partnered with 3^rd party CRM tools and provide their functionality under a white labeled experience. While this is attractive in terms of minimal development costs and maximum functionality, it leads to a situation where the member management provider is not equipped to support their sales tool and does not have significant influence on its development roadmap. It also doesn’t create a truly all-in-one solution for the fitness operator, leaving them using a disconnected system that isn’t optimized for fitness.
   
3. Build
   While many startups targeting smaller fitness businesses have taken the all-in-one approach, we’ve seen surprisingly few established member management providers build robust CRMs on top of their existing systems. This is likely due to the time required to build new functionality from scratch, as well as the complexity of building sales and marketing tools on top an existing product built with different needs and assumptions in mind.

The Advantages of a Truly All-In-One CRM and MMS

ABC Fitness entered the CRM space with option 1, acquiring GymSales, a leading fitness CRM. Today, thousands of gyms around the world use either ABC Ignite or ABC Glofox as their member management system alongside GymSales as their CRM with great success.

However, as we’ve seen the needs of these thousands of fitness operators and their millions of members continue to evolve as discussed above, we decided a new approach was needed. One that puts productivity first, creating a unified experience for staff, leads, and members.

Free Resource: ABC Fitness Industry Insights Report 2025

The advantages of a truly all-in-one solution, built from the ground up, were simply too great to ignore:

A Unified View of the Member Lifecycle

With fitness operators everywhere placing a greater focus on member engagement and retention, a combined CRM and MMS is a game changer. It provides fitness operators with a 360-degree view of the member lifecycle in one place, from lead gen to retention.

This enables gyms to:

• Place a greater focus on engagement and retention post-sale
• Make data driven decisions with end-to-end reporting on marketing ROI, churn risks, and more
• Eliminate silos between sales, front desk, trainers, and other staff

Increased Staff Productivity & Decreased Training Time

Our customers constantly tell us that they need to get more out of their existing staff. One of the fastest ways to increase staff productivity is by reducing context switching and simplifying processes.

A combined CRM and MMS also allows staff to:

• Avoid duplicate data entry
• Manage billing issues and contact members from a single location
• Eliminate time lost due to integration maintenance and syncing issues

Simpler processes and fewer tools to learn also mean decreased training time for new staff. Given that the average gym sees 50% yearly staff turnover, that’s a big deal.

Better Member Experience

A gym’s brand is its biggest differentiator from its competitors. Every single touch point, whether digital or in person, forms a part of that brand. When fitness operators use multiple systems to engage members throughout their lifecycle, that brand loses consistency.

A combined CRM and MMS ensures that:

• Members are engaged in a consistent way throughout their lifecycle, between staff members and across gyms with multiple locations
• Notes about diets and preferences recorded during the sales process aren’t lost
• Members don’t fall through the cracks as they move between lifecycle stages – they’re continuously engaged post-sale and even post churn

Optimized for Fitness

While many generic CRMs are great products and can be used alongside existing member management systems, they’re built for broad use cases and not with the unique needs of fitness in mind. They lack a built-in concept of trials or tours and don’t use fitness-specific terminology.

An all-in-one CRM and MMS that’s purpose built for fitness comes with:

• Clearly defined member lifecycle stages that align with a fitness business and drive appropriate tasks and outcomes
• Preloaded workflows that gyms need like lead & trial nurturing, member onboarding, and member retention
• Support for recurring memberships, membership freezes, former-member reactivation, and other concepts that are unique to the fitness industry

Lower Cost of Ownership

It shouldn’t be surprising that having fewer tools in your tech stack can save you money. But using a true all-in-one CRM and MMS offers other financial advantages:

• Simplified billing and support from a single vendor
• Less money spent training staff to use multiple systems
• No need to build or maintain expensive custom integrations

What’s Next?

If you didn’t see the news, we recently announced ABC XLerate – our new CRM that is built directly on top of ABC Glofox.

While ABC XLerate will be available as a standalone CRM at a later date, it’s available now alongside ABC Glofox for fitness operators looking for a true all-in-one solution with all the advantages we’ve listed above.

If you’d like to learn more about how an all-in-one CRM and MMS can XLerate your fitness business, book a free demo today.