5 Simple Steps to Fill Your Gym In Just 90 Days
How to Fill your Gym with High Ticket Clients and No Marketing Budget… Even if You’ve Never Run Ads Before
That’s a sexy title for a blog isn’t it?
It might even remind you of something like this: “40 Easy ways to make money FAST”, or “Easy ways to make money online!”
I get it, and I was in your shoes not that long ago. Trying to make ends meet in my failing gym, working 60+ hour weeks, and still having to get another job to afford food for my 1-year-old daughter. Until I came across a very simple acquisition system that helped me add 75 high ticket clients in 10 days. Once I saw this happening in real life, it changed everything for me.
Over the next 8 months, I used this system to consistently acquire new clients on demand, fund the high-performance team I built, and ultimately exit my gym to do what I’m doing now– helping gym owners build wildly profitable businesses.
The 5-Step Process to Fill Your Gym
The process is simple, and the work is boring, but I promise if you follow these steps you will build a wildly profitable business. So here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Create An incredible Offer
- Get Leads
- Get Them to Show
- Close Them
- Convert Them
STEP 1: AN INCREDIBLE OFFER
First we need a grand slam offer…something people would feel stupid saying no to. After spending almost $4M over the last 6 years on fitness ads, here are the best offers we’ve found…
- FREE 6 Week Challenge ($599 down)
- FREE 8 Week Challenge ($999 down)
- FREE 21 Day Challenge ($299 down)
How these (FREE) offers work is very simple. The prospect will receive: 3 workouts per week, nutrition plan and support materials, and accountability.
But how do you make money if it’s advertised as FREE?
First, the prospect pays the deposit for the challenge. If they lose X lbs or X% Body Fat, they receive that deposit back in cash or a credit to a future membership.
Here’s an example:
- Susie signs up for the 6 week challenge
- Susies pays the $599 deposit
- Susie hits her goal of 20 lbs lost
- Susie is now eligible to get that money back or credit it to a future membership
Why are these consistently the best offers? Because they result in: Lower lead costs, lower CAC, higher cash collected, and better client results
STEP 2: GET LEADS
Now that we have an irresistible offer, we need to get leads. The best way to do this is through Facebook and Instagram ads.
Here are the basics. You’re going to run:
- A male ad set: 10 ads total, with 3-4 running at a time
- A female ad set: 10 ads total with 3-4 running at a time
- Ad spend: $50-$100/day
*Don’t run both the female and male ads at the same time*
What that will mean for you is $8-$12 per lead (If you use stellar copy and creative), at $100 per day = 10 leads per day.
STEP 3: GET THE LEADS TO SHOW
Great, so now you’ve launched your ads and you have names, emails, and phone numbers flying in. Some leads are scheduling, some aren’t. So how do you get them to show up so you can make money?
That brings us to the next step in the acquisition journey: Get Them to Show. For this we use the 4 Pillars of Lead Nurture: Speed to contact, volume, personalization, and availability. Let’s break that down…
1. Speed To Contact: Every time a lead comes through your system, pick up the phone and contact them within five minutes. Doesn’t matter what time it is. You’re not nagging them– you’re providing them with a life changing
service.
2. Volume: Call or text them three times per day. Prospects are busy, they will forget about you. Stay top of mind for them.
3. Personalization: Get to know your prospect. What is their goal? Lose weight, tone up, get stronger? Know this before they come in so you can tailor your sales pitch to what they need.
4. Availability: This is where most gym owners trip up. You have to be open and available in order for people to give you money. We have found the best times to sell are: Monday through Friday from 3:00pm to 7:00pm and 9:00am-1:00pm on Saturdays. Open your availability and crush it.
STEP 4: CLOSE THEM
By now, you’ve given your prospects certainty in your ability, you’re armed with the actual offer, now it’s time to do the actual sale. Every sale follows the same pattern and it’s one that we have seen and completed successfully thousands of times.
We have broken it down into a simple acronym (C-L-O-S-E-R) to make it easier to remember.
C – Clarify why they are there– is it to lose weight, tone up, fit into a dress, etc
L- Label them. “So you’re currently at X lbs and you’d like to be at X. Is that correct? Repeat back their problem to them so that you know you’re both on the same page.
O- Overview their past pains/experiences– What have they done in the past and how as the experience?
S- Sell the vacation, not the flight. Your prospect wants to know that they are going to get the results they’re seeking- not how much they are going to sweat and work up until then. For example, if you were to sell a trip to Hawaii, you wouldn’t sell them on the fact that they are going to have to wait in line at airport security for 2 hours and sit in a cramped plane for 6 hours first.
E- Explain away their concerns. This is where you confront objections that come up in the sale. Typically objections that come up are related to price, stall, or needing to consult with a spouse or decision maker. (Don’t worry we’ll do a whole post on how to handle these).
R- Reinforce the sale. This last step prevents buyers remorse and is the beginning of the relationship. Reaffirm that they made the right decision that will better them and improve their quality of life.
Bonus points to make a great first impression– Pick your weapon of choice: Send a handwritten card, Send a personalized video from the owner/or a phone call from the owner, give them some swag (t-shirt, shaker bottle, etc).
STEP 5: CONVERT THEM
This is the step that takes a $599 sale into a $2500 sale. We want to turn a short term challenger into long term sales. At the halfway point, meet with your challengers for 15-20 minutes and follow the CONVERT formula. Yes, we have broken it down into another acronym, you’re welcome.
C- Congratulate your challengers on their success so far in the challenge no matter what results they have seen.
O- Overview the reason for their success. Lead them to the realization that your coaching and accountability is the reason this challenge has been successful for them.
N- New You Gap– Paint the picture for their next goal. Show them how much further they can take their results if they keep working with you.
V- Value Stack– Pack as much value into the 12 month agreement as possible. You want to make it sound like the best thing ever– because it is. You get to work with this person over the next year to help them reach their goals
E- Eliminate Risk– Add a service guarantee. If they do everything they need to do to reach their goal (come to all of their workouts, respond to accountability texts, complete their weigh-ins, etc) and DON’T hit their goal, then you will continue to train them for FREE for the next year.
R- Reduce Price– down-sell your upsell. By signing today, we will give you everything we talked about today for only $49/week.
T- Take payment/signature– Lock them in right away to get them to commit to you and themselves for the next 12 months.
If you’re into stats, here are a few from over the past 7 years. We’ll start with Trami.
Trami was able to reach $1 million in revenue in one year, after dropping out of medical school. That’s double what she made the year before. In her words “If I listened to others I would be finishing my 4th year of medical school right now, completely miserable, in debt… and my spirit and passion completely stifled”. Trami is now living out her passion, debt free.
Chris is another gym owner whose stats are almost unbelievable. With only 1000 sq feet of the usable facility, Chris was able to triple his revenue in one month and add $270k to his business in one year.In response to his accomplishments, Chris says, “The triple revenue mark is a benchmark for sure. But don’t get it twisted, we have our sights set on much bigger goals and we are in this for the long haul”.
I show you these to let you know, I’ve got your back. Gymowners.com is here to give you real strategies to grow your gym, and some more content that’s just for fun. Thanks for reading, I hope you stick around.
BEFORE YOU GO…
I hope you found at least one part of this valuable today. Our top priority is to provide relevant information to gym owners so you can stack more cash and change more lives. If you would like more industry content like this, subscribe to the blog to be notified about future articles.
