Struggling to get more clients? Consider this approach.......
By Eric Ruth
If you’re struggling to get more clients, I encourage you to consider a specific fitness marketing approach. To explain it, I have to tell you a quick story. Stick with me, it’ll be worth it.
Two years ago I accepted the job as Vice President of Business Development for a technology start up. They had a great product, much in need by the financial institutions who were their targets, but were having difficulty landing new clients.
I quickly discovered that I hated working for someone else, in an industry for which I had no passion, and subsequently left six months later. But not before taking the company from 3 clients to 13, in 180 days.
What I did in that short period of time, with meager resources, to locate and acquire 10 new clients, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, is design and implement a results-accountable, smart marketing system.
It is, at its core, the same system I’ve used for over a decade to grow my own business, and it’s a big part of what I teach fitness professionals to do to grow their businesses.
Moreover, it’s the same system currently being utilized by thousands of smart businesses in hundreds of different industries. I take no credit for inventing it, I’m not that smart. My strength lies in understanding how it works and how to make it work time and time again in any business, in any industry, at any time.
If you’re struggling to get new clients for your fitness business, I urge you to consider implementing this simple system in your business.
Here it is.....
First, you must understand that selling a service, particularly a high-priced service requiring effort on the part of the buyer to realize its value (it’s active, not passive), will generally involve establishing some form of relationship with the prospect.
That’s why one-shot advertising for personal training services doesn’t work.
A process must be in place for locating (getting the attention of) qualified prospects who are interested in a weight loss/fitness solution, educating them about the benefits of personal training (building interest), showing them why your unique solution is the best (enhancing desire), and finally, getting them to take action on your offer.
This is the fundamental A.I.D.A. marketing principle:
Attention – Interest – Desire – Action
When I came on board with the technology company I mentioned earlier. I saw that they were using manual labor, brute force, cold-call prospecting to locate companies who were ready and willing to buy right now.
That represented about one in a thousand prospects. Almost no one is going to commit to an expensive service on an impulse. Particularly, as was the case in this industry, when their job was on the line if they made a bad decision.
To overcome this problem, I designed and implemented an A.I.D.A. marketing system. It was 100 times more efficient and 100 times more powerful, because it automatically located prospects, educated them about the superiority of our solution, developed a relationship with them through this educational process, and got them to chase us, rather than us chasing them. This positioning is critically important. And it’s what every business wants, but so few know how to achieve.
Here’s how we achieved it, and how you can model this process in your business....
1. I created lead generation magnets – white papers (reports and guides) that revealed valuable industry-specific, application-specific information about the particular problem and how to solve it.
2. I advertised the white papers – not our company or our solution – in various ways: articles, publicity, web site, direct mail, fax broadcast, email, presentations, etc.
3. Those who requested the white papers were obviously good targets (they wouldn’t want the information if they weren’t aware of their need for a solution). These targets were then plugged into a follow-up system designed to educate them about our company and solution, why it is unique and superior, and compel them to take another step down our marketing funnel – in this case, to set up an appointment for a demonstration of our solution.
4. A certain percentage of those who saw the demonstration would buy our service. Those who did not were put back into the follow-up system.
5. As more and more companies requested our lead generation magnets, more leads were developed, resulting in more demonstrations and more new clients. Those leads who did not buy are continuously, regularly contacted with additional helpful information and specific offers. Over time, a certain percentage of them will also buy.
The secret to this system is constant lead generation. If you know, and you will, that X percentage of your leads will come in for a consultation or trial of your services, and X percentage of those will buy, then by simply increasing the number of leads, you increase the number of clients.
It’s math. Pure and simple.
But it gets better. As you refine and improve your follow-up systems, the percentage of prospects you close also increases. So, with smart marketing, it’s not linear growth, it’s exponential.
If you want to see this type of system in action, grab any of the free resources (101 Personal Trainer Publicity Secrets, 101 Personal Trainer Marketing Strategies, Shocking Confessions of a Fitness Marketing Maverick) found on this web site.
When you are properly positioned in the marketplace as the expert with the unique, specialized and superior health and fitness solution your prospects want – and that is done not by bragging, branding or berating, but rather by educating, assisting and communicating, by giving first, in order to get later – you will measurably increase the quantity and quality of leads coming to you and clients buying from you.
Then, of course, your internal marketing systems kick-in to maximize the up-sell, cross-sell and re-sell opportunities and the profits in your bank account. We’ll cover that in next month’s article.
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