#JTInTheRaw Show 47: Your Fitness Business Doesn’t Need Leads

My Facebook feed every day has business consultants promising to deliver 100’s to 1000’s of leads to your business. And I’m calling bullshit!  You don’t need leads you just need to get your shit together!

Stop spending money externally and look internally – you’ll save money!  Stay tuned today as I’ll share my thoughts.

Thanks for tuning in to JTInTheRaw show 47 where I chew the thin on business and give my opinion on how you can get your #hustlemodeon!

I like to start every show with shout outs.  And today I have just ONE shout out and it’s a heart felt shout out to the people of Manchester.

This is not the platform for making political statements, so I’ll try and keep a lid on my emotions.

I was in Manchester a week ago, so I know exactly where the incident took place making this so much more real for me.  But it is the face of Saffie Rose Roussos an 8 year old that breaks my heart.  Saffie is the same age as my Zoe and I cannot imagine how I would feel if something happened to Zoe.  I have no idea how Saffie’s mum and dad would be feeling or indeed any of the families of the victims.

Please join me in saying a prayer or sending love to the people of Manchester.

I’m not sure how I follow on from that but I am going to.  I’m not going to let those bastards stop me from what I do . . .

You know I debated whether I would have a rant about consultants selling lead generation activities to business owners.  I decided not to . . . my opinion is most few businesses already have enough leads!  The problem is they don’t realise it!

Let me give you two examples:

Number 1 example – a client who said “We need to increase our marketing as we just don’t have enough leads.” I have seen their marketing, it’s solid, its consistent and I can see it would work.

My response was “Let me give you 10 free mystery shopper calls because I have a funny feeling.”  So we did the 10 free calls and here were the results:

• 10 calls made
• Every call answered – Wahoo!
• 6 appointments made – hmmmm . . . work to be done here
• 8 calls not recorded anywhere, which when broken down the 4 calls that were not appointed were not recorded and 4 of the 6 calls appointed were not recorded anywhere.

The problem is not a lack of leads it’s a system problem in the business.  There were leads!

Number 2 example – an enquiring client about Active Management services who wanted more leads.  This prospective client said she needed to earn more money and so wanted more clients, which means she needed more leads.

I asked her “what is your capacity?”

She replied “What do you mean?”

I explained my definition of capacity was how many free time slots does she have to fill?  And or was she employing a new trainer?

She said she had 2 spare time slots to fill and she wasn’t going to employ a new trainer.

I told her she didn’t need more leads, she probably needed to look at her pricing first as she may not be charging enough.

I don’t care what business you are in, if you don’t have your business systems shit together then paying for leads is a waste of money.  You may generate the phone ringing or people walking through the door or your inbox ‘binging’ but if you have no sales system then you won’t close the enquiries.  If you have no service delivery systems and no on-boarding of new clients, then they won’t stay.  In other words, you’ll have wasted your money getting leads into a bucket that is leaking!

So before you start spending money on lead generation campaigns turn the blow torch on yourself.  And I use that term for a specific reason.  You see many owners or business coaches would say “Lets look in the mirror and see where we are.”

That’s also bull shit.  That’s soft.  That’s useless!

Put yourself under the heat of a blow torch and see if your systems do work!  Get your shit together internally and you’ll make more money than you can imagine!

Here is how your business should work:

1. Prospect enquires
2. Prospect is price presented
3. Prospect joins or buys – ie now a client/member
4. New client/member uses the service, gets value and results from you
5. Because they are happy, they tell their friends who then enter your process at A; or
6. People notice the new client/member is happy, more productive, changing shape or something else that is notable and so they ask what they are doing.  They are then told and then they enter your process at A

I appreciate I have dumbed that right down but for 90% of small business that is all it takes!  The friction occurs at:

• When the prospect enquires
• When the price presented
• Delivering the service so they get value and results

When you get these 3 steps right THEN you may not need any leads.

While I am on my high horse about you getting your shit together, do you know how many leads you need?  It’s very well to say we need more leads but how many do you REALLY need?

For me there are two variables in determining this number:

1. Your sales ratios.  Ie how many enquiries do you need to get enough price presentations to get enough sales – this data you should be collecting every day & this will determine how many leads you need;
2. What is your capacity?  You don’t need to pay for lead generation campaigns if you only need a few extra leads a month because your almost at capacity

If you are looking at getting a consultant or business coach here is their brief I recommend – help me reduce the friction points in my business, so that I can have a life.

By the way you can define “life” anyway you like – more money, more time off, more toys.  I don’t care but as an entrepreneur the business works for you not you for the business.

And one more thing, if you are going to employ a coach or a consultant make sure you employ the right one!  A coach will teach you how to do it.  A consultant will do it for you.  Be sure you know what you want and don’t get them confused or you will be unhappy.

And before you ask . . . I’m the coach! I’m a transformational coach. Which means I want to transform the lives of my clients to become better versions of themselves. I still want the business to win now but my main desire is focus on the things that contribute to ongoing winning.  That way I leave a legacy with the client.  This is why I only coach 21 clients a year.  If you want me to help you put JT in the comments below and we can talk.  Just be forewarned I’m good, I’m expensive and you’ll be held accountable.

Click here for my coaching sessions. 

Next week I’m in Sydney all week and I am preparing for the Club Owners Roundtable.  We have a couple of new members joining the group and we are doing some very cool stuff in Sydney for our meeting.

I’ve also got my first coaching sessions with Peter from Sydney and Paula from Perth.

And of course I have to get back on the online course wagon that I have fallen off!  I should be up to Module 3 and I’m still languishing at Module 1!  So maybe I should commit to sharing next week some learnings from this course so I sit down and complete my modules!

Quote of the Week . . .

Help me reduce the friction points in my business, so that I can have a life.

I believe every business person should have a business coach for the same reason Teams have coaches – they are more experienced, they see things differently and they are there to help, support and cheer you on.  You just need to make sure you get the right one and give them the right brief.

Help me reduce the friction points in my business, so I can have a life.

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/