Deliver a great client experience, and the renewals will take care of themselves.
That’s the gut reaction of most fitness business owners.
But it’s a half-truth. Yes, you need to deliver on client experience.
But that only earns you the right to ask. And earning the right to ask isn’t the same as:
Asking in the most effective, efficient way, and
Getting to yes
Many fitness business owners, even ones that crush client experience, fall short on renewals:
They drop the ball seeking out feedback
They over-rely on automation
They don’t adequately track who’s up for renewals
Most important, they just don’t approach renewals in an effective and systematic way. Renewals, like sales, require you take certain steps–steps that make the difference between high renewal rates (that come with referrals) and mediocre, referral-free renewal rates.
Most fitness business owners already know they need renewals. But they often don’t realize just the steps they can take to make renewals more likely and how to get more of them… And they don’t understand what’s blocking them from getting more.
Key: If you are going to grow your business, you’ve got to retain your current customers and bring in new ones. If you fail to retain current customers, you’ll end up in grinding out business month-by-month.
Those are a few couple of reasons why renewals are an essential part of the Fitness Business Marketing Lifecycle–a frontline-tested battle plan that has changed the lives of thousands of fitness business owners like yourself.
Action steps
Remember: Client experience needs to be nailed down first. Renewals are endorsements. That’s why, in our 8-Step Fitness Business Marketing Lifecycle, we put renewals last. You crush the first steps, and you’ll be best positioned to crush this last one, too.
If customer experience is there, you’re only halfway there: You don’t want to let renewal opportunities slip away.
Learn the most effective ways to increase your renewal rates (and generate more referrals, too!)
In this new guide, we outline an action plan to help you overcome obstacles and start increasing renewals. Inside you’ll discover:
The big blockers in getting renewals
The way to set up the renewal
Keys to making automated renewal programs work so you don’t over-rely on them
Welcome to #JTInTheRaw show 50! I never thought I’d get this far. I committed to 12 shows and then said I’d keep going if people liked what I was sharing. Each week my show is viewed 500+ times within the first 24 hours and is shared an average of 15 times. The message this sends me is I am helping you. Am I?
I’m grateful for my regular viewers, my regular sharers and especially grateful for people who watch one week and come back the next! Thank you for all your support!
So here’s to another 50 shows! What do you think … keep going with #JTInTheRaw? Hit like if you want me to keep going . . .
So what’s in this week’s show:
A confession
Achieving more by doing less
An extra special shout out
And a MASSIVE announcement
Let me start with a confession . . .
This week I realised what a dumb arse I am!
I spent 3 days focussing on a competitor. Feeling down. Blaming everyone and not taking responsibility.
I got eaten up with the poison toxin of negativity to the point of having a sleepless night! I started the week with a cold, that went nowhere. I ate crap. I didn’t feel like exercising at all.
In my role as a business coach, I tell you guys to run your own race. I tell you to focus on your strengths. I tell you get great at what you do. I tell you to differentiate.
And you know what, I did none of that this week.
On Thursday morning I drew a line in the sand and said “Stop this crap! It’s not healthy!” I said no more being Negative Nigel.
I analysed our competitor and in an honest appraisal I felt our product is still superior – at the moment.
I reframed my thinking. I now took it as a compliment that if someone wants to almost duplicate what we do, then we should feel super proud. And I am proud.
I framed my thinking to see competition as a fantastic tool in order to sharpen our sword to make sure our product is even better.
Some people criticise me as a consultant or business coach who has lost touch with the industry. I mean I haven’t owned a gym since 2008, after 15 years of gym ownership.
Well from my confession I hope you see my products have competitors just like you. My business is about selling memberships, just like you. If my members don’t engage on our member hub, they cancel, just like yours. So while I may not own a bricks and mortar gym my business model is very similar to yours.
Every day I face very similar challenges as you. It is how you handle the challenges which make you a better person. I confess I was a shit person at the beginning of the week but I feel I have learnt my lesson and come out the other side a better person.
Thanks for listening. I felt it was important for you to see that it’s not always rosy at Active Management and that I am personally no different to you nor different in business. I walk in shoes very similar to you every day.
So let’s move on . . .
And don’t forget at the end of the show I have a MASSIVE announcement! But first . . .
This book was recommended by a member of the Industry Leaders Roundtable and I grabbed it because in my business I was juggling so many ideas and I felt I wasn’t executing. I needed a kick in the arse and hoped this book would help.
Now I started on Tuesday night and have loved it! It’s easy to read with simple tools.
Last week I said you needed to get out of the 4 walls of your business regularly to work on your business. I explained how and why you would do that. I shared what break throughs are possible when you work on the business not in the business. If you missed show 49, then pop 49 in the comments and I’ll share the link to the show.
Today, I want to share with you what causes breakdown in execution of those strategies you come up with . . .
People simply don’t understand the goal. In a survey conducted for the book, 85% of employees could name what they thought was the business goal. The further the staff were from the top of the organisation the lower the clarity of the goal
Lack of commitment. In the same survey, only 51% of the staff said they were passionate about the Team’s goal.
Accountability. A staggering 81% said they were not held accountable for regular progress on the organisation’s goals.
In short people didn’t know what the goal was, weren’t committed to it, didn’t know how they influenced the result and weren’t held accountable.
So there was no execution of the strategy!
This book explains 4 disciplines to achieve more:
Focus on the wildly important. This discipline goes against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so that your Team can achieve more. If you try to execute 10+ goals, your team cannot focus. The lack of focus magnifies the whirlwind of day to day business, dilutes your efforts and makes your success almost impossible. Set no more than 3 goals!
Act on Lead Measures. Some actions have more impact on your goals than others. The key is to identify those actions and stop the other actions.
Keep a compelling scoreboard. Your team will play differently when they’re keeping score. If you want the highest engagement from your Team, then have them design the scoreboard. I guarantee it will be a simple scoreboard where they can determine instantly if they are winning or losing.
Create a Cadence of Accountability. This is the rhythm of regular and frequent meetings of the Team that owns the wildly important goal. It is at these meetings that your Team create their own commitments. This commitment goes beyond job performance as it a promise to their Team. The key question for each Team member to answer every week: “What are the one or two most important things I can do in the next week that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?”
I hope these disciplines resonate for you in your business. As a solopreneur or small business man that popped off the page of the book at me!
If you think this info could help anyone you know, please tag them in the comments below by popping their name in the comments.
I’m going to keep powering through the book, so in future shows I may just drop a few knowledge bombs for you!
As watchers of #JTInTheRaw I like to give the scoop on announcements, so I have a double barrel shout out this week! Chantal from the Fitness Business Podcast has been working closely with Trina Gray from Team Rockstar Fit and yesterday Trina confirmed a 3 year sponsorship of our podcast.
Congrats to Chantal for bringing Trina in the #FBPFamily and welcome Trina to the family. We are super excited to have you and can’t wait to learn more about Rockstar Fit in August.
With this partnership, this means that The Fitness Business Podcast which is celebrating it’s second birthday this month now has the ‘full house’ sign up for Premier Partners. This has taken 2 years but is super exciting for us.
And now it’s time for a MASSIVE announcement.
Yesterday, after an indescribable amount of effort from Alicia at Active Management, we released Active Membership 3.0. Alicia has done an amazing job building our new Member Hub at www.ActivemgmtMembers.com. On the Member Hub you will find:
The recording of the monthly Q & A that I do, answering your questions.
Social media memes ready for you to use.
Professional development videos – including the latest called: On-Boarding Members For Long Term Loyalty.
Marketing templates waiting for your logo and business details.
Ebooks with templates for you to use refine and enhance your employment process.
Gym photos from fitness studios from around the planet that I have visited.
We are pumped! Silver Membership for personal trainers, managers, franchise business owners and independent business owners is now open! My advice, is that this will be the best 249 bucks (even less in USD) you spend in the next 12 months to help you lead, manage and run your business. The resources have NEVER been more accessible. You’ll join for the content and then stay for the community.
No matter your fitness business, how you lead that business will differentiate you from your competitors. And when we talk about leadership, we just don’t mean leadership from the owner we mean leadership from department managers and team members.
FitnessBiz 2017 has one single focus: get your #hustlemodeon in how you lead your Team. There are two amazing presentations that are full of simple actions you can do immediately as well as more strategic actions to develop.
Success Strategies For Ultra High Performers
During this presentation, Chantal will share the most common elements that are amongst the best leaders in our industry. You’ll walk away from this session with practical tips on how you can take their advice and weave it into your own career and business. As the host of The Fitness Business Podcast, Chantal has spent more than 1600 hours interviewing hundreds of leaders from the fitness industry. Every leader comes from a different sized business and has a different story. Her ring side seat in their journey of business development means you benefit as she shares insights into their successes and advice on how to lead your exceptional fitness business.
Building Your Fitness Business Starts Off The Field
In this highly engaging presentation JT uses a game of sport as an analogy for the great game of your fitness business. When we are at work, we are on the field and it is game time, which makes it challenging to focus on strategy and culture! Our staff are the players on the field. They are head down and competing hard as they carry out our game plan or strategies to win the game. But as any sportsman knows, many games are won (or lost) on what happens on the practice pitch and in the locker room. This presentation will share the 7 keys to building a winning team to ensure your on-field performances leads to business growth.
This week I had a brand new person attend the Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable meeting and here is what he said, “It’s never a good time to step out of my business but I have been able to free up head space to think.”
How often do you genuinely step out of your business to work on your business? And that is the topic for today . . . regardless of your business, step out to improve it.
More on how and why you do this shortly.
This show . . .
A thank you
A shout out
The #1 tip to grow your business
And what cheeses me off with a massive tip on tagging in social media
Thank you to everyone for your amazing feedback on last week’s show. Last week the focus was how to make your “About Us” page on your website a lead generator. I am very grateful for your emails and FB messages. I feel super pumped that I add value to your businesses. Awesome!
I have a shout out today to Dan O’Dea from Virgin Active. Dan is the National Sales Manager for Virgin Active and a very busy guy! Yet this week he gave up 90 minute of his time to spend with the members of Industry Leaders Roundtable. The shout out is not only for his time but what he shared. Dan was so open with his thoughts, opinions, and Virgin information. It was so refreshing to hear honesty and not what I call bar bull shit. Dan shared the strengths and weaknesses of his brand. Thank you Dan!
So let’s talk about how to get hyper growth in your business.
I had a really honest chat with a club owner this week. They said to me in the quiet moments of the past weeks they are trying to see where they fit into the business. They love being at the operational level. They love jumping in and solving problems. Or putting out little fires.
I can understand why they love this. It makes us as the leader of the business feel wanted and needed. In all honesty, it’s great for our ego.
And I think this is systemic in business.
The successful business owners understand that their business and their Team need a leader.
The analogy I would use is your business is a ship and every ship needs a rudder. As the business leader you are that rudder. You’re also the person who steers the ship. And most probably the one who navigates the ship following the maps. BUT you are not the person working the sails.
As the business leader, your responsibility is to think strategically! No matter how hard, inconvenient or uncomfortable.
But thinking strategically is too hard when you are neck deep working in the business.
For my members of the Personal Trainers and the Club Owners Roundtables they have no choice! They have no choice but to leave their business to work on their business. That is their commitment to improving their business.
And I think that’s the secret to growing your business: committing to regularly stepping out of the business for an hour to days to work on the strategy for the business. You can make any excuse you like and you know what . . . I think the excuse is because when working on your business you often feel uncomfortable and so you just don’t do it. The easy option is to opt out.
My challenge for you is for the next 90 days to commit to 6 half days – ie every 2 weeks half a day to work on the strategy of your business. You can do this by yourself, with your exec team or with an expert in this sort of stuff – like me!
Quite seriously . . . you simply don’t have the band width to slip 30 minutes of quality strategic thinking between clients or putting out fires in your business. Diarise TODAY 4 hours every 2 weeks for 3 months to work purely on the business! Do it! Accept the challenge.
And if you think someone you know could benefit with a subtle kick in the butt to work on the business, then please share this week’s show with them. You can tag them in the comments below by popping in their name.
Now when you do tag someone in the comments you do that because you want to add value to your friend or colleague. You tag them because you want to help them.
And this brings me to my little segment: what cheeses me off!
If I am with you in a pub, at a restaurant, at a conference or anywhere else on a planet with you: tag me! I’m cool with that.
If you see a funny cat video that you think I’d love, tag me.
If there is a blog I should read, tag me.
Ie if you think you find something that adds value then share it.
What isn’t good social media etiquette is to post a pic then just tag people. It’s just not cool to tag people on Facebook or Instagram who are not relevant to the message or who were not with you. It’s just not the cool way to get on your clients or friends news feeds.
And I am warning you that it will piss off people and most importantly be bad for your brand.
Only tag people on social media when you either have permission or it is adding value to them.
That’s what cheeses me off . . . what cheeses you off?
This week starts today with a massive day:
Exclusive Q & A for Active Management members today at 10am;
Coaching session from 11:30 to 4pm with clients every hour
Next week . . .
I am off to Melbourne to work with a team of employed personal trainers on sales. We are covering how to be a likable PT so that people buy PT and are not sold PT.
And Alicia and I are just finishing off Membership 3.0! Now that’s exciting! We are launching a brand new website in the next 14 days, so stay tuned!!!!
So a big show today and do you remember the challenge: work on your business for 6 half days over 90 days. Get out of the walls of your business and work on the business! Stop putting it off and start doing it!
This week’s quote of the week . . .
Social media is your brand. Indiscriminate tagging devalues your brand. Follow social media etiquette & your brand will benefit.
Recent survey data shows us that when new visitors first land on a website:
47% make a beeline to the Products and Service pages
33% browse the homepage before jumping around elsewhere
16% check out another page
You are just going to have stay online to find out which page a minimum of 16% visitors view. I’ll tell you soon!
Welcome to show 48 of JTInTheRaw where I chew the thin on business!
And before get too far into the show, what do you think?
A special shout out to Eugene from Gym Click Media. Eugene is a regular watcher of the show and a great supporter of Active Management, The Fitness Business Podcast and me. He was recently in South Africa for his brother’s wedding when JTInTheRaw sprung to mind when he saw this hat! Thank you for your kind gift Eugene! Much appreciated.
I have some HUGE news for The Fitness Business Podcast. For the fifth consecutive month there were record downloads. In fact for the first time the show cracked 9000 downloads in just a month! Just this year we have seen phenomenal growth in downloads and that comes down to the quality of guests and the great job Chantal is doing hosting the show.
Oh and if you haven’t listened to this week’s show . . . get onto it. This week Jeb Blount a sales guru and my message is simple: it’s bloody awesome. Pop Jeb in the comments below and I’ll send you the link.
So on with the show . . .
Last week I shared the importance of filling the holes in your bucket before spending money on marketing. Remember I said there is no point to spending money on lead generation activities either yourselves or paying a consultant if you don’t have sales systems, on boarding new clients systems, retention systems, human resource systems and other business systems then you are just wasting your money.
This week I went looking for more ways to generate leads at no or minimal cost and here is what I found . . .
Recent survey data shows us that when new visitors first land on a website:
47% make a beeline to the Products and Service pages
33% browse the homepage before jumping around elsewhere
16% check out the about page
I would suggest for fitness businesses the 16% would be closer to 25% and if you’re a PT business then I would think it would be closer to 50%!
Whether the number is as low as 16% or as high as 50% if you don’t beef up your About Us page with the info prospects want to know, you are missing opportunities.
This is a huge mistake far too many businesses have made and are making.
When a prospect comes to your website, they are doing their research. They haven’t entered your sales funnel yet. They’re trying to gauge whether what you do, why you do it and who you are aligns with their values. They want to know if you can offer them a solution to their problem.
That’s why they go to your About Us page!
When you have a good “About Us” page, your new visitors will eagerly move from being a complete stranger to becoming a potential customer.
Here are six tips to make over your About Us page:
Use a Conversational Tone – use a tone that is conversational, engaging, and easy-to-read. Dump the third person language. Share why you do what you do and how much you want to help people. Help paint a picture of your brand, your people and you.
Tell Your Story, Not a History Lesson – Your About Us page is where you’ll create a human connection with your visitors as if you were standing right in front of them. To connect with readers, you need to share an authentic story. And not your whole life story put your accomplishments on a separate page. Show your true story and show visitors that you were in the same situation as them, or you at least understand their situation and you can bet they’ll stick on your site longer.
Make Your About Us Page Visually Exciting – Using generic stock photos – or worse, no photos at all – is a sure fire way to cause visitors to jump off your About Us page. It’s a smart way to show the true faces behind the brand while also keeping the page visually engaging.
Let Your Customers Do Some of the Talking – Another trustworthy move you can make to your About Us page is to display testimonials.
This will have your customers do the talking for you while you build trust in potential new customers along the way. Back in show 28 I talked about the importance of social proof. Click here to watch show 28. It also helps when these testimonials include an image of the actual person making the recommendation.
Choose One Call to Action Only – You shouldn’t ask your new readers to:
Follow you on social media
Sign up for your email list, and
Check out your latest articles on your blog
Even though you want your new visitors to do all of these, if you send them in all kinds of crazy directions, nothing gets done.
Don’t make me think when I am your About Us page.
Choose one call to action and then stick with it, so it is seamless in clicks.
A good About Us page and your website visitors will get to know who you are and if your mission resonates with them. This will lead them to becoming prospects.
On the flipside, terrible About Us pages will make new visitors bounce from your website entirely — so you’ll not only lose the touch point, you’ll lose any chance of capturing them as a potential customer.
And here is a little bonus . . . if you become an Active Management member in the next 7 days – ie before show 49 finishes next Friday – I’ll send an incredible checklist for your About Us page! This is an amazing asset to your web design and lead generation.
This Week I have the Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable. We are meeting Tuesday to Thursday and will be tearing apart the Australian Retention Report. We are re-exploring on-boarding in our clubs. And we are visiting Virgin Active, Orange Theory, Crew Rowing Studio, Yoga Bar and also doing an exercise at The Escape Room. Oh and we are putting Luke in the hot seat as we review his club.
It’s going to be a busy meeting!
And next Friday EXCLUSIVE to Active Management members I am doing a Q & A session. An hour of answering questions on your business. So Active Management members shoot through your questions to me! 10am next Friday, I am answering your questions.
So that concludes show 48!
If you know anyone who can improve their About Us about, then please tag them by popping their name in the comments below.
And if you would like the checklist for improving your own About Us page, you can have it for free when you become an Active Management Member.
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:
Prospect enquires
Prospect is price presented
Prospect joins or buys – ie now a client/member
New client/member uses the service, gets value and results from you
Because they are happy, they tell their friends who then enter your process at A; or
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:
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;
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.
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.
